I grew up in an "O gauge world" before TMCC and before DCS. I had MTH and Lionel trains. I moved on to G, HO and N (at different times) and came back to O Gauge on Christmas Day 2004 when I was given a Lionel Pennsy Flyer train set. My next O Gauge set came a few months later with an MTH PS2 F3 freight set. I live only about 45 minutes from MTH's warehouse and Maryland offices. While we've unfortunately lost some, the local train stores, understandably, have a very heavy MTH presence both in sales and in service. They still do, even to this day. This is probably why I started buying MTH products. I also was amazed by the slow speed control, smoke and sound from PS2 products. I didn't have any TMCC equipment until later but did have conventional Lionel. Both MTH and Lionel were and still are great stuff. Even when I did have TMCC, I found MTH equipment to be better priced, more readily available and MTH produced what I liked. I also really liked the way the operated. TMCC was nice. Legacy is a lot of fun but for whatever reason (again, likely how the stores were) I went with MTH.
I had DCS for years. It worked great. I eventually retired my conventional trains to shelves and even sold a few to help pay for the "latest and greatest". Fall 2013 I tore down my 8x8 DCS layout. I wanted to make changes, particularly to the track. I built several "temporary yet permanent" layouts in the following months as I wasn't happy with the scenery and also couldn't decide on a hi-rail or toy-rail theme. Regardless, on each new track plan, DCS would not work at all. Track signal read 10 all over but performed like the signal was non-existant. The layout was much less complicated than the previous one. I tired light bulbs, filters, fiber pins, etc - every trick in the book, I tried with no success. I rewired the layout 3 times and I even bought a brand new TIU and remote with no change in performance. I was getting sick of troubleshooting. I had local DCS experts and MTH tech's try to figure out my problem. All just scratched their heads. Totally stumped.
I eventually walked into my LHS and got conventional transformers. Wish I did that years ago. Everything works. No BS, just run trains. I've never had an issue with the performance. Not to mention, I can run anything I want. Conventional, Legacy, DCS, TMCC. Just no remote. Fine with me! Many great things have come out of this. That first Pennsy Flyer - a Christmas gift from my mother and the train that reignited my love of O gauge trains after losing nearly all of my collection - was restored and refurbished and regularly rides the rails. I've also gained a love of Postwar and in about 6 months, I've added 3 engines and half a dozen Postwar cars to my collection. I'll also pick up my newest Postwar addition - a near mint 726RR this weekend. I have come to prefer simple, conventional trains. I can't work on the MTH stuff when it fails. However, if a reverse board goes bad in a Williams engine, I can (and have) gone from an inoperable engine to an operable engine by swapping the boards out in about a half hour. Very simple and straightforward. For my Postwar pieces, while I'm not capable of working on an E-Unit (yet!) I can easily open one up, clean a commutator, change brushes, service and lube, etc. I still have several modern MTH and Lionel engines with the latest and greatest electronics in them. I just picked up my MTH 44 ton switcher with PS3 and have another MTH PS3 engine on order. I'm also eyeing a Lionel LC+ engine. They are cool but I'm becoming less and less interested in dealing with the electronic laden engines. As someone in their mid-20s, that may be a bit unusual but it is what I want. Simple.
