Weekly edition	Kernel	Security	Distributions	Contact Us	Search
Archives	Calendar	Subscribe	Write for LWN	LWN.net FAQ	Sponsors

What about full-size trains controllers as prior art

Posted Apr 27, 2006 10:56 UTC (Thu) by macc (subscriber, #510)
In reply to: What about full-size trains controllers as prior art by eru
Parent article: The JMRI Project and software patents

the "Institut für Flugführung" at TU-Braunscheig, Germany

had a large Modelrailway to demonstrate general concepts
of ( distributed ) traffic control.

(Log in to post comments)

forgot to mention the year : old in 1984

Posted Apr 27, 2006 11:07 UTC (Thu) by macc (subscriber, #510) [Link]

i.e. it was already shoved in the corner then because
the institute had moved on to air traffic control

In Germnay starting in the 80ties you could buy a lot of
modular digital control stuff for modelrailroads from
Märklin and Fleischmann and probably some others

Magazines like Elektor or ELV probably had project
in that direction as well. I will have to look this up.

forgot to mention the year : old in 1984

Posted May 4, 2006 15:47 UTC (Thu) by arcticwolf (guest, #8341) [Link]

I also recall reading about a system that allowed you to use your computer to control your model railroad in a Märklin catalogue - this must've been in the early 90s. I'm not a model railroad fan myself anymore, but if somebody else still has those catalogues or can find them on eBay, it might be worth looking into.