Hello all! My name is Arthur, most people know me by "Butch". I've been a member for about a year now and have done a lot of following along and I've learned quite a bit. I've been an HO modeler for 30+ years and last year decided to switch over to O gauge because it's getting too hard for me to see what I'm doing in HO scale. When I was a young kid (early 70's) my Dad had collected and built a decent amount of Lionel trains (9 locomotives and about 50+ cars, mostly postwar some newer at the time, and a wide variety of operating equipment and track) which is what started my interests. In the late 70's we moved, trains got packed up and never rebuilt (to my Dads credit, he worked a lot) so, still a kid, I started in HO with a 4x8 and stayed with it ever since. In the mid 90's after I had married and started a family he gave me all those trains. I was already entrenched in HO so I cleaned them up, repacked them, then would get some out to run around the tree at Christmas.
Over the years in HO I've belonged to some clubs in the area (the modular club I still belong to) and built a few small layouts then started on my current layout, which is about 15'x 35', and only got the staging yards in before contemplating a switch to O gauge. I've always been about achieving a certain amount of realism with operating and modeling, in HO I was specifically targeting late 70' early 80's eastern coal operations (but I also like the 50's era railroading), and while I like watching the traditional Lionel trains run, they didn't have that level of realism I like to also achieve. So last year after having to use a 6" magnifying glass with a 75 watt light to put together some car kits, I was on the fence. Went to the hobby shop to buy some HO flex track, saw an MTH RailKing Big Boy with PS3 which he had on sale and, while not truly scale, was still impressive. I walked out of the store with it. LOL!! I immediately began researching the new products and systems available in O gauge and was impressed. MTH Premiere line, Lionel Legacy, DCS, Ross switches and so on. Found OGRR, subscribed, started learning the ins and outs everything and what was out there. Re-configured my bench work, immediately had a track plan in mind that could be run in display effect or realistic operations.
I have quite a bit of experience with block/cab control wiring and digital operating systems and installing decoders and sound systems in HO and while I'm by no means an expert, I'm not afraid of the new technologies (I think it's the shot in the arm this hobby needed several years ago) and I've learned a lot about the O gauge operating systems by following along on this forum and other resources. I'm definitely buying Barry's book before I begin laying track and wiring and I have a good idea of how I'm going to set things up. I've already bought an MTH DCS RevL TIU and remote, Lionel Legacy Cab1L/ Base 1L command set , 5 Lionel 135 watt bricks and a Z4000. I'm configuring each operating block so it can either run in conventional/cab control with the 2 postwar ZW's or on digital/DCS system on bricks and I'm wiring the DCS in passive mode. Now that I've told you my life story, I'll get to the question part. LOL!
Over the last year I've read a lot of good things about the newer locomotives and operating systems such as Legacy and DCS. But, I've also heard a lot of horror stories about boards and smoke units burning out after a few hours of use, fried TIUs, systems not working right, locomotives having problems, etc. I know there are some who are strictly stand by Lionel and some swear by MTH. Some have had so many problems they've either swore off any kind of command control and went back to strictly postwar conventional power. Some have gotten so frustrated they've either switched scales or quit all together. I've been in the hobby long enough to realize there's going to be some problems and certain repairs and tweaks will be necessary and sometimes you'll get a lemon that needs attention. But I'd like to hear everyone's honest opinion.. Is most of this newer stuff really that bad? Is most of it junk? Or does it just seem like there's so many problems because everyone who has things running well are obviously not posting questions for solutions? I'm sure this topic has been beaten to death, but I'd like to hear from both camps, If you've had minimal problems or if you've had nothing but problems, and do you think the successes and failures had anything to do with your experience or were largely product related? Thanks for your time--- Butch
Also, if anybody on here is from the Cincinnati area, I'd really like to hear from you as well, as that's where I'm from and maybe you have some suggestions on layouts I could visit or other knowledgeable people in the area I could refer to.
