How hard is it to get into DCC, Note I havent started a layout yet. I want all the infomation I can get so I can try and do as much right as I can the first time. I have read every thing I could about it , even asked my locol hobby train guy. Everyone says that it is a whole different animal. I just dont want to spend big $ on something I might get fustrated with. Yet I like that all the functions on a dcc train can be operated like the prototype. My wife thinks I should just get it and try it. She has that same pholosophy about shopping. Hell its only money right?
I don’t believe it is “hard” at all! I started very very green in early January. I had a layout partly built and then began to consider DCC (I dind’t know any better). Once I chose my system, it was just a matter or reading, undertanding, trial and error, some sweaty and anxious moments (all a waste), and finally realizing that these techno-whizzes are actually on to something…making trains do marvelous things that can’t be done in analog.
It is more expensive, but the systems are robust. You are not likely to wear it out any time soon. You can get a good system for about $200, plus or minus $100 (quite a range, but, you know…).
I urge every newcomer to just consider it all a part of the learning experience of getting into toy trains. Once you have your system figure out, you’ll never look back.
-Crandell
Anthony,
Here’s a great place to start: http://www.tonystrains.com
They have a link called NEW DCC For Beginners!. It’s a very good resource about DCC as a whole and should answer a lot of your questions. You can either read it online or download it as a .pdf file.
Tom
I built a large HO scale club layout that can run either way – conventional DC block control for those who have older locomotives without decoders, and DCC for the rest of us. After fooling around with all the problems of trying to keep more than one train running around the layout without causing an accident when using DC control, and observing DCC operators running 5 or 6 trains simultaneously on the same track, the ones with the older engines soon see the light and purchase better quality locomotives that can have decoders installed.
Wiring of a DCC-only layout is much simpler. If our club layout had been built for only DCC operation, we could have eliminated six control panels, over 100 toggle switches, the DC block control throttle system, and hundreds of feet of wire.
The savings from that alone will pay for a DCC system.
Last year I got started up in the hobby again, jumped with both feet into DCC, and haven’t looked back. It was easy for me, and I’m no genius! Hell, my son, who is now 7, has his own throttle and can control and switch engines himself without any help… Above all, check Tonys site, they are great people there! Helped me a ton, not to mention the people on this site! I say, TRY IT< YOU"LL LIKE IT!