I’ve just pulled my old HO layout out of mothballs and, after a bit of work got it up and running. It was during one of my runs to the local hobby shop for parts that I saw a demo of some of the new DCC / sound equiped trains. WOW, what a difference from my old Tyco set. The smoothness, realism and especially the sound hooked me. I originally planned to set the old layout up for my 6 year old son, but now it’s as much for me! I just ordered a DCC sound equipped K4 steam loco from MTH, and have added 3 control ‘blocks’ to my layout to be able to run it and my old trains together. I have a mainline, and an electrically isolated siding and branch line. I’ve also added switches to control these blocks seperately, and I also added a DPDT switch to my panel in anticipation of maybe adding a DCC / DCS controller. I have several questions I hope someone can help with. First, do I need a digital controller / track interface unit to enjoy the new loco? Will it, in analog (standard) mode, exhibit the smooth start ups and stops that I saw? Will I be able to have any control over the sound features without it? Is a DPDT switch that flips control to the tracks sufficient to switch between the old analog transformer and a new DCC unit? Do I need to use a MTH controller, or will the low-cost Bachmann EZ controller handle these things? I don’t really need all the progammable functionality that DCC offers, I just want the realistic startup, slowdown and control of all the sound features. Thanks in advance for your reply.
Tenx,
From your note it appears you purchased an HO MTH unit. If that is the case you might want to put this post on the sister forum (model railroader).
General Discussion (Model Railroader)
We do mostly O, S, and G here. I can’t speak for HO but in O MTH units run very well in “conventional” operation.
Good luck.
Jim H