Hi everyone. My name is Bill and live in Houston, TX. I'm an N scale modeler, but interested in having a "big train". I see some nice locos on internet hobby shops' websites with "True Blast II digital horn and bell" for fairly modest prices. What does that mean? Is that a digitally controlled locomotive? And what kind of power pack or controller would you need to operate the horn and bell?
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That is a conventional train...there is no command system at all. A lot of people on here really like them...no headaches of command control. All you would need to run them is a basic ac transformer like the lionel cw80 or mth z1000. There are many others that will do the job these are just two of the common ones.
Thanks for the reply. But maybe I should get a locomotive that has command control because I plan on joining an O gauge club here in Houston. Their nicer, bigger layouts in the clubhouse are set up for command control.
If the locos with true blast horn and bell are conventional, then how is the horn and bell controlled? Sine waves?
DC offset. A plus or minus DC spike is overlayed on the AC sine wave powering the loco. BTW, TrueBlast only plays back a set pattern, the grade crossing signal.
Thanks for the reply. But maybe I should get a locomotive that has command control because I plan on joining an O gauge club here in Houston. Their nicer, bigger layouts in the clubhouse are set up for command control.
If the locos with true blast horn and bell are conventional, then how is the horn and bell controlled? Sine waves?
If you're joining a club, I'd check with them and see what system they use. Some use TMCC/Legacy, some use DCS, some use both. That would be at the top of my list before you start selecting locomotives. 
Hi everyone. My name is Bill and live in Houston, TX. I'm an N scale modeler, but interested in having a "big train". I see some nice locos on internet hobby shops' websites with "True Blast II digital horn and bell" for fairly modest prices. What does that mean? Is that a digitally controlled locomotive? And what kind of power pack or controller would you need to operate the horn and bell?
Bill,
I came to O scale from N scale as well. It can be very confusing at first because of the need for 2 command systems one for Lionel and the other for MTH . Sorry no DCC here. These engines run off of A/C not D/C. A lot of the starter sets come with a transformer with buttons that will work the horn and bell on conventional engines.
All the williams engines run by varying the voltage just like N scale and do not have command control. If you don't have command the command control engines of both MTH and Lionel will run in conventional just like their DCC counterparts.
The Williams are an exceptional value with nice detail for not a lot of cash and they can be converted to command later(It's like putting in a huge DCC decoder)
They're good runners and good pullers.
You can surf their catalog at Williams by Bachmann. Street prices on these engines are usually far less than MSRP.
Also check out the MTH site where you can view their ready to run catalogs with lots of starter sets and a decent explanation of their DCS command system.
Their Premier catalog has the high end stuff.
Same at Lionels site. A good selection of the Ready to run sets and their signature catalog. You can also read about their command system called Legacy which I prefer
Some of the MTH starter sets come with a command equipped engine ,Transformer and track.
I'm not sure but I don't think Lionel has a starter set with command anymore.
There are some other engine makers out there that have a license agreement with lionel to use their command system. One I'm sure you've heard of is Atlas(Really nice detailed diesels) and there are several others.
Go to the sites I've mentioned and read all you can and ask all the questions here. If these guys can't answer it for you it can't be answered.
Your gonna love O scale with all the detail, sound and puffing smoke. In N scale if your engines smoking it's on fire .
Welcome to the big engines.
David
Bill, another nice way to enter the command control market is to start off with one of MTH's ready to run sets.
Very nice quality, and comes with a remote Commander set. This is described by some as DCS "Lite". It has a small handheld with all the basic DCS controls, and an infrared receiver that plugs into the track. It's basic, and only controls one train, but it's very inexpensive and allows a beginner to enjoy the features offered without shelling out a lot of money up front.
Bill, another nice way to enter the command control market is to start off with one of MTH's ready to run sets.
Very nice quality, and comes with a remote Commander set. This is described by some as DCS "Lite". It has a small handheld with all the basic DCS controls, and an infrared receiver that plugs into the track. It's basic, and only controls one train, but it's very inexpensive and allows a beginner to enjoy the features offered without shelling out a lot of money up front.
Yes that is the way to go
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