--- In [email protected], "Arden Goehring" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Michael - you are from that special planet inhabited only by EE's.
>
Just to be clear, I'm a piano teacher. I took one course in
electronics in 1977. I did work as a software engineer, which seems to
have no applicability at all when installing and running DCC.
> Yeah it's no big deal if you have a coffee table layout. A starter
set & four decoders for $200 & you're done. But you only have enough
power to run two engines at a time.
>
> How about a layout that needs 30 amps & has a fleet of locomotives.
We're talking $4000 without sound.
>
Well, everything is proportional. I don't know what a fleet is, but I
figure $4000 would easily cover a top of the line command station, six
power boosters and over 100 locomotives. If you were to buy those
locomotives today, what would that be, $50,000? Brass for $100,000+?
I'm sympathetic to the plight of people who have been doing this
longer than I, and face the prospect of installing the decoders in
what are now ready to run on DC. On the other hand, do you need to be
able to run 100 locomotives the day after your trackwork is ready?
It's really just a matter of style. I do my modeling a certain way. I
do some track, next week some scenery, next week build a kit, next
week install DCC in my Rex Mogul. Others buy their fleet, then build
their entire layout. Each has its benefits and its frustrations. Fleet
owners have a frustrating conversion to DCC. But look what you can do
when the initial pain is over. It sort of reminds me of why and how I
chose S scale in the first place.
-Michael Eldridge
-San Jose, CA
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