Model Railway Forum

Having recently acquired one of these units as a trial and cheap entry into 'almost' digital I have one question at the moment.

Can a loco with a module installed be safely run on a standard 12v DC layout?
From what I can work out from researching on the net, Zero 1 uses 20v that is then controlled by the module. So putting a non-converted DC loco on a Zero 1 layout would probably burn out the motor, or cause a massive runaway loco. It is the other way round I'm interested in.

No, unfortunately a loco with a zero 1 decoder can only be run on a zero 1 layout and a loco without a decoder can't be run on zero 1.
It is why I was attracted more to DCC as my DCC decoder would also run on DC, and I could run a DC loco with my DCC controller (Though this feature is no longer available to DCC users incase it does damage to motors with delicate windings). Sorry for late reply.
Zero 1 has 4 amps of power (If my memory serves me correctly). It has 16 loco allocations. Those who had more locos used to duplicate the allocations I was told. I assume they ran one of the duplicates at a time.
It also has inertia (I'm not sure how it works as I've not used zero 1) and can control points and signals and even can have a micro mimic display console. I believe up to three or four slaves can be used with the master controller. They did a hand held slave as well.

I feared as much! Never mind, I'm looking for a donor loco to try the process of installation out on as I'm not skilled with the soldering iron. If it works, then I can do more! If not I have a friend who is much better at soldering than I am.

A few slave units and hand held units are appearing on the bay, some at reasonable prices, but I won't be tempted until I get some locos fitter out. (By then of course they'll either have all gone or doubled in price!)

Just to let you know or confirm what has been said...

With the Zero 1 Master Controller you can fit 3 slave units to it. They just slot together.

Elements of the Zero 1 are thus:

Up to 16 locos can be on track at once unless duplication is needed for whatever reason.
Having said that I believe a video was produced showing all 16 locos running at one time together as long the ampage (4) was not exceeded.
Up to 99 accessories could also be fitted.
Inertia feature to speed locos up and slow them down as in real life was simple to program.
Accessory decoders would be required for the accessories of course and 4 of these could operate from one decoder. They used the plastic 'key' inserts for setting the ID's of the controllers and once set were difficult to add bits of plastic back to reorder the numbers allocated.

I still have my full kit to this day and was, at one point, considering selling them.

Just when I had my layout done in the 80's I found that Hornby went into receivership with its parent comany (Dunbee-Combex-Marx - I had to search for that one!) in 1980 and thus Zero 1 died a death as far as manufacture and development was concerned. It was discontiued in 1986 but slaes lsted a few years after that. Not sure when Hornby finally ran out of stock. A great pity. It was a fabulous system and probably still is in reality.
Plenty folk out there still use it and want it as their operating system.

Hornby were still selling Zero 1 decoders in 1992 if I remember correctly. They sold them for well over a decade (Someone said 15 years) after they sold the last Zero1 syste!m as they wanted to remain loyal to customers who had bought them. Fair play as other makes never did that.
It takes years to get a loyal reputation in that way for a company and it is well earned. Is why even today there are so many Hornby fans out there.