Here's one guy's take on DC vs DCC having used the latter on my layout (and others) for nearly 15 years. If you do not intend to operate a model railroad in a prototypical fashion, but rather prefer to 'railfan' your layout by watching trains run continuously, or nearly so, DC with blocks works fine and is probably less costly. Wire and toggles may be cheaper than decoders. This is especially true if you don't care about sound. If however, you plan to operate a model railroad prototypically, DCC is the only way to go. I can't think of a single layout in any scale (including the three S layouts in my area in addition to my own) on which I've participated in an operating session that isn't DCC. Even a die-hard N scale DC guy on whose layout I operate regularly now regrets he didn't convert sooner. With DCC, the focus is "on running the trains, not on flipping the toggles". So, the control system selection, DC or DCC, should be based on how you want to 'use' your layout. It's not that one is better than the other...they have different advantages. For a company like AM, not offering DCC allows them to keep the cost down and minimize inventory. Installing a decoder in an AM diesel engine is about a 20 minute job requiring only a soldering gun as they are 'DCC ready'...and the modeler can pick the decoder of his choice. Installing a decoder with sound maybe takes an hour. I wouldn't think the percentage of locomotives sold with DCC installed necessarily correlates with the percentage of layouts using DCC. Brooks
--- In [email protected], Don Thompson <don@...> wrote: > > OK, I am not an engineer here, but I suspect our small sampling of code 110 > steam engines we sold where we give a CHOICE between DCC, DC or AC (and we > are talking to close to 500 engines here), is a rather significant sampling > compared to other mfgs. who don ot offer a DCC version... > Don > > On Oct 21, 2012, at 1:56 PM, Ed wrote: > > > One loco from one manufacturer is a very small sample > ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
