My husband John has been designing model train open source hardware for many years – as I have written about before. Recently, at the urging of fellow enthusiasts (or “Train Nuts” as their wives call them), John brought out his first retail product – the DCC Brakeman. The DCC Brakeman is now for sale for $6.99 at The Train Shop, 1829 Pruneridge Ave, Santa Clara, California, (408) 296-1050. (The first version sold for $6.25 but everyone wanted him to have a weight added, which costs a little more.) Some assembly is required.
The rule of the railroad used to be that “When a train stops on a main track, flag protection must be provided.” This little electronic guy is about one inch tall. He represents a flagman with a red lantern – as a visual aid to protect model trains when switching from fouling the main line. He is used in DCC (digital command and control) model train operations – about which you can find out more at the Operations Special Interest Group. He wears a baseball cap which says DCC. The little man’s front says Brakeman and his back says Safety First! (“Safety First” has been an American railroad industry motto since around 1910.)
Details on the DCC Brakeman are on John’s website: spcoast.com.
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Images Copyright 2012 by John Plocher
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