DCC Decision on Digitrax

Digitrax ZephyrAfter much consideration, reading and pondering, I have finally decided on a DCC system for my model trains. Digitrax. The Digitrax Zephyr to be precise. I am getting the older model, the DCS 50, because it was offered to me dirt cheap. (Are you picking up a trend in my model railroad? The “dirt-cheap” theme?)

Deciding between the different brands and types of DCC system is not an easy task. It is one of those Mac vs PC, iOS vs Android things that is likely to start a holy war in the forums in which you bring it up. In the end though the decision boiled down to two or three major factors.

The first of those factors is cost. In other words I have to be able to buy, setup and maintain the system as inexpensively as possible. But it also means that I have to be able to expand the system in the future so that I am not either locked in or forced to buy another system. That expandability also goes into my second criteria. The cost factor alone could be met by a number of system right off, so I began by considering everything from Bachmann EZ Command through NCE PowerCab. Of course in between there is Digtrax, Lenz, MRC and even Hornby.

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