Digital or analogue

[BLUEBOY]

I'm just starting out and just finished building shed to house my layout. I have been collecting stuff for years but mainly all analogue based,is digital better and should I start with digital?

[Walkingthedog]

Both have their advantages. Won’t say any more don’t want to start a fight. Depending what you have I guess DCC is the way to go. I'm analogue and so is the railway.

[Stese]

DC or DCC is one of those questions that polarises a community, and is mostly a personal choice.

I currently have a DC railway... for these reasons :-

• It's what i've always had, and I've had most experienced with

• Locos and controllers cost less

• Troubleshooting comes back to simple issues (conductivity mostly), which can be tested with a simple multimeter

• I work with computers, I don't want to bring that into my hobby

[Steve M]

In contrast to Stese, I grew up on DC and my first layouts as a retired person also started as DC. But I tried a very cheap entry level DCC Controller and a single DCC loco and was hooked.
I find DCC offers much more versatility than DC and of course it offers sound, if that appeals to you.

[Mountain Goat]

Probably the easiest way to make the decision is "What locos do you have?"

Why I ask, is that if most of your locos are older models (When the models themselves were made), some of them may be difficult or even impossible to convert to DCC. Most can be hard wired but with many it is not so easy. Todays models have very convenient sockets to plug DCC decoders into, which is overall easier though some of those can be a pain! (E.g when it was made for a specific make and model of decoder which is hard to get or no longer made, so one has to try and adapt others to fit).

For me, I actually have both. I have quite a comprehensive older DCC system I don't use. I also have plenty of DC I also don't use at the moment, but will use some of them when I am ready. I moved back to DC because I missed it, and it was cheaper and actually less frustrating. I found with DCC programming I am a perfectionist. I was spending hours on each loco just programming the thing and even then I wasn't quite satisfied! YET, with DC, once I had wired the layout, I just turned the know and didn't even notice the elements I was trying to program on DC. Is like my mind just watched the Loco go and was content! The autistic side in me just didn't kick in with DC and I was satisfied,

Anyway. Both are good. One thing I did miss with D C is clunky toggle switches.

One thing I loved about DCC actually surprised me. It was not DCC sound. It was not the DCC lights, or the ability to run trains independently on the same piece of track as I actually found this not to be the advantage I had thought (On a well planned DC layout, the areas where two locos may meet to couple up or uncouple are always designed to be between one cab control track section and another. So in reality, one didn't need DCC if one planned ones track sections out properly. Planned them to both maximize operational value and minimize wiring).
Anyway. The bit about DCC I actually missed the most was more specific to my Lenz system. I could take the hand controller, set a loco to go on one end of a layout. Unplug the controller and the loco will keep going. Walk down to the other end of the layout, plug into a socket down there and one was instantly back in control to slow down and stop the loco at the other end. A novel feature which I don't think that many DCC systems can do, but the only feature I can say I missed with DCC when going back to DC. Overall though, I much preferred DC, as it just worked! No hassle. No programming. No looking for loco numbers. It just did what it was supposed to do just the way one designed it.

But DC? Or DCC? One or the other will do!

DC for a budget friendly approach.

DCC if one wants extra "Sprinkles!"

(Is like that car insurance advert!)

[BLUEBOY]

I have 5 DC and 2 dcc ready so I can basically go either way as most DC locos were not very expensive but thanks for your input guys very informative.

[Tricky Dicky]

It is best to make the decision early in the hobby once you have quite a stable of locos to go DCC can become very expensive. At 7 locos even using cheap basic decoders you are talking about £200+ to kit out all your stock and it only gets worst the more locos you have whereas spreading the cost becomes less onerous.

The other side is building the layout for DC and having to convert at a later stage, wiring may have to be completely rehashed. Switching all your switched sections to permanent on will work for a short time but as you add to your stock your original DC wiring may not cope with the higher current draw of DCC.

Richard

[Mountain Goat]

Why it can be a good idea to use decent size wiring and larger chunky toggle switches etc on a DC layout.

Incidents. If I am wiring for DCC, as cab control DC was so easy to trace any short circuits, I would wire up DCC like that as it saves so much time in tracing a basic fault. The number of times I left something small and metal somewhere across the track which caused a short! Yet one soon discovers that turning all track sections off, and then turning them on one at a time until the latest one turned on trips the controllers overload.... Why I ALWAYS preferred better quality DC controllers that gave either an auditable or clear visible indication of a fault, as some basic trainset controllers are awful to use! (Have a short, and one has to switch off at the mains, wait a minute. Switch back on with no visual or auditable indication if the thing is actually working or has tripped again! They are so frustrating! The better controllers one can visually see or auditable hear a short circuit as the controller displays this. (With DCC, I "Think" all DCC controllers display faults like this, but they do cost a lot more per its DC equivalent).
But decent DC controllers do help in fault finding, and add cab control (Which is not th same thing as common return though the two are used together if one also wires using common return "If" ones controllers are suitable), and one can trace faults so fast, as one knows exactly which area on the layout the short circuit is.

Examples of how better designed DC controllers show one has a short circuit.

Many have a separate LED style "Short circuit" warning light which illuminates if the controller short circuit protection has kicked in. With some of these, the LED indicator will flask to further attract ones attention. I believe Moorley controllers have this? My old H&M 3000 controllers have this feature on its display of 1980's style space age display!

Others, such as Gaugemaster, do it in a different way which is less visible but at least one can determine if there is a short, as one uses the "Track Power" LED indicator. The clearest way to do this is to turn the speed controller to max power (Or at least above half power) as it will then give a bright visual display (Best to ensure no locos are going to fly off the board while doing this!), then select a direction, and if there is s short, one will hear a "Click" and see the track power light turn off.


I prefer a separate overload light, though I used to be a bit "Jumpy" when it came to using my Dads old Hornby Dublo 3-Rail controllers when he had his 3-rail out, as those things gave a distinct loud sound and the light shone bright red if a short circuit occurred and it made me absolutely jump!

(A little caution about H&M 3000's. Lovely 1980's controllers which are a little hard to find now, BUT they do have early circuit boards that long plugs slot onto in their internal workings which as the years go by, these tend to tarnish or get dusty and will need a clean, so if buying these, they will need a trip to an electrician to be opened up to get these cleaned, and also checked over for safety. (Due to electrical complexity, some 3000's did fry their microchips, so buy them as a project if one comes across one). Once this work has been done and all is safe, working and passed, these controllers are lovely, though maybe a little complex. Probably the most complex DC controller one will ever come across as one can vary seemingly everything! All those sliders, switches and knobs just to move a single train down a single piece of track! Fun! ).

[stonesfan]

At present my layout build is analogue. However for the controller to track cable I've used lower end multi strand speaker cable. It conducts very well and should be more than adequate to handle the extra DCC current should I upgrade. Always good to have the ability to upgrade without needing to rip it all apart.