Amherst 2020 Recap!
UPDATE: Thanks to everyone that made the 2020 Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show a success! We had a great time meeting customers and sharing about WOWSound decoders with everyone that stopped by. A special thank-you to the clubs and individuals that assisted in testing out our UWT-100 Universal WiFi Throttles throughout the weekend. We'll see you all next year!
If you're interested in knowing more about the Universal WiFi Throttle, we filmed one of the clinics that we presented. Here's our UWT-100 Clinic captured in its entirety!
TCS is attending the Amherst Railway Society 2020 Railroad Hobby Show on Friday Jan 24 - Sunday Jan 26! The show takes place at the Eastern States Exposition Fairgrounds in West Springfield, Massachusetts. Considered the biggest show on the east coast, the hobby show spans multiple large buildings and hosts hundreds of vendors, OEMs, club layouts, and more!
TCS will be presenting two clinics on the much-awaited UWT-100 Universal WiFi Throttle. We'll cover the basics of connecting to WiFi and simple locomotive operations. We'll also tackle a few in-depth topics like in-throttle consisting and introduce some new features that will be available in UWT-100 throttles at release.
TCS Clinics: Friday 2:30pm | Friday 4:00PM
Learn more about clinics and register here: http://www.railroadhobbyshow.com/clinics.php
You can find TCS in the Better Living Center (Booth 45) throughout the weekend. We'll have a layout set up to demonstrate throttle units, so feel free to come by and give them a try. The layout is the NMRA LCC development layout, so please ask us about LCC and the cool things you can achieve with this emergent technology in the hobby. We'll also have samples of most of our decoders, trackside devices, harnesses, and more. We are not bringing product to sell during the show, but would be happy to help you place an online order from our booth and ship it right to you.
The TCS technical support staff will also be present to answer your questions and provide guidance about specific installations. If you pick up some models during the show, stop by and get a firsthand recommendation on decoder fit!
We're quite excited to see everyone this weekend! Will we see YOU there?
New Arrival: Decapod with WOWSound and Chuffinity™!
We're proud to announce that our latest collaboration with Bachmann Trains is now available: The 2-10-0 Russian Decapod locomotive from Bachmann, which features TCS WOWSound factory-direct. This locomotive is also the second release to feature Chuffinity™ technology, which produces hundreds of realistic, diverse chuffs - just like the real thing.
From Bachmann: With the advent of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the Baldwin Locomotive Works was forced to stop shipment of over 100 Decapod 2-10-2 engines originally bound for Czarist Russia. These “orphan” locomotives later found homes with American railroad companies and helped relieve a scarcity of motive power after WWI. They are now part of a new revolution in model train sound realism, equipped with a TCS WOWSound® CD-Quality 16-bit 44,100Hz decoder with Audio Assist®. This decoder allows easy configuration without programming CVs as well as a Keep-Alive® device for uninterrupted operation, even over dirty track. It also features Chuffinity™ technology for amazingly diverse and realistic chuffs and a WOWSound® steam locomotive sound package that includes bell, whistle, blow down, cylinder cocks, water fill, coupler close/release, brake release and application, grade crossing quill, depot sounds, and more.
Features include:
* DCC sound-equipped for sound, speed, direction, and lighting control
* true CD quality audio in 16-bit 44,100Hz sound
* Keep-Alive® device that keeps your engine running during power interruptions due to dirty track or loss of electrical contact
* voice-guided Audio Assist® programming tool for easy set-up of almost all decoder functionality
* dual-mode NMRA-compliant decoder
* operating headlight
* completely hidden drivetrain
* cog V-belt flywheel drive
* precision motor
* precision balanced brass flywheel
* metal motor bearings
* separately applied stack, domes, and cab
* separately applied parts including bell, whistle, pop valves, cut levers, handrails, and stanchions
* separate sanding lines
* highly detailed cab interior
* painted crew figures
* siderods blackened per prototype
* die-cast finescale driver spokes
* tender with all-wheel electrical pickup, detailed coal boards, and metal handrails
* E-Z Mate® Mark II couplers, front and rear
Performs best on 22” radius curves or greater.
Visit Bachmann's Online Store to see all available models and learn more!
Throttle production is underway!
We hope your 2020 is off to a great start. As you no doubt have heard, TCS has been navigating the Universal WiFi Throttle project through the maze of hurdles standing between us and throttle production. The past few months have been an absolute blur! There's a lot of excitement and energy around TCS these days, in no small part due to the fact that the final case samples have been approved, and the production phase is officially underway!
I pre-ordered a UWT-100 unit. When might I expect it to ship to me?
It's still a bit early to give a precise date. Between the processes of board production, assembly, printing, testing, packaging, and shipping, there is a fair amount of wiggle room. Some stages could take longer than expected, and some might progress more quickly. Our personal goal is to have throttles ready to take with us to the Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show at the end of January, and to begin shipping pre-ordered UWT-100 units at the same time. You can expect them in your mailboxes come February.
I didn't pre-order but very much want to get my hands on one.
We are producing many more throttle units for our first production run than were pre-ordered. This means that we will have stock available directly from the TCS web store, and from dealers that are planning to carry the UWT-100. These throttles will be available for sale once pre-order throttle units are dispatched from TCS.
We are very excited to finish this project and release the UWT-100 throttle units. TCS has received a lot of interest and helpful feedback from the model railroading community so far, and we've learned some hard lessons along the way that have grown us as individuals and as a company. Thank you for your continued patience - the production phase is on!
Best regards,
Stephen - Marketing Director, TCS
New Arrival: Trench Engine with WOWSound® Chuffinity™
2-6-2T Class 10 Trench Engine
Featuring New DCC WOWSound® Chuffinity™ Technology
Now Shipping!
From Bachmann:
Quickly created narrow gauge railroads played a crucial role in bringing food, ammunition, and construction material to entrenched troops and carrying away injured soldiers from the Western Front in World War I. The Class 10 Trench 2-6-2T was one of the engines that saw service with the U.S. Army in France. When the war ended, the victorious U.S. troops turned over all the railways and equipment to the French, who adapted them to agricultural use. Bachmann’s DCC WOWSound®-equipped model is the first ever to feature Chuffinity™ technology. Featuring a ten-fold increase in the number of chuff sounds over previous WOWSteam offerings, Chuffinity™ creates amazingly diverse and realistic sounds. Coupled with intelligent load and grade sensing, chuffs will vary in character, volume, and intensity in prototypical fashion. Chuffinity™ is just part of this Trench engine-specific WOWSound® steam locomotive sound package that also features depot background and battleground sounds. Bachmann’s new DCC sound-equipped Trench engine will put you in the middle of all the action of the Great War!
Contact your local dealer or look for them wherever you buy your trains!
TCS Depot is in Beta!
Despite the final leg of our throttle production being held up by our injection molding process, we have been making great strides on many other throttle-related things here at TCS.
The most exciting one is the introduction of the TCS DEPOT.
The DEPOT (Desktop Engineering Programming and Operations Tool) is a comprehensive software programming tool from TCS. As you might have gathered from the name, this is a one-stop solution for TCS decoders, throttles, and other trackside devices. Once the DEPOT is downloaded to a user's computer, it can communicate with your layout, throttles, and decoders via WiFi or USB connections, in the same way as JMRI and other model railroad software applications.
It might not look like much right now, and that's intentional. Currently, the tool can update software in UWT-100 Universal WiFi Throttle units. We're making our first beta version of the tool available to our testers and anyone else that is interested in taking a look. As we continue to develop and add to our feature set, the tool will expand and users will be able to do more with their throttles, decoders and more. You can download a copy for yourself (Windows systems only - Windows 8 or better) on our DEPOT page.
