When Will DCC become the standard?

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When will DCC become 100% "The standard"

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I think that dcc shouldn't be standard for a long time. Model railroads are expensive enough without it being standard. I'm on a budget that's some what tight so dc is my preference for the cost factor. Intermountain is making dcc standard now actually. My dad just got a set of F units and nowhere on the box does it say they're dcc. It's nice of them but I don't like the fact that intermountain assumes everyone has dcc. One of their people said flat out that the company assumes everyone has dcc. One day ill go dcc but it won't be for a few years when I build a new HO layout and start fresh


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DCC is starting to show it's age and is running on old technology. It should be around for years to come but I don't think it will totally take over. DC could very well hold its spot and maybe come back with products like Railpro.
http://www.ringengineering.com/RailPro.htm

Products like this can run on both DC and DCC, and probably even DCS. Since it's radio controlled it doesn't rely on the track to transfer data to the locomotive. You could very well see others follow this path in the future.
 
This is an interesting topic. I sort of take a little offense at the comments that us "old guys" don't like DCC or are afraid of technology and when we all finally bugger off and die, DCC will become the standard.

I'm 64 and have been model railroading for about 30 years. I think DCC is important if you have a huge, basement filling layout with trains running all over the place and you hold regular operating sessions with multiple train crews and all that goes with that.

But I have a small (5x12) home layout that I run by myself, alone, one train at a time. And for that I just can't justify the expense of converting. How would DCC improve my enjoyment of running my single train? What would make it worth the price of converting? Right now I'm seeing DCC locomotives typically selling for around $100 more than DC only and, since I'm not independently wealthy, that's a significant factor.

So no, I won't be converting any time soon.
 


Keep in mind that there'll always be train sets for sale. I seriously doubt the the manufacturers of "Starter Sets" will sell a DCC setup with them. So IMHO the entry level will always be DC.
Just an opinion :D

Cheers
Willis
 
It's possible DC will go the way of the standard cab locomotive. For a while, it was an option, then a special order, then an extra cost special order, then the manufacturers said "You get a safety cab or you don't get a locomotive".
 
I think whoever designed that wireless product above is commiting highway robbery! $399 for the starting system, and $99 for the wireless unit that goes into the train, which appears like it only goes into DCC ready trains anyway. Where would it leave someone that wants to add non-standard functions? Seeing as it only has two wires it looks like it's a universal decoder that is pre-programmed with functions for existing locos. The fact that it's wireless means nothing either, because unless the wireless unit also contains a small nuclear reactor the trains are still getting power from the rails. :rolleyes: The only thing it has over DCC is admittedly the much nicer interface, but this is still available in DCC if you want it provided you have the PC connection.

Anyways, got sidetracked there. :D I think DCC will be a while before it gets adopted. How many people still own DVDs? ;)
 
It's probably made by Apple
rolleyes.gif
 
I don't have a problem with DCC. If I can wing it I will be getting a starter DCC system soon. However I would like to have the option now and in the future to of either DC or DCC and not be forced to buy new locos at extremely high prices. Many of us are on a budget and can only afford a DC loco. I have been out of the hobby for 10+ years and when I looked to see what prices were of newer locos I was blown away at the prices. So I decided to stay with DC and bought a DC loco a couple of months ago. So having the option of either or compared to being forced to switch is good.
 


You can link the WiThrottle app to JRMI if you have that attached to your layout.

And I thought the same thing about the wireless unit and how it didn't really gain you anything but you loose things like transponding and other cool features.
 
TrinityJayOne said:
I think whoever designed that wireless product above is commiting highway robbery! $399 for the starting system, and $99 for the wireless unit that goes into the train, which appears like it only goes into DCC ready trains anyway. Where would it leave someone that wants to add non-standard functions? Seeing as it only has two wires it looks like it's a universal decoder that is pre-programmed with functions for existing locos. The fact that it's wireless means nothing either, because unless the wireless unit also contains a small nuclear reactor the trains are still getting power from the rails. :rolleyes: The only thing it has over DCC is admittedly the much nicer interface, but this is still available in DCC if you want it provided you have the PC connection.
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Those are list prices. The throttle is like 300 and the sound decoder is 70. Either way it shows that there are other options that could wind up pushing dcc aside eventually. The DCC Technology is old and runs at a low baud rate. It's good given time someone will offer something better. The product listed above simply works on practically any system and doesn't care what the DCC signal is doing. It gets power from the rails but that power can be DC or DCC, and it can work on MRC, Digitrax, NCE etc systems. Face it, A person with an NCE controller cant use it at a Digitrax club. Digitrax cant do the same at NCE or MRC clubs. And none of them can run their throttles at a DC layout. I'm not selling it but it does look like something that can take off with the addition of a non touch screen controller and non sound decoders.
 
The wireless module only has two wires and the website says the train needs to be DCC ready. It basically sounds like the device piggybacks onto DCC technology and uses a simpler control scheme at the expense of the ability to customise your locos, unless manufacturers start putting making DC boards with spare outputs on them, which they won't because it would be pointless. It's also all proprietary, so if/when the company goes under you're going to be up shit creek. It's also quite a large device to be putting into a small model (2" long), so I imagine that many HO users would find some of their engines not spacious enough (Jerome :D) and you can forget about getting one of those into an N loco! As for DCC technology, who cares if it's 20 years old? That doesn't make it rubbish. The internal combustion engine dates back centuries and we all still drive cars!

DCC isn't going anywhere any time soon, and certainly not because of that system. I agree that it would appeal to some but I don't think the hobby at large will bother.
 
If there is to be a successful successor to DCC, I'm sure that it will be backwards compatible with DCC, and does everything DCC does and more.
 
diburning said:
If there is to be a successful successor to DCC, I'm sure that it will be backwards compatible with DCC, and does everything DCC does and more.
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I agree with that completely. I don't have the opportunity to do operations with anyone else and have digitrax. I would not get rid of my system because I had the opportunity to join a club, I have too much money in what I have. By itself it amazes me and the challenges it presents compared to my early engines with those little rubber bands.

I do have trouble thinking about putting DCC in one of those old $7.00 Athearn engines or a $4.95 'lil Hustler. I'm showing my age here.
 
I have to agree that before DCC ever becomes "standard" there'll be something else that comes along that will replace it. There are too many small problems with DCC and the proccess of fixing it will probably result in something different.
DC has been around since the beginning, so there are simply too many model trains out there for a wholesale switch......as an industry you can't suddenly make 80% of the existing equipment obsolete and expect the industry to survive. Most people cannot afford to "start over". I know if the industry stopped making DC locos tomarrow, I would stop buying locos tomarrow.....I have plenty of locos on hand, and if I couldn't run new ones on my existing track, I can still enjoy myself for years to come, but the industry wouldn't be making any money off me.
Maybe if the new norm was DCC with full sound, DCC controlled uncoupling, DCC control of switches (standard), ect. then I might be tempted, but at that point I'm sure the cost of all that technology would probably "un-tempt" me pretty quickly. And that's always been the catch-22 of new technology......by the time everyone can afford it, it's so outdated noone wants it and the cycle starts over. And sadly that means as we "improve" our hobby, we price it out of the reach of more and more people. I have nothing against DCC......it simply doesn't do anything that I NEED right now to enjoy model railroading. Maybe if I suddenly have a huge area to start a new layout in a new scale, I'll go to DCC.....but I doubt that happens, and I don't mind skipping the DCC era and sticking with what I have till the NEXT "best thing to happen to model railroading" comes along.
 
MRLdave said:
I have to agree that before DCC ever becomes "standard" there'll be something else that comes along that will replace it. There are too many small problems with DCC and the proccess of fixing it will probably result in something different.
DC has been around since the beginning, so there are simply too many model trains out there for a wholesale switch......as an industry you can't suddenly make 80% of the existing equipment obsolete and expect the industry to survive. Most people cannot afford to "start over". I know if the industry stopped making DC locos tomarrow, I would stop buying locos tomarrow.....I have plenty of locos on hand, and if I couldn't run new ones on my existing track, I can still enjoy myself for years to come, but the industry wouldn't be making any money off me.
Maybe if the new norm was DCC with full sound, DCC controlled uncoupling, DCC control of switches (standard), ect. then I might be tempted, but at that point I'm sure the cost of all that technology would probably "un-tempt" me pretty quickly. And that's always been the catch-22 of new technology......by the time everyone can afford it, it's so outdated noone wants it and the cycle starts over. And sadly that means as we "improve" our hobby, we price it out of the reach of more and more people. I have nothing against DCC......it simply doesn't do anything that I NEED right now to enjoy model railroading. Maybe if I suddenly have a huge area to start a new layout in a new scale, I'll go to DCC.....but I doubt that happens, and I don't mind skipping the DCC era and sticking with what I have till the NEXT "best thing to happen to model railroading" comes along.
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I'm with you on this. I just have too many locos to convert and though I've seen a lot of what DCC can do, I still like DC.
 


If I was just starting out, I'd most likely go DCC.....it DOES have a lot of great features.....but I've been at this hobby since the early 70's, and I have literally hundreds of locos and at least 2/3 of those are NOT easily converted to DCC. Of about 250 locos, I have 1 loco that's DCC, and that's a Bachmann with a dual-mode decoder. Our club does not run DCC and only one member has DCC equipment.....if the club layout went DCC there wouldn't be anyone left running trains......all but one member use DC on their home layouts as well, and the one DCCer has his layout set up to run either. As has been pointed out, the DCC cost is coming down......but even at the $20 per loco someone mentioned for decoders, that's over $5000 for me, plus the cost of converting a lot of my locos (isolating motors, milling frames,ect.) would probably at least double the cost. $10,000 is a lot of money for something I don't need. Of course I wouldn't need to convert everything, but I have a lot of custom engines that you can't buy replacements for, for example I have 10 chop nosed GP9's painted for MRL......no one makes a lownosed GP-9 right now....let alone one painted for MRL. Of 50 MRL engines I have, only 9 are factory. I run at home alone, and my layout is wired so I can run 4 trains at once using the current setup.......yes, DCC would let me run more, but space and my own abilities won't. The minuses simply outweigh the pluses at this time for me, and I think for a lot of others too.

It seems the "new guys" on the forums are about split down the middle......the deciding factor seems to be cost. And my whole point is that while DCC is great, you have a pretty big initial outlay to get started........which means fewer and fewer people will "give it a try". You can buy a Bachmann DC train set for less than $100, and most people can afford that just to play around and see if they like model railroading. A "starter set" for DCC will set you back $400 or more, and suddenly you better be a little more serious before putting down your money. And how many of us would fork out $500 for a DCC train for their 5 year old? And if you go through most of the track plan books out there, the plans are simple and usually relatively small....two things that make DCC non-essential.
I honestly think the next "standard" will be dual-mode locos capable of running on either system....it would save the manufacturers the cost of multiple product lines, and still keep all the customers happy. It's true the current dual mode decoders are a little behind on features compared to pure DCC boards, but the technology changes so fast, that will be a non-issue in the next year or so. So back to the survey.....if the question is when will all locos have DCC, I'd vote for 5 years....but if the question is when will DCC take over, I'd say no time in the near future.
 
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