Picking up my Digitrax DCS52 very soon. I'm swapping my NCE Powercab for this lovely unit after reading/watching lots of reviews. As for track cleaning... I have been using Inox on my track for a while now and I'm very happy with the results. Never any need to clean loco wheels anymore as the action on the loco traversing a section of track where I have used the Inox cleans all wheels nicely.
The two roofs, on the station, with the glazing are phenomenal. I can imagine doing one, but then to make another is dedication for sure. I was thinking about that controller myself. I really like the look of it. The fact that you can expand from that has me seriously considering it. Maaybe in the spring? We'll see.
Thank you! I wanted to show more of the roof build, but it literally took hours and hours and it was totally boring!!! So hopefully this week I can turn my attention to the roofs on the main buildings as they look awful in comparison. As for the controller, it’s a million times better than the Piko I’ve used for the last 7 months, it was so basic and the instructions were really vague, being poor translations into English from German. I’m going to look into another throttle for it at some point so I can have two operators running trains, maybe a main line operator then somebody shunting either the fiddle yard to marshal trains or on the goods yard while the passenger trains do their thing. It also seems to be a lot easier to change points through the controller, something that will be the subject of a video in the next week or two. For less than £200 it’s a serious bit of kit, and it looks SOOOOO pretty too!
Hi Chris Very enjoyable video Great work on the train shed roof i saw the photos on you on the facebook group its really made a big diffrence bringing out all the nice slate detail. Really like your digitax dcc controller looks nice straight forward smooth control of your locos i like the design with the handles instead of buttons i have the Gaugmaster advance whice is very straight forward so would love to see you do a update on how you get with your Digitrax. Cheers all the best Pete
I’m loving the Digitrax controller, it’s so easy to use. The train shed roof isn’t quite finished, I wanted to get out on the layout and get the points motorised though, so I’ll soon be back in the house finishing the roof off! Got the roofs on the main buildings to do next, as their slates look really poor in comparison
I came across this video when looking at videos for DCC controllers but I must ask does it have a DC mode as well as the DCC mode it already has as I'm planning to run DC/DCC on the same layout I'm planning plus even though I'm British I'll be using HO gauge American steam locomotives
Hi Chris. Diode matrix (previous comments/replies): It's not so much the understanding, but more the technical ability to construct it. DCC Controller: The last I saw, you had a PIKO with a "sticky" wheel; what made you go Digitrax (I went with the new Evolution Xpress starter set)? Just a point about loco addresses: you went with the short address of 33 for the Jinty, was this for demo purposes - if you have two locos whose numbers end with 33 you are going to have trouble? Long addresses alleviates (not "cures") any confusion, but allows you to register more locos with your controller. I just realised; your controller may already be set for long addresses, but you are not using them. The usual method is to use the last four digits of the loco number (really sorry if you already know this).
The DCC Concepts kit makes it really easy to make, the instructions are easy to understand once you’ve read them a few times, and drawing the matrix out on graph paper really helps! I went with the Digitrax controller as it was much easier to use than the Piko, which had really vague and difficult to understand instructions, and the layout of the functions and point control wasn’t great either. The Digitrax is a much more capable system and much easier to use. With the loco addresses, when I bought the J72(it’s not a Jinty! Wash your mouth out! 😉), I was using the Bachmann Dynamis system which didn’t support long addresses, and I’ve not had chance to change it since. Some of my other locos have have the long address created, and the chances of me having locos with the last 2 digits the same are slim as I usually maintain only a small fleet. I will change them all to long addresses as and when I remember to do it!
Easily. I’d say the Zephyr was worth more than double the price of the Hornby Select. The Select is quite basic and you can’t really co pare the two, it’s like comparing a Mini to a Bentley. I would highly recommend the Zephyr Express though, both as an entry level system and as a pro system.
Love the station. But I was watching for a review on the controller which was quite disappointing as you spoke more about your layout than you did off the controller
Thanks. I did say toward the end of the video that it wasn't meant to be a review of the controller, more that I was showing that I'd bought myself a new one. However, if you'd like me to do a proper review than I'm more than happy to do so if you'd like that?
