I only wish for one hobby advancement -- a very small (about the
size of a baby aspirin) programmable "AEI" tag so we could retire
all the car cards and buttons and other means that we use to keep
track of cars on the layout. Scanners could be hand held and used
by the yard operator or crew to scan cars in a train wherever its
appropriate on the layout. A PC then could keep track of the cars
and generate new destinations for cars when they finish their
trips, and print switchlists or waybills as needed/desired. Of
course the scanners should be wireless too, just to make it easy.
Found a car and don't know where it belongs? Just scan it and the
PC will tell you... I figure such devices should cost about $2
or less. Also the devices could encode the owner of the model,
so they may offer a small amount of security over other methods,
if hidden inside the model...

Tim O'Connor