Okay, I am not a computer wizard by any stretch of the imagination. So when I came back to the hobby I deliberately chose to stay with DC rather than try to get into DCC. Part of this was simplicity and the largest part was not trying to add converters to steam locomotives. I did not want the extra cost to first find someone qualified to do it and then have it done each time I acquired a new locomotive. Now step to today. I was looking at my acquired locomotives, and I [being a sucker for both small steam locomotives and bargains] have wound up with about three times as many engines as can fit on my small layout at any time. And it would have paid for the DCC base unit to run them on. So I quite probably would have spent LESS by "limiting" myself to the number of engines I could have purchased and paying to have decoders installed, or purchasing DCC ready engines [this would have been severely limited as the Kato USRA 2-8-2s and the BLI 4-6-2s are both the very size limit of my railroad]. Anyway, that's my two cents, thanks for listening.
I think most people who started in the hobby pre DCC days have a stable of locomotives that are difficult to convert to DCC. I know I do and my non DCC stable includes a lot of my favorites. I kept them thinking one day I would convert them but that day never came. I sold some and, in the process, found that there is a ready market for non DCC locomotives. I kept the remaining ones because sometimes you just want to run 'old school' style and not bother with addresses and decoders which, at times can be work and a hobby shouldn't be that way.
Having been in N Scale for 50+ years now, only two of my locomotives are DCC and three others are DCC Ready. Given my age, eyesight, my inventory of DC and the modest size of my layout, I'll probably not ever work toward a purposeful DCC conversion. However, I did wire my layout to handle both DC and DCC, so I can enjoy the new technology as well as the old.
Well, that story probably fits a lot of us sir as others are also noting. I'm doing some rationalization of my locomotive fleet, getting rid of some excess and using those funds for DCC. I'm slowly learning the install game but am no where near ready to tackle steam.
.. Same here. A simple DPDT switch and I can enjoy both. If I want to run my DC locomotives I just put the switch to 'center off' and remove my DCC locomotives from the trains. I put my DC locomotives on the same trains and switch to DC on the DPDT. When done reverse the process. Easy Peasy !
Same here. I wired my dual track squished oval or dumbbell with four 12 gauge busses, two for the North side of the ovals and two for the South side of the ovals. I have one DCC sound equipped locomotive but I did not care for its sensitivity to dirty track. I now run DC with Kato AB diesel locomotive sets for reliability over dirty track. This is good as I do not have much disposable income in retirement for DCC. - Tonkphilip
I made the decision to go to DCC in about 2005, which meant I had to move an 11 x 17 layout to my post divorce town house garage. It was in 3 big pieces and would need extensive re-wiring to put together, and I decided that simpler 2 wires (and 3-4 zones) would be about the same time suck as adding then pretty new drop in decoders, some with help from others, others while watching TV at night. I had dilly dallied about for several years before that forced the decision. Without that, I may have never converted. I have probably told this story, but I had a friend who was going to be interviewed on national tv, right after the break, as they say. Just then, my phone rings at it is this guy, asking whether it is really worth converting to DCC. If I was going on national TV I might be thinking about something other than model railroading, like not embarrassing myself, lol. The sad part is that he died a few years later, having never made the decision to switch. He was kind of waiting for dead rail to avoid all wiring.
