As an LGB MTS
user now for about two years now I thought I would put finger to keyboard and
write about my experience's with this system.
I first
decided to go the MTS route after building my second railway which was only a
single line and wanted to have more than one train running at once and to allow
for a bit of shunting. This system fitted the bill and had the added advantage
of not having to have so much wiring as in isolating sections to hold locos as
the LGB MTS system would do all this for me.
One of the
down sides to start with was the fact that all my locos where going to need
decoders fitting to them which would mean a high start-up cost as these decoders
are about £45 and one per motor block are needed. After getting the system setup
and chipping a couple of locos I found this system very easy to use and the fact
that all lights stay on even when loco is stationary looks nice. This system
does allow the operation of one none decodered engine in the form of an analogue
mode. This works fine but when stationary the loco motor will buzz because of
the track power being constant, it is advised that none chipped locos are not
left standing for long periods as it can over heat the motors.
The initial
setup I purchased only came with a wired handset (55016) and a
command centre (55005)to go wireless requires more kit to be
brought ( a 55050 and 55055 )this adds once more to the cost, but
having the freedom to wander with the handset is a real bonus, but please
remember that if you did choose this setup to use the Ariel that is tapped to
the inside of the lid of the box as the unit will not function correctly without
it.
One of the
other quirks with the system that has now been fixed with the new parallel MTS
system is that when using locos with sound you sometimes get the wrong result as
when you press a button to activate a sound , say 8, it sends eight pulses to
the train and these do not always get through and the loco may receive seven
pulses and sound the horn instead of the bell, but this is not something that
effected me as I do not run sound equipped locos.
I find the
6amp output more than enough to run about four small trains at once with lights
without any problems, I can also have a couple of trains waiting to run on the
track as well such as in sidings.
As for the
handsets, well the standard loco handset (55016 ) which has a nice
dial to show train direction and speed is great to use but will only operate
locos and has no other functions but the universal remote handset
(55015) that allows you to operate trains, points, signals and the
such only has buttons to press to change speed and direction which is not so
nice to use which is a shame, but the new Parallel enabled units do make more
use of the display to show speed and direction which is a slight improvement.
One last
thing I found with the system was the remote switch boxes (55025)
where hard to setup and the instructions to change the settings on these units
is some what poor leading to a few frustrations when first using them and I also
found that they ran into problems when being used to change more than one point
at a time in that one point would not always change properly it would just buzz.
I now use the large switch boxes (51750) to control my points and
as this can be fed from the output from the LGB MTS power station it does not
require much more to wire this system in and it can change up to four points at
once,
All in all I
have been more than please with my LGB MTS system and now that all new locos are
coming ready chipped the cost of running this system is getting cheaper and
easier. And as for the question of running other makes of train with this system
well if using USA Trains then they can be converted to run with LGB MTS
decoders, see article on this website for more details and with Aristocraft well
I use Digitrax DCC decoders as the Aristocraft locos come with a plug ready for
these and they can used and programmed using the LGB MTS Handsets so once fitted
they are almost the same as an LGB MTS decoder loco but they do tend to be a
little abrupt at pulling away as the Digitrax decoders like to use 28 speed
steps for acceleration and the LGB MTS system only supports 14 but this is only
a small quirk.
