[Nick B]

Hello there.

hornby - Yes, Hornby Digital Yes.
I am delighted with my set up; started with a Select whilst waiting for the Elite to come out; now have Elite, 3 Selects, booster, and some point decoders. Very simple to use, and great service from Hornby. Whilst there have been many stories on this site of issues, I can only say my system has been very good. The Hornby basic decoder is very small, and can be fitted into anything, and drives motors beautifully. True, the R8215 original one has very limited CVs, but I think most people really only play around with accel and deceleration. Why all the who haa about not being able to read back it's number - just give it a new number and job done in the same timeframe for example. It is true to say the Select has limitations, but it is a basic unit, and farnkly, I think far superior to the EZ Bachmann one, as it absolutely becomes a walkabout to the Elite. I did experience some issues with the Select programming NCE decoders, and of course, you cannot alter CVs for sound locos - but you will also need a higher spec unit for this anyhow.

So, there are heaps of systems - do what people recommend on this site and read up on the reviews, but I cannot recommend the Hornby one enough. Note also on this site there are a group of Hornby bashers and nothing is ever good enough. I have over 50 decoder fitted trains on my system from Hornby, Bachmann, TCS and loksound. Everything runs a treat. And at the end of the day, it has to be what you like, what you want/can afford, and know you can get help with in the event of technical support. Good luck and let me know if you want any more Hornby DCC help. regards Nick

 

[Nick B]

Probably worthy of a new thread, but the comment re cost is interesting. For those of us down under, prices have never been close to the full retain prices in the UK than now; though note, we have 10% VAT not 17.5%! I woiuld strongly agree with the comment re 1980s. Here in Oz, a steam engine was £50 in 1980 - 28 years later, they sell for about £100-120 if we use around 0.45 exchange rate. From my perspective, they are about a quarter of the price in economic terms let alone the improvement in quality and features. I also remember paying similar price for a Zero 1 chip as a 4 function decoder! Anyhow, it's true that it is not a cheap hobby - but the beauty is everything you buy lasts forever (basically), and I always say, well, think about the meal you last had at a restaurant. Your trains will still be around for years, whereas your grub is gone in 24 hours!!!