Hi Rick
Ah the good old days.
To keep alive the old decoders a 1 kOhm resistor was needed in parallel to the contact of each stop section.

At the time there were 2 reasons for that:
1- the memory was volatile (loses its content after one minute when the decoder was new but faster when old)
2- the digital coding (MM) was not sending the direction bit

So the result was often - in absence of this resistor - the loco starting in the wrong direction.

Note: this works only if the loco on the stop section has no direct feed to lamps (only though the decoder).
Otherwise the additional lamps would make an instant discharge of the decoders capacitor and making it lose its memory

Cheers

Jean

In the days of the 6021 resistors of 1k5 were used to keep the memory alive.
Of course, the current is not enough to keep the sounds alive and in most cases it won't keep the lights alive - exceptions are very efficient white LEDs.

So to have sounds and lights, the only option is a brake module.

The 6021 was sending the direction bit, but some old decoders didn't make use of it.

Hi Mike, Hi everybody
There are certainly ways with the CS3 and its latest software to do programming ("Event") which include almost anything; loco commands including start, stop and sound, switch and uncoupler commands but also the new MACROS (IF, OR, AND, LOOP, BLOCK). So it is possible to create very interesting fully automatic train runs. There are indirect ways for the CS3 to sort of remember where it is by checking (and making it a condition) of almost everything like a switch (virtual or real, etc).

What is presently missing in the CS3 is the mean to understand the layout: which route leads from Block x to Block y and what each block occupancy is. Presently, on the CS3, the layout is simply a representation of articles (switches, signals,..) of a portion or whole of the layout. It does not check it

This is made by software like Rocrail and can drive trains without the need for stop sections (an archaic way of controlling trains)
Cheers
Jean