05-05-2010, 08:05 PM
While I've seen DCC run, I use DC myself, for most of the reasons which you've outlined. Any reasonably decent-quality locos of similar type should run well enough together to doublehead using DC power. I doublehead my locos all the time, and sometimes run three or four on the same train. I can also run pushers with no problems, and this includes Bachmann 2-8-0s, Athearn Mikados, and, when I still had them, many diesels, in combination with like locos or any of other types and makes. DCC, from the threads that I've read here and elsewhere, requires very clean track and is fussy on the power supply, often requiring bus wires for current distribution. My layout, currently at just under 200' of mainline, has a single pair of wires from the power pack to the track and I do not clean track, except after ballasting.
If you're not interested in sound (almost 40 years in a steel mill was enough sound to last me a lifetime
) and special lighting effects hold no attraction (after you put all your efforts into detailing your trains and layout, are you gonna hide it all by running in the dark? 
) then the only thing that DCC really offers for you and me is independent loco control. Sorry, but I don't have a lot of situations where that would be required. If there's a train moving on my layout, there had better be someone actively controlling it (and, at the same time, enjoying doing so). 
Wayne
If you're not interested in sound (almost 40 years in a steel mill was enough sound to last me a lifetime
) and special lighting effects hold no attraction (after you put all your efforts into detailing your trains and layout, are you gonna hide it all by running in the dark? ) then the only thing that DCC really offers for you and me is independent loco control. Sorry, but I don't have a lot of situations where that would be required. If there's a train moving on my layout, there had better be someone actively controlling it (and, at the same time, enjoying doing so). Wayne