My Sister & I's HO Layout Pictures & Question About MTH DCS Commander

Is the 50-1028 or 50-1029 better?

Looks like the 50-1029 includes the 1028 plus a 100 watt power supply. I thought it must be DC only if you add your own? Looks like that brick is AC???

"The Commander can accept any power input (AC, DC or DCC) and output analog DC with voltage and amperage displays."

Hi Tom Jr.,

Unless you are absolutely certain you will never want to run anything other than MTH products on your HO layout, I would steer clear of the DCS Commander. The MTH system is proprietary, and expansion capability is limited. There are just too many great locos from other manufacturers available out there to limit yourself to just MTH. I think an NCE PowerCab offers the best bang for your buck, but it won't run any conventional DC locos. Digitrax and Lenz both have the capability of running a single DC address (address "0") alongside the typical DCC addresses. The Digitrax Zephyr Extra is competively priced with the PowerCab (though programming may be easier on the NCE), and can run a single analog address. Both the Zephyr and PowerCab are powerful enough for average sized HO home layouts, and both can be expanded as your layout grows. Or, you could just switch to DC power packs when you want to run DC locos.

Bill in FtL

As much as I like MTH in O gauge (the vast majority of my trains are MTH), I think I would go along with Bill Nielsen above if I was in HO unless, as he says, you plan to operate only MTH engines. Also as he says, there is a great selection in HO and most are DCC or DCC ready and they have made some nice improvements to some of the DCC decoders recently. There is also a very good selection of decoders, sounds, etc. 

I have only read about DCC and the different systems, but the NCE system would be my choice as well, were I in HO instead of O. NCE is the system that I like the best from what I have researched, also made here in the USA. I find DCC interesting and would like to add a DCC system myself someday. All of my MTH engines except one are PS3 and will also work with DCC. I like fiddling with things and the DCC systems look like they have plenty to fiddle with. 

For your MTH engines, you can always add a DCS Commander at a later time if you want to access the DCS features of the engines. I don't know how they had things set up, but I have seen youtube videos of folks using both a DCC system and the MTH DCS Commander. MTH does have some very nice HO engines. If you plan to have only MTH engines, then by all means get the DCS commander and power supply. I have the full DCS system for my O gauge and I also like it.

Bill Nielsen posted:

Hi Tom Jr.,

PowerCab offers the best bang for your buck, but it won't run any conventional DC locos. 

Bill in FtL

Bill, can the Power Cab run Athearn & Spectrum Diesels?

wrawroacx posted:

Bill Nielsen posted:

Hi Tom Jr.,

PowerCab offers the best bang for your buck, but it won't run any conventional DC locos. 

Bill in FtL

Bill, can the Power Cab run Athearn & Spectrum Diesels?

Yes, as long as they are DCC equipped.

"I think an NCE PowerCab offers the best bang for your buck, but it won't run any conventional DC locos."

If the Athearn and Spectrum locomotives are conventional DC then No.

You could always add a non-sound decoder to them or a sound decoder depending on how much you want to spend.

I have the NCE system for O scale (2 rail) and I like it a lot. I would get the PowerCab as Bill suggested. It would be very simple to make a DCC/DC switch so you could run conventional locomotives too. Of course you would be switching the entire railroad from command to conventional but it would give you the opportunity to run anything.

Hudson J1e posted:

wrawroacx posted:

Bill Nielsen posted:

Hi Tom Jr.,

PowerCab offers the best bang for your buck, but it won't run any conventional DC locos. 

Bill in FtL

Bill, can the Power Cab run Athearn & Spectrum Diesels?

Yes, as long as they are DCC equipped.

"I think an NCE PowerCab offers the best bang for your buck, but it won't run any conventional DC locos."

If the Athearn and Spectrum locomotives are conventional DC then No.

You could always add a non-sound decoder to them or a sound decoder depending on how much you want to spend.

I have the NCE system for O scale (2 rail) and I like it a lot. I would get the PowerCab as Bill suggested. It would be very simple to make a DCC/DC switch so you could run conventional locomotives too. Of course you would be switching the entire railroad from command to conventional but it would give you the opportunity to run anything.

Not to try and sound dumb, but how would I know if my Athearn, Spectrum, Life Like, AHM Diesel engines would be DCC equipped?

Not a dumb question at all. I assume the original box is gone. You could take the shell off to see if a decoder is in stalled but I would just try to run it on a DCC layout. If it makes a hum or a whining type sound it probably doesn't have a DCC decoder. If it has a DCC decoder it should be quiet. It won't respond to commands unless you know the address. You can reset the decoder to factory defaults and then the address will 3. 

Although, it could be quiet even if it doesn't have have a decoder. I would try to reset the locomotive and if the locomotive doesn't give some sort of response to the command to reset then it most likely doesn't have a decoder. 

Tom Jr,

Do you have a train buddy in your area who could take a look at it, get it on his track?

maybe a local hobby shop? if they can't help you then maybe they could recommend someone who can help you.

I would also recommend you look into joining the local NMRA division in your area. The members are always willing to help out. I know up here where I live (Northern Ohio), our division even has a list of guys who volunteer to help new guys who have questions or need help.

Thanks Phil & Dave. That helps some. Yes I might join the NMRA. On a side note, as you can see in the 4 photos. This is my sisters HO Layout that I'm helping her with. The size is 37' x 11'. The top 2 is of the layout, 3rd is of the transformer & 4th bottom is current layout expansion. Queston, what transformer can I buy that has the Horn / Whistle button that can also run Conventional engines? Could this work - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQQiCjsN_7A  because that's really cool.

Honestly What I would suggest is get into the NCE DCC system a remote system will cost you about $169 it will run all your DCC power and you can expand and get another throttle and you and your sister can run the layout at the same time with 2 throttles. Unless you are running strictly MTH HO scale then the DCS commander will be your bet but the MTH Sound system will run on other DCC remotes. In your best opinion it would be better to Run either the NCE or Digit tracks system on your layout with Digit tracks being the more expensive of the setup.