Hello Tim,
Tim Brien said:
Cliff,
thought about the others. Zimo far too expensive (even though arguably the best available). Digitrax has a poor reputation in largescale. Lenz has an excellent central station and cab but it is tethered. I have heard thatr the Lenz decoders are not first rate for largescale use. Also, using a mobile phone is not my choice of wireless control. ESU is excellent, but like Zimo is too expensive. Also one must consider availability to our distant shores.
Cost wise the NCE is value for money, wireless and a full 10 amps. Most others are 5 amps (nominally just over 4 amps continuous). Zimo is 8 amps. My choice of decoders will be either ESU or Massoth (sound seems more refined on the ESU chips).
I see you have done your research well.
Could I make a few comments on the Lenz system, if I may please. I use this system.
It is possible to get a notional 10A Lenz system by putting the command station in parallel with a booster (my measurment make the combination about 8A in total). It is in the Lenz manual how to do this.
The majority of my decoders are Lenz Gold Maxi, never had any problems with them. I have had problems with Massoth decoders and I wouldn't use them again. The only reason I had to look away from Lenz decoders was the issue of sound. Adding a dedicated sound decoder onto the SUSI interface works well but is an expensive option compared with combined driving and sound decoders which Lenz don't make.
I have the cordless phone control and it works well. It is a bit of a pain remembering which combination of buttons to press so I have created a crib sheet that I carry around with me. Also I usually run fully automatically anyway so the manual control is seldom used. Soon Lenz will have a new command station which combined with a new ethernet computer interface and some software will allow control with someing like a iPad, iPod, smartphone or Android iPad clone.
I agree Zimo is great but expensive here. I couldn't comment on Digitrax or ESU, although I do know of a railway here that uses a Digitrax system.