Model Rectifier Corporation Question

[RR_Mel]

I’ll probably be sorry I started this topic but my curiosity finally got the best of me.

 

I’m a long time model railroader, very long time.  Early on I as a young teen built everything, including my power supplies.  16 volt high current transformer, Selenium rectifier and wire wound potentiometer for speed control.  I hand laid all of my track and built my turnouts on a shelf in my bedroom.

 

When I was old enough to earn some money I bought a MRC power pack, I was in heaven.  As time went on I grew into a career job and started my first layout.  As the years passed I enhanced my model railroad and stayed with MRC power packs.  I stayed with MRC through the years because I never had a single problem with them.

 

Finally in the 2000s I wanted to add sound to my locomotives so I made the decision to cut over to DCC.  Again because I had never experienced any kind of problem with MRC Product for over 50 years I chose to go with MRC Prodigy Advance Squared DCC.  I have used it for what I would say heavy duty model railroading (multiple Cab Forwards pulling 3½% grades) for close to 10 years without a single problem.  I have decoders from several manufacturers and all work very good, again not one single problem.

 

After all of that my question is why does MRC DCC attract so much flack?

 

I still operate my layout as dual system DC and DCC, mainly because of cost.  I have 12 decoders 4 MRC, 6 Digitrax and 2 Soundtraxx.  Over the last 60 plus years I have accumulated over 70 locomotives.  I run my steam decoder equipped locomotives and a few diesels on DCC.  I have built up several specialty diesel locomotives that need multiple DCC functions to operate.  I have wired every locomotive with a NMRA 8 pin socket, all are DCC ready with a shorting plug installed for DC operation.

 

As I said above this is just my curiosity, I’m not criticizing any other manufactures equipment.  My decoder preference now is the Digitrax plane Jane DH-126 decoder for cost and ease of installation and the Soundtraxx TSU-1000 SP Cab Forward, their sound is out of this world.

 

Mel

 

 

Edit:

I guess it's an old age thing, I keep hitting the wrong keys on the keyboard.

[rrinker]

 The other thing is their history - they have had 4 or 5 generations of DCC systems, each one not in any way compatible with the previous one, so if you upgraded, the pld one was pretty much useless. The current lineup, they finally learned, and you can start with a Prodigy Express and get to the Prodigy Wireless without throwing anything out. Their previous policy of not allow JMRI to work with their system also generated a lot of flack, for good reason. Every other well known system out there worked with it. Looks like MRC saw the error of their ways and has since reversed that position and now JMRI is supported.

 Contrast to the two most popular (in the US anyway), NCE and Digitrax - they have always been expandable, old stuff from the beginning days of DCC will still work with today's systems.

 Their decoders, as David said, have always been not worth the trouble. Some of the features they loudly tout, like having 16 horns selectable by a CV, are wonderful - except the documentation doesn't tell you what horn you get for a given value of the CV, and their tech support flat out stated when I called that they don't record that information. So, you designed a complex piece of electronics and didn't document it?

 The other turn off for people about MRC is their over the top advertising. No, no one expects a company to take out ads theat say "Hey, our product is GOOD ENOUGH!" but MRC claims they are the best and first in a lot of things with no evidence backing that up, and the reasons they give in the ads aren;t necessarily accurate or even a positive point about the product. But this is nothing new, they had ads like that back when the Goolden Throttlepack 501 was the latest and greatest.

 Then there are the little things they negelct to mention, like if you build a big enough system, you will need powered fascia plates to plug throttles in to, and MRC does have them - they are double the cost of similar NCE and Digitrax products. So you might start out cheaper, but for a large operating layout, it may cost more in the long run. And the others are complete systems - not just the throttle and train control, but detection and signalling as well (at least with Digitrax).

                      --Randy

[RR_Mel]

Thanks for the good input Guys!

 

I’m not what you could call a DCC model railroader.  I went the DCC route for sound, I just go bananas over my Cab Forwards with the Soundtraxx decoders.  My first two decoders were MRC Brilliance Steam sound and I was very happy with them until I heard the SP Cab Forward Sountraxx some eight years later.  I moved the MRC decoders to a pair of kitbashed Y6Bs that resemble an SP MC-2.  I swap the decoders around to various locomotives for variety.  I’m not a model railroad operations type guy and couldn’t care less about that, no offence to anyone, that’s just not my thing.

 

I have two spare SP oil tenders that have Soundtraxx decoders that I swap out between my 12 Rivarossi Cab Forwards and my three Kitbashed Rivarossi Cab Forwards to SP AC-9s, that way I don’t have to open the tenders to swap the decoders.   I still run a lot of the time on standard DC.

 

I kitbashed several diesels into specialty locomotives and went with Digitrax for their function outputs, that is something my MRC decoders are lacking in.  With the super easy to install and wire DH-126 I control cameras, camera lighting, snow blower rotor, an operating crane plus a bunch of other goodies.

 

My curiosity got in the way because I’ve never had a problem with any of my MRC equipment DC or DCC.  I’m not a demanding DCC user and only run consists in DC mode.  I have not gone through the programming adjusting things other than sound.  Over the years I balanced my locomotives for DC operation so they all track the same.  For my DC operation again I use an MRC power supply Sound & Power 7000.

 

I rarely get caught up in advertising hype, that comes with age . . . . fool me once OK but with me twice is strike two and your out!  Before I retired I had to deal with salesmen, for over 40 years.  One learns pretty fast about sales hype dealing with them.  A good warning usually worked, when it didn’t work they were OUT!

 

Thanks again for your input

 

Mel