Frank,
your pregnature {is that what you call a top-posted "signature" :-) } is just crazy. It makes reading your messages a real chore. I'm already sick of people's long signatures and now you come up with a pre and post useful message garbage. Stop the insanity, please!
But I do agree with the useful parts of your postings.
JB and Greg: thanks for your honest answers. That's what I was looking for.
I'm into N-Scale but I don't own a layout. But I have the next best thing - I am part of a group of modelers who built (and now operate) a layout at my friend's house.
He started with DC in mind. I even came up with a nifty electronically controlled cab/block assignment logic. That was in the early 90s. But then DCC got popular (and small enough for N scale) somy friend decided to scrap the DC in favor of DCC. He is not regretting that move.
Besides that layout I regularely operate on about 10 other layouts (from 0 to N scale). Except for one 0 scale layout which started as Dynatrol, the others were all DC. Now, most are converted to DCC. I find it amazing how much easier and nicer they are to operate. It is funny how don't miss things like block/cab assignments (local or by dispatcher), running a block and losing control of your train, lashing up multiple locos and other similar things. DCC just makes it so easy, you don't even think about any of those extra non-prototypical things which had to be done on DC layouts.
Frank is right, DCC can be as hard or easy as you make it yourself. There is no need to fully utilize all the features. Nobody on DCC layouts I visit utilizes all the DCC functionality.
And the current decoders are amazingly small and inexpensive.
One negative is the learning curve for each DCC control system. They are all different enough to cause some grief. I find Digitrax and NCR to be most complex and Easy-DCC the simplest. Those are the ones I deal with.
But if you prefer DC, that is your choice and I will not say that it is a bad one. Knowing what I now know, I would not even consider going back to DC unless it was a simple continous loop playout.
Peteski