To DCC, or to not DCC

[nachoman]

As for cost....$400.00 is a "little" over the top. I bought my D'trax Zephyr for $160, and decoders nowadays are running about $23 a piece....These are just your plain motor/lights decoders, which is all you really need for steamers (no sound, of course). There is no need to do the conversion of the whole stable of locos at one crack. Pick a few favorites (we all have them... ) and go with those. After some time, do a couple of others, and so on....Finally, I've chosen to leave a few that won't ever have a decoder put in them (old...not so good locos), but that I like to run now and then, just for ol' times' sake. That's why I decided to do a DC/DCC setup. With the flip of a switch I can run these ol' timers for a few laps, and then back they go to their storage tracks....

I figure 150 for the basic DCC setup, and then 7 decoders at 25 per unit and I am looking at 325$ Even though I would install the decoders one at a time, I would still convert 7 locomotives eventually. Money will be tight for a long while, and until funding becomes available I would like the ability to run more than "one or two" locomotives. I've got all I need to set up my layout for DC blocks, and after thinking about it, there would only be four of them. I am leaning in the direction of going DC for now, because it wouldn't be any harder to convert 2 years from now than it would be now. In the meantime, I can cut a few rail gaps and build a little control panel and have at it.

Thanks everyone for your advice.