Input on proposed HO switching layout

[FCIN]

I think I'm partial to the GE 45 tonner, if you haven't got a locomotive for it, yet. The side rods on that little beast are really cool!

Exactly! The GE 45/50 ton locomotive is my favorite of all time and I have purchased three of them (two for back up should one of them go shot for some reason. The Bachmann model is an outstanding runner on just plain old DC even without pulse power.

a train with 5 cars would be a "long train" on your layout.

Yes 4 or 5 cars at any one time would be a typical train on this operation.

Going dcc would reduce it's capacity somewhat because it requires removing the weight to install the decoder.

I may have to look again, but I was thinking that the Bachmann models already had the decoders in them? Says something on the end of the box about Channel 30 being the default code for DCC. Sorry, I'm not in to the DCC stuff and not close to the models right now either. So anyone feel free to correct me!