ASTRAC

This page will contain information on, and a brief history of, the short-lived General Electric ASTRAC system of 1963 (Automatic Simultaneous TRAin Control), one of the earliest analog precursors to today's DCC systems. I'll write that up later. In the meantime, head on over to the ASTRAC page on DCCWiki for more information.

We have been very fortunate here at Chinoy Industries to have recently (May 2022) received a generous gift of several boxes of ASTRAC components, enough to construct a full 5-channel ASTRAC system almost twice over. In cooperation with some friends at the McKeesport Model RR Club, we're planning to actually see if we can get some of this equipment working, and build a small demonstration layout to showcase this fascinating orphan technology. Updates will be posted here!

Most importantly, among the material we received was a bundle of paperwork for the ASTRAC, including a copy of its original,internally-published GE technical prospectus, which describes the electronics and their development in great detail. Along with that are a copy of the instruction sheet for the K-2 and K-4 transmitters, and a letter sent from one of its previous owners to the next guy who tried to get it working. These documents have suffered from water and silverfish damage, but I've done my best to digitize them and make them readable. If you're one of my friends and I sent you this link, or if you'd like to read them and learn the details of how ASTRAC worked, download a PDF here:

• Original document images
• Transcribed copy w/ figures

If you have any other original documentation from the ASTRAC system, especially an instruction sheet for the K-5 multi-channel transmitter, please contact me at once!