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After several years absence from the hobby, I have once again started a layout. Fortunately, my collection of locos and most of my rolling stock was safely boxed away and has come back out. My big question upon returning to the hobby was DC or DCC. My first move was to invest is a book about DCC. I strongly suggest this to others interested in DCC. I purchased Model Railroader's DCC Made Easy and read it before doing anything else. In my opinion, this book is an excellent source for the DCC beginner. It covered all of my DCC questions. Feeling confident that I knew what I wanted, I then went shopping for a DCC unit. I settled on the Atlas Duo Pack for several reasons but the deciding one was the included power supply. It is my understanding the all DCC control units need an additional power supply and the Atlas Duo Pack came with that power supply so I was not then thrown into the search for a compatible power supply. My other situation was that I wanted to convert as many of my DC locos to DCC as possible as I didn't want to part with ten locos just to start all over on collecting locos. DCC Made Easy has step by step instructions(with pictures) on how to install a mobile DCC detector into Athearn locos. Digitrax even has decoders made to install into the Athearn loco. I was able to install one in about 15 minutes start to finish. The cost issue is another thing. The initial start-up cost is the biggest expense I've seen so far. My Atlas Duo Pack was purchased new through eBay and was right at $100. The decoders I have indstalled in my some of my locos are available for right around $20 each. I find this much more affordable that the $139 price tag on Atlas Master Series DCC equipped locos.(although some of these can be purchased for less through eBay). I have not as yet figured out whch decoders will work best in my Bachman locos but since they have a printed circuit board in them it shouldn't be too hard to decide. I also can't say that I have mastered operating the DCC equipped locos as of yet. There is a lot on information packed into those little computer chips that I just simply have not figured out yet. I can perform some of the functions but as far as setting the start-up speed and braking variables, I still need to do some work. <br />I am happy with my DCC setup as I have lots more operating options than I had with my DC layout many years ago, but I still have some learning to do. I think the switch to DCC was easier for me just starting a new layout than it might be for somebody who has an operating DC layout to convert but even with DCC you still might have power blocks(called power districts in DCC) depending on the size of the layout. So maybe the conversion process would not be that bad. I just really like the ability to run each loco as if there was a little engineer sitting in each loco waiting to be told what to do!
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