Time for a new Controller?

[PeterStiles]

Reading the Ye-Olde Railway Modeller Archive (on line if you subscribe you can read them all) you can see in the 1950s H&M adverts where they proudly proclaim their use of asbestos in their controllers, it was a "wonderstuff" in those days...

 

Although the Duette we all know and love is a 1965ish(+) product, and the adverts for that don't exactly shout out about the use of asbestos, given that it wasn't banned at all until 1985 I'd still steer well clear of opening one up to find out.

 

 

[DCB]

2 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

 

To get back to the topic - back in the late 90s early 2000s whe I was exhibiting, people always asked how I made the locos run so well. Part of it I always atributed to the Gaugemaster handheld. Almost without exception, showing someone this, elicited the response "I've got a Duette myself". All I was really proving was that a (then) modern controller gave better results than a 30 year-old one with a worn-out resistance mat. I know they will last forever, and are great for testing things, but for proper running, you'll get a lot of pleasure out of a more modern unit. I've often wondered if this is why people get so excited about DCC - they are comparing it with a controller built of leftover war surplus parts!

Don't forget the 1970s era Duette was a step up from the   Triang / Hornby etc controllers of the era.  It had half wave for slow running, and a High resistance switch for some reason, and looked futuristic in a Fireball XL5 sort of way.   I was thrilled to get mine in 1973.  You have to remember how awful Triang Hornby Westminster and the like controllers were, theychanged fdrom Half to full wave automatically and gave good top speed, some jerky slow ish running and were absolutely incapable of smooth acceleration as they changed from half to full wave about 1/2 travel around 30/40 scale mph for most models and trains abruptly accelerated or slowed crossing this boundary.  Earlier Triang and Hornby had no real slow running capability.  That is the Duettes achillies heel, You do a reliable buzzing trembling half wave start and have limited top speed, or a dodgy start and decent top speed, changing from half to full wave on the move results in a massive spurt of speed.    No one has cracked this problem fully, The Morleys and the like need extremely careful manipulation of their silly little knobs for smooth acceleration  (I use knobs off Duettes and the like)    However that  "Rolla Controller" sounds very interesting.