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Lots of DCC vs RailPro Questions from Mustdecide

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MustDecide:
Hi, My name is Mike (alias 'MustDecide'). I live in the Minneapolis Minnesota area and am new to railroading. Other than a small (4 x 8) DC system I had at my previous house, I have never had a system setup. Everything in this area is Digitrax, and for the size of Minneapolis I am disappointed that there are not more clubs around to visit and learn more. I have tried to research things on the internet but it is hard to get a good unbiased opinion before the forum becomes a shouting match and we get all wrapped up in computer comparisons and Ford vs Chevy vs Dodge apples and oranges. Enough of that. I have a claim on some real estate in the basement (about 10 feet by 13 feet with one corner being extended out because of a hexagonal shape) and am trying to design a layout to take best advantage of the space. I need to first do the 120V wiring for outlets and lights then do the sheet rocking before I can begin benchwork.I will have benchwork questions later. I joined to find out more about RailPro because I am extremely interested but feel I am going to miss out on some feature if I do go ahead and buy it. So most of my questions will be about 'what can DCC do that RailPro cannot'. I just read a post somewhere else that talked about TCS sound systems and how great the sound was. It appeared that braking noises, coupler clanking was all happening automatically along with the steam chuffing volume all adjusting automatically as the engine pulled harder on an incline. I went to their website at  http://tcsdcc.com/   and did some reading and watched a video. OK so my question is - can I use this TCS with RailPro or is this only available with a DCC system? Is their sound that much better or is it just marketing hype. Who has the best sound or am I tied to whatever Ring Engineering provides with their system? I hear a lot about Loconet and expandability. Is that just Digitrax? What can it really do for me? Another Digitrax post talked about 'Signaling', what is that? What is 'Block / tract occupancy detection:', 'route control' and JRMI? Or is this stuff that RailPro can already do or maybe does not need to do.  Because of my lack of knowledge and experience I'm afraid I will miss out on things by going with RailPro. Although I know I will gain a lot also by buying RailPro and that is the way I am leaning very strongly towards RailPro but just afraid to make a decision. I have been at many train shows and was asking about RailPro and most said they have never heard of it or did not now much about it. They said to go Digitrax because then there are local clubs that can help you out when you have a problem. My attitude is that I do not want to buy a system that I will have problems with and will need to constantly ask for help. Much prefer to buy something that just works good and has all the bells and whistles (OK a pun). I probably will never have more than 6 to 8 engines and I figure that about 80 - 90% of the time I will be the only one running it (until I have grandchildren old enough to 'help me run the trains'). I do not anticipate anybody bringing their DCC engines over to my place, but at least I have the option to join a DCC club and run my RailPro engines there. My only other wish for RailPro is to be able to use the controller will it is charging or at least pop in a freshly recharged battery like my cordless drill and then recharge the first battery on a standalone charger. Other than my concerns I really like what I am reading about RailPro and would sure love for it to be as good as it sounds so I can start converting DCC users over to what appears to be a much better system. Enough questions for my first post.     

G8B4Life:
Hi Mike,

Welcome. That's a lot of questions.

Firstly lets lay some ground work. DCC is DCC, RailPro is RailPro. They are different and not compatible. You cannot control DCC with RailPro and you cannot control RailPro with DCC.

There is no easy way to compare what you might "miss out on", you'll miss out on certain aspects from the other no matter which way you decide to go; it pretty much boils down to which gives you the feature set that you most desire. Probably the features that most come to RailPro for come under ease of use (no CV programming, no speed matching, simple MU'ing of locomotives, no remembering locomotive addresses). The only feature that I can think of that can be given any serious consideration for going with DCC is your locomotives can be controlled by another DCC system.

As to the best sound, well that's objective of course. I've never heard TCS's sound but I have heard SoundTraxx, QSI and Loksound and from my experience Loksound can't be beat. TCS (and Soundtraxx, QSI, Loksound) make equipment for DCC so it can't be controlled by RailPro so sorry, no TCS WOW sound if you go with RailPro. That means yes, at this point in time you are "tied" to the sounds from Ring Engineering. Some sounds you can create and load yourself, horn's and such but prime movers not yet. Hopefully one day.

LocoNet is a Digitrax thing, and it's the way commands get communicated between the throttle, command station and other DCC devices on the layout via a cable on a DigiTrax system. Other DCC systems have the same type of thing with different names. You don't need to worry about it with RailPro as RailPro is direct radio control vis no cable.

JMRI is an open source software project with a few different components. I'd say the most used component is DecoderPro, which gives DCC a bit of a more user friendly user interface for working with and programming decoders. You don't need to worry about this with RailPro either.

Signalling, Your guess is as good as mine without reading what those people were saying. I do know that DigiTrax sells detectors that detect where a train is by sensing the current draw (I think) but how it all ties into their system I do not know. You can do train detection with RailPro too.

Route control, that's simply using DCC decoders to control turnouts. You can write a program (probably similar to a macro) that changes a whole bunch of them at once setting a whole route in one go. RailPro could probably do so just the same but it doesn't yet. I wonder if anyones even asked Ring for this feature?

To wrap up, for the size of your proposed layout, RailPro would suite you quite well and I believe that you'd get a lot from it. If you were to choose DCC, then for that size layout with just one operator I'd actually recommend an NCE powercab. DigiTrax has a of hype simply because it was the first US made system on the scene. There are a lot of users and clubs that use NCE too.

- Tim

Dean:
I had Digitrax DCC on my layout for a number of years. I finally got tired of all the problems and replaced it with an NCE system. Then I found out about RailPro. I would love to convert totally to RailPro but the economics of that move are prohibitive. I have over 50 engines that are DCC and replacing all those decoders would not be practical. But now I have the best of both system. I have an NCE DCC system and I am slowly converting my consisted engines to RailPro. ( 12 down, 15 to go ) I run a lot of ABA, ABBA, and some ABBBA consist that are permanent. 'B' units look really funny when running alone pulling 5-6 cars.  :)
RailPro is the easiest system to install, setup and run. Digitrax is the worst. NCE falls into the middle of those other two. I've done them all. Programming DCC decoders can be confusing and tedious. You can use JMRI to make it somewhat easier, but then you need a computer and an interface to your  layout.
If I was just starting, I would go with RailPro.
Sound is subjective. I have three engines with sound. Two have it disabled and the third has the speaker removed. To me it is annoying, too loud, and sounds really tinny. And after about 15 minutes of it, it gets tedious.
Take your time. Read up on all of the options. But take everything you read with a grain of salt that's about the size of a dump truck.
 
 

Alan:
DCC vs RP really is a Ford vs Chevy question. There is no definitive answer as to which system is better. Both work, both have unique features/benefits, both have limitations, and by and large parts are not interchangeable between the two. The system choice is a personal matter. Which system best fits your needs and what features do you consider most important should help you make the decision.

DCC is the better choice for you if:

* Model railroading is a highly social activity - clubs, train show layouts, round robin participation, hosting operating sessions, network of friends with layouts, etc.
* Onboard sound is very important - availability, accuracy, fidelity.
* You value having multiple manufacturers from which to source component parts.
* You rely heavily on online forums for assistance, troubleshooting, and general knowledge gathering.
* Want to purchase locomotives with pre-installed modules/decoders.
* You are comfortable with using a computer and associated interfaces (JMRI, programming track, etc.).
RP is the better choice for you if:

* You value ease of use.
* Plug-n-play is important.
* Simplified wiring of layout, track, and related components is desired.
* Want to run multiple locomotives in a single train (MU, push, distributed)
* Do not want the technicalities associated with control values/speed tables/slot management.
* Children will be frequent operators.
The lists are solely my opinion and could be expanded greatly. Point is, don't attempt to make detailed technical comparisons. Instead, identify what you value from a system and buy the one that best suits those needs.

Disregard battery life. Of no real consequence in actual use. DCC un-tethered throttles no different than RP throttle.

Signaling (functional) is an expensive and complicated undertaking in both DCC and RP unless you happen to also be an electronics hobbyist (like me).

Dean:
I would add one more thing to Alan's reply.
You can run your RailPro engines on DCC layouts but not run DCC on a RailPro only layout.
I have both a DCC system and RailPro on the same layout.

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