Airfix Multiple Train Control System

[Viscount]

I recently bought a locomotive with a receiver in it for the above (or what I googled is part of the above). Has anyone any experience/knowledge of that system which I understand was on the market in 1979 or thereby?

[Mountain Goat]

The decoders are only compatible with the system.

ALL YOU REALLY NEED TO KNOW IS THAT YOUR AIRFIX DECODER CAN ONLY BE USED WITH THE AIRFIX MULTIPLE TRAIN CONTROL SYSTEM, ASSUMING THAT YOU HAVE CORRECTLY IDENTIFIED THE DECODER. READ ON IF YOU DON'T MIND MY LIMITED UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT HAPPENED WITH THIS AND OTHER EARLY SYSTEMS THAT CAME OUT IN THE LATE 1970'S TO EARLY 1980'S.

Basically in those days the new microchips were being made that made it possible to make command control systems,, so these were the predecessors to what later became DCC but ARE NOT COMPATABLE WITH DCC.

Now while the odd electronics expert experimented with their own early system, it was Hornby which were one of the first which came out with their Zero 1 command control system.
Hornby soon realized while they were developing their system that there needed to be a common language in how the system "Talked" to their decoders, so they were willing to share for free their systems electrical details so other manufacturers thinking about developing their own command control system would do the same, so that users could run other makes of decoder together.
The only problem was that Airfix was already trying to develop their competing system which was already too advanced in the production stage to alter to be compatible, and other competing systems like Salota, and Maplin (Who came out with a kit version) decided to ignore this and do their own thing, and ONLY Hammant & Morgan with their excellent H&M 5000 decided to listen so while both Hornby and H&M decoders could be used on each others systems, none of the other makes were compatible with anyone else's system. Now something impressive which MUST be mentioned about Hornby in the past is how loyal they were to their customers. While their Zero 1 system became discontinued sometime around the mid 1980's, they continued to made and sell decoders right into the mid 1990' if not longer than that, so no Zero 1 user or H&M 5000 user would be short of decoders. This is to the credit of Hornby who refused to abandon their customers the same way many other manufacturers had, and they would have even done that without making much of a profit if it meant keeping their customers happy. Other brands just quit when they discovered it was not profitable though Airfix going bust had little other choice. So credit to Hornby in their day that they did this.
Hornby and H&M worked together and there ended up being a close relationship between the two firms, with H&M controllers (The H&M3000 single track DC controller and the H&M5000 command control systems appearing on Hornby price lists with their yearly catalogues). About a decade later Hornby bought out Hammant & Morgan and the name almost dissapeared until Hornby re-launched the brand around the late 1990's with their H&M 2000 which was a twin track DC controller which felt nice to use, which had the ability to purchase a left hand or a right hand slave controller if desired to make it a four track controller. Only small downside is it was a tad limited in power compared to other makes of DC controller but a whole lot better than any Hornby DC standard trainset controller anyday! (I quite liked it).

The only downside to those who remember the old controllers from H&M were that the newer Hornby controllers did feel a lot cheaper than genuine H&M products from the past.

Anyway, back to Airfix with their multiple train control system. It basically bankrupt Airfix at the time and one often saw their controllers sold a whole lot cheaper than the RRP price in the model railway shops, so many modellers attracted by the lower prices found they were buying a lovely looking command system that they had to scramble to try and buy up the few remaining decoders for them while they could get them, as Airfix had become bankrupt, and it actually left a few modellers buying controllers they could not obtain decoders for!
So carefully remove the decoder and put it for sale on a popular site like Ebay as the few owners of these systems who love them for the nostalgia no doubt will be bidding to get your decoder if there are any modellers left who have one of these.

None of these older systems were compatible with modern DCC and they were programmed by hard wiring the decoders themselves. They were also limited to a maximum of 16 loco addresses due to the microchips used at the time. (Some modellers ran duplicate decoders by only having one loco of each address on the track at any one time).


(I have since looked up the history of command control and it is a LOT more complex that what I have just written and dates right back to the 1940's).
============================================================================================================

READING FURTHER IS NOT BECCESSARY AS IT IS MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE HISTORY OF MODERN DAY DCC WHICH CAME AFTER THESE EARLIER NON-DCC COMPATIBLE SYSTEMS

Now fast forward to the next generation of command control and Bernard Lenz came onto the scene to take the concept further and to bring out a standardized set of electrical communicative rules that we now call DCC. He not only brought out a common standard using new advanced microchip technology, but he brought out a programming of the decoders from the control system itself, which in its day was a major leap forward! So now one had the ability to program and reprogram without the need to remove the loco body, and we also had all makes who adopted the Lenz principles which we call Didgital Command Control (Or DCC for short), thus eliminating the shortfalls of the early command control systems from the past.
Now one manufacturer decided it was a shame that past customers of the most common past systems (Hornby Zero 1 and H&M5000 which were fully compatible with each other) and decided to develop a system which would run past decoders from Hornby and H&M (Did H&M make decoders or did they have their customers used Zero1 decoders from Hornby?), AND allow modern DCC decoders to work on their system. This company was ZTC which was the small British manufacturer who unfortunately did not last too long due to a reputation for poor reliability issues(?), and issues with manufacturing, so after a second go at the new modified versions which were said to be manufactured around the year 2000 they dissapeared from production. (I wanted one of these but I kept phoning when they said and never did get my hands on one so I bought into Lenz instead, as in those days it was Marklin (Slightly different to standard DCC but my Lenz system would run their decoders), Lenz, ZTC, Digitrax, and Roco (Locomaus). The Locomaus was fully compatible with Lenz so Lenz handsets or Roco handsets could be used on either system, so with these two it was not just decoder communication that was compatible. The other manufacturers such as Bachmann, Gaugemaster, Hornby (DCC) were not around until at least another half decade after the manufacturers mentioned above though Gaugemaster used re-badged controllers from another manufacturer which came out a year or two after the main five manufacturers... Which I can't remember the manufacturers name. (I should know this off by heart! I remember writing to Gaugemaster before buying my Lenz system back in the year 2000 if they were going to go into DCC, and Gaugemaster said "We have no plans to go into DCC as it is a very specialist market". Six months later they were coming out with the rebadged DCC controllers! Had I known I would have waited, but as it was, I ended up with Lenz and McKay Models who were importing Lenz to Scotland were so amazing I could not ask for anything more! Every single question, however silly was answered and the guy had so much patience. He got my trade and the trade of many others because he gave such excellent customer service.
(One may have heard of Lenz controllers which were at one time one of the best systems one could get, because the inventor of the modern form of DCC happened to develop the Lenz controllers. And the rest is history!))

[Viscount]

Thanks for your very complete reply. I saw some receivers on eBay for £10 but not sold but I'll keep an eye out.