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Awright, I'll throw my two cents into the pot...I got tired of flipping that directional switch ok? That Tech 4 was good but not THAT good.One of my BLI steamers developed an attitude problem after a certain number of flips. It's almost as if the computer on it tired of trying to figure out the fist and decide which was it that I wanted to do.Enter the sidekick. Ok but two buttons is that it?Bought the PCM Reading T1. No bell or whistle. Learned that I need thier DCC Master with more buttons and more wiring to the analog power pack. BLEAH. Never mind the recent Y6b bundle sale with ANOTHER DCC master... yeesh!Oh yea just when I thought the world is teetering on the brink of control box add-on's to ananlog power packs I see that Round House added a Hand Held battery OPERATED radio control box for IT's 4-4-0. YIKES!I think I bought just the one 4-4-0 vowing to throw away any more hand held radio control crap should I buy any more in the future. I applaud thier inventiveness and ability to give people without DCC a easy way to make a locomotive hoot and hollar on command.Kind of like my car security key ring, press "Unlock" in a BIG parking lot and wonder how many cars I just unlocked within my 50 foot range in that parking deck?Now my bench looks like a rube goldberg with potential for needing MORE stuff to make DCC operate in Analog. The writing was clear. Stop this insanity now.Enter the Super Chief. Pack up all the other stuff except the power pack and box it.Now I can retain control and configure the engines any way I want to. I dont expect to do anything except maybe upgrade to radio. The cost was a one time 700- total including the power supply which is quite strong. I dont expect to buy another DC control system ever again. I might add more throttles or boosters for power districts but that is about it.Im actually positioning to use my personal computer to reprogram my Reading T1 or have Tony's do it soon because I never liked the crappy whistle on it. But that is a Frankenstien yet to be brought to life.Now when one of my engines get an attitude, a global reset and coffee time re-programming gets it back in compliance. None of that rube goldberg DC analog add-on push button crap for me.Dont confuse with DC and DCC. I run dual mode QSI almost exclusively so that I can travel to other people's railroads or clubs in the area and run it on thier rails regardless of what they have as a control system.And yes this will come up again and again in these forums I dont have a problem with it.[banghead]Oh, one last thing. DC is the first thing I learned about running trains and it is unlikely that I will ever stop using that to control pure analog trains, some of which still sneaks around from time to time past it's electronics-loaded/bloated DCC Brothers.I do pine for the once simple days of a good Blue Box Athearn Desiel with nothing more than a dallop of oil, soldering iron and 12 volt automotive wire to fix problems from time to time.Or better yet, to be at a big club and see a 5 engine coal train stall with the shouted words "HEY! WHO THE &^%%$ JUST TOOK MY BLOCK?" meaning to take away the electricity that was assigned to that part of track at that moment in time.What a sight when 20 operators audit thier power settings to find out which was the offending power stealer.
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