 Joined: 09/04/2019(UTC) Posts: 565 Location: California, Bay Area
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I have a few threads now before making my first purchases in HO gauge, so sorry to be a bother and as always, thank you for your thoughts! I have purchased a Roco z21 wifi controller, an inexpensive solution for a simple, remotely located loop without switches, or anything really. I will operate it and enjoy the functions via DCC.
The Marklin 3 rail C track and loco's should be the most reliable, and can be used with DCC via the z21. One of the Marklin loco's I am looking at has 30 functions though, so I may have to miss some functions or maybe I can assign them out of order and get the ones I want.
I just today started looking at the TRIX HO line. They appear to be the same high quality but with about half the DCC features on average. I know they use two rail track. I was led there by searching discussions about using DCC control with Marklin HO.
So, I would like to know more about the pros and cons of the two lines. The Marklin loco's seem very much targeted to their line of controllers. The TRIX not so much.
The cost to get into either is about the same initially but down the road I have no idea what the implications of going with one or the other are.
I am a Marklin Cub Member though, not TRIX.
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 Joined: 09/08/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,919 Location: Auckland,
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Short answer is that Trix is Märklin in two rail guise.
A number of years back Märklin bought out Trix and slowly took over production, so now of you were to buy the Trix BR23, you would get the Märklin unit in two rail configuration with a believe a DCC only decoder.
Quality is identical to Marklin, although I can't comment on the number of features the decoders have.
If the Märklin loco has more functions, then you can re-assign the functions to access the ones you want, and possible set a second address to allow more access. But as before, no mfx+.
One thing though, is that the Märklin loco may not run on DCC?? I know the controllers are multi protocol, but the factory fitted decoders may not be. Perhaps someone else could confirm this?
Unless you are particularly keen on the Z21 controller, I would still advocate using Märklin for the three rail reliability and but a Mobile station 2 as and entry point. Alternately if you want full functionality, you could try and get a second hand Central Station2 which would be cheaper. Give you mfx+ and full DCC functionality.
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Joined: 09/04/2019(UTC) Posts: 565 Location: California, Bay Area
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You know what, you are right, I don’t already have a 2 rail HO empire, and while I will have the z21 (already bought it) it was not expensive. I may one day want to play with mfx. Why not have that possibility. And being able to reassign a function is really good news. As the last function on the list is a really good one! I am ordering the Rheingold 1928 26928. Even got the wife’s approval. And my Marklin club membership will be twice as interesting with their HO as well as Z offerings to pour over.
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Joined: 09/08/2008(UTC) Posts: 1,919 Location: Auckland,
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Good choice, that's a really nice looking train 👍
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 1 user liked this useful post by mvd71
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Joined: 09/04/2019(UTC) Posts: 565 Location: California, Bay Area
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Thanks for everything! Looking forward to the Marklin HO experience.
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