Hi,
Tricky to detect specific trains but possibly by attaching a passive RFID to the loco and have a reader beside the track. The tags are tiny, require no battery, but it would have to be a low power version or it could be detected while the train was anywhere on the track. They are available with a 10cm read distance I believe.
Alternative would be a barcode on the side or under a carriage and reader beside or under the track.
Other more qualified members may be able to suggest other ways.
Welcome to the forum.
Cheers,
Howard.

Can also be done with RailCom and ESU ECoS. Even without PC control this can be done to some extent.

I think mfx will be able to do the same once the RailCom patents expire ...

Using the standard Märklin products, no. However the reason for this is that it is totally unnecessary. Here is why.

Say you have a goods train and a passenger train.

Say you start with the trains like this:

====goods train>===== s88 #2 ==========s88 #3======passenger train> ====== s88 #4 ===== s88 #5=====

if s88 #2 triggers your software can 'know' that it is the goods train.
if s88 #4 triggers your software can 'know' that it is the passenger train.

It is trivial for the software to track what the state of the trains is. State includes current position, type, speed, colour etc.

See http://cabin-layout.blog...11/computer-control.html especially section called "Train identification systems"

With RailCom the ECoS can tell a freight train from a passenger train and treat them differently.
This "unnecessary"feature makes a PC "unnecessary".

The s88 solution makes it necessary that the PC software knows all trains (type, length, position). If a power failure or manual re-arranging brings layout and software out of sync, then the software might treat passenger trains like freight trains and vice versa.


Uhlenbrock Lissy is another system for the detection of loco positions.

I think RFID is (at least theoretically) the optimal technology if you want identification (not just detection). But as Dale Schultz points out, it is hardly necessary to have more than just detection, if you are just interested in the positions of the trains. The SW can keep track of which train is where.

I think RFID would make sense if you e.g. try to implement an automated shunt yard. With a tag in each car you can keep track of each car separately. That won't be easily doable with "just detection" techniques.

Looking att the Littfinski RFID system, however, it seems poorly optimized. Someone should put the effort to fully adapt the technology to the MR conditions to really make it fly.

Bar code was also mentioned. There has been some equipment out there, but it does not work so well in the MR environment.

Beside RFID and bar code, there is also IR communication. Uhlenbrock has (had ?) the "Lizzy" system, and I have built something similar myself. My home made version of it (http://www.persmodelrailroad.com/ir.html) is extremely reliable and quite cost efficient , but it is rather complicated to integrate the transmitters into the locos.