I just put a Soundtraxx Tsunami in a Bachmann On30 2-8-0. It was a great running locomotive before but now it is phenomenal. That is with the stock out of the box settings.
I always remember those “urban legend” advertisements for power packs. Those ads where the locomotives would crawl 3 feet in two days. State of the art DCC is almost that good.
DCC gives the performance that model railroading has been looking for ever since Linn Wescott introduced the True Action Throttle in the middle of the last century.
I remember those ads too, and thinking ‘who in the world is so bored they want their locos to go two feet in two days’. If anything, I feel even more strongly the same way today. Next time you see a prototype going so slow you can’t tell it’s moving without watching for awhile be sure and write down the details, because you will probably never see it again.
One thing you could not get very easily with TAT throttles was individualized loco performance settings. I noticed someone introduced the concept of plug modules with resistors for settings keyed to individual locos, so the idea was kind of there but never as convenient as just putting the loco’s specific settings in the decoder like you can today.
Just the ability to individually tune loco performance in DCC is enough to make it a contender for any sized layout in my book – if you like the optimum in loco performance control, that is. [swg]
I do want my engines to crawl! It is simply thrilling to watch the slack being pulled out one car at a time as the engine slowly begins to edge forward. Or to be able to tiptoe past a MOW crew at an even 5 scale mph. The ability to ease a box car into just the right spot at a loading dock or to place the passenger car doors at the depot’s small platform is the highlight of slow speed performance.
To that end, I remotor, regear and rewheel my engines. DCC can only make it better!
I have dc setup now and can run verrrry slow
I have meny dcc ready locomotives and 5 or 6 decoders
not easy to run 4 or 5 loco’s alone
so I dont see the value in a dcc system over $200
Having multiple throttles helps for 1 man operations of 3 or 4 trains. This is why I chose the Zephyr. My MRC Tech280 dual DC throttles serve as “jump throttles” for the 2 locos working in the yard, this was the only DCC system that offered this feature. My 2 mainline consists do not require as much attention until they are entering that same yard. At this point the yard locos are stopped waiting to work the inbound train anyway.
The ability to customize max speed, braking and momentum to get different locomotives to operate together in MU’s as needed is also a plus. Having a Y3 only capable of 45 or 50 smph operating with a Class J capable of 100 smph in the area is realistic. Slowing down the supersonic Kato SD70 to realistic maximum speeds is a plus too.
Granted you can do many of these things in the DC world with more time spent monitoring blocks for correct polarity and constant attention to the throttles. But what you can not do is control more trains than you have throttles for. You have to find matching locos of similar running qualities to run effective MU’s and running a helper on the back end of a train is hazzardous at best in DC. The layout architecture limits you by a predefined configuration. To overcome this in the DC world requires a large amount of addtional time spent in wiring, switches and throttles for each train running (to support the same capabilty). I run in both modes as I have several units not converted to DCC that run coreless motors. Due to the risks of damage involved with them, I run them in a pure DC environment. It takes 5 minutes to reconfigure power supplies to run what I want. The direction a person choses to run (either way) is a choice made by their unique criteria, do what makes you happy and meets your needs.
My needs are met best by a mixture of the two technologies. The additional cost of 2 more dual power supplies, complicated power switching arrays and wiring are not cost effective to run straight DC to meet