@MichRR714 posted:Agreed, This argument rings hollow at this point. You cannot operate a conventional Lionel engine with TMCC without additional components. MTH made a decision to leave PS1 as conventional engines and not provide upgrades to PS2. It's not like PS1 engines stopped operating when DCS was released. In fact the TIU provided variable channels to operate PS1 locomotives with a remote.
BTW, Atlas has licensed DCS from MTH to improve their sound sets. I'm betting they choose to do this because Lionel wouldn't license Legacy... Good for them because Atlas models definitely need better sound sets.
If your a brand loyalist and will only buy one or the other your missing out on many fine models.
I agree that arguing about PS1 is a bit strange to me, you could upgrade a PS1 to PS2/3 with the upgrade kits that were out there (not easily), the same way when Lionel went to TMCC you could upgrade it (once ERR came out with its board kits, Lionel itself never offered any upgrade kit as far as I know until they bought ERR).
This point has been fought over ad infinitum, and in the end you are taking a pig in a poke with either of them. Neither of them has particularly good support these days and in the end you rely on third party people to possibly be able to fix it, that they can get the parts and so forth. If it breaks down the road, you may find that your only option is to run conventional or perhaps swap it to TMCC via ERR boards or maybe some dead rail system. If you like one systems sound better than the other, great, if you like Lionel because they still have a remote offered, that is great, but arguing over reliability or service sounds like a wash to me. Nice part, if you like the way the engine looks, you can always use ERR boards and still have command control. It would be awesome if MTH would license PS3 to ERR and Lionel allow them to do legacy boards (I never did figure out, I am sure one of you knows, does ERR get its boards made from someone else, or do they get them from Lionel/Lionel's supplier?). Having that would go a long way to feeling better (at least me), the electronics is the part most likely to fail and be impossible to get.
