How do you adapt 4-digit addressing to German loks?
Just a question for those who have extended DCC addressing: the four-digit addressing was originally intended for the American market because 4 digits are the most numbers used on North American railways with extremely few exceptions. This makes a four-digit address able to match the road number on the side of the cab in virtually every case. For German trains, however, how do you adapt the typically 6 (or 7, really) digit numbers to a four digit address? I'm sure there are several ways to approach this, I'd just like some idea of what has been done. Jurgen kwdcc

After some playing around with the options I decided that for DR EpIII/IV I would use the last two digits of the class number followed by the last two digits of the running number, e.g.: E77 10 -> 7710 44 0698-x -> 4498 242 112-x -> 4212 etc... Steph

Using my Marklin 6021, I have a piece of paper with pictures of the locomotive and it appropriate 2 digit code. With a Marklin central station (and subject to a court case, the ecos as well) you have about 10 characters that you are able to name your locomotive. Progress is slow down under John

How you go about this is entirely subjective. My personal preference is to use the clas identifier e.g for my BR 52: 5201, BR 220s: 2201,2202. You can probably see where this is going, but it works as long as you don't have more than 9 of one class. There are other methods, but this one works well for me! Regards, Dave. :D

Thank you gentlemen; I have some good ideas to work with now. Cheers, Jurgen

Generally use the loco running number and the check digit eg brawa 126 221 -2 would become 2212. This usually works ok without duplications

I haven't gotten to this point yet (only a few loks with decoders, and no operational layout). However, I plan on using the same scheme as Dave Smith. I would take it one step further. If I have, say, four BR111's, I'm planning on using the fourth number by ordering the loks by livery history. Blue/beige - 1111, orange/beige (S-Bahn) - 1112, Orient Red - 1113, and Traffic Red - 1114. My four BR 141s will be: Green - 1411, Blue/beige - 1412, Orang/beige - 1413, and Orient red - 1414. I sure hope I got the historical order of these livery introductions right. Of course, some of my friends who don't model German Railways will never figure this out anyway! :lol:

Just a few weeks ago I was pondering this same question. I decided to go the same route as David and using the running number and check digit. Of course having two 141s with the same numbering, I'm now after some decals to renumber one of them......

Since I use computer control I seldom need to know the decoder address. I can refer to my locos by whatever name I give them in my software, EG "Class 111 S-Bahn" If I do need to know, a click on the train containg a loco will give me my loco screen and I can see its digital address. http://debale.home.comcast.net/bw/manual.htm#locos

I just use the first four digits of the running number. As I use the ECoS it comes up on the list as a name rather than a number.