I'm a DCC Luddite

The message from jasper snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com contains these words:

Yer can't beat full Cab Control!

(Well, you can, but I'm not prepared to start again after all these years.)

Well, I'm just about to start on a new layout, probably my last. I'm touching 60 and have used conventional control since the age of 11, but can still get excited about the options available in DCC. I don't think I would go down the DCC avenue unless starting a new layout, although I have read of those who have converted existing layouts without any problems. I don't think it's a case of being a 'Luddite', more a case that it's your train set and you should do what you like and feel happy with.

Well, DCC isn't computer control. Don't know where you got that idea. Some people have interfaced DCC with a computer, and play at being train dispatcher (don't know the UK term), but DCC is just a handier, more versatile controller, is all. As for solving a puzzle caused by a mess of wires under the table, well, to each his own. :-)

Firstly, DCC != computer control. OK, every decoder and every command station have a microprocessor in them but that's not what you meant.

You can still have a maze of wiring with DCC if you really want, whatever rings your bell.

OK, that can be a problem. Converting an existing layout can be quite easy, just plug in a DCC command station in place of one of your DC units and set all the section switches so that the whole layout is powered up. There are some caveats.

Real modellers are not afraid to use DCC.

MBQ

Well, there's at least one on this (other) side of the pond :-).

Among other things, it's difficult to build your own DCC throttle, DC throttles are easy :-).

Clearly, you know little of the operations of DCC!

Your views find a warm welcome here. Since 1963 digital devices have bored, infuriated and mocked me. The step, step, step approach is boring - I love my mimics and mind bending solutions which enable me to persue my pleasures in solitary bliss. My one DCC controller and chip lie unused in a drawer. Long live analogue.

Peter A Montarlot