Doctorwayne has it right as far as I'm concerned. A while back I tried DCC on a DC layout with very poor results. I gave up after trying several different decoders and nothing gave good running. So I gave away or threw away most of the equipment and went to a tried and true system: Marklin digital. It works and works very well. Now I have the sound I wanted, no loop problems, no stalls, very good control over any number of locos at the same time and perfect running characteristics from just one controller. It's a feedback system and the controller knows what loco is out there and what it's doing. Why didn't I do this before? Stupidity probably. And the fact that it would cost more. But, now I have something that really works and does everything I want a model RR to do. More modeler's on this forum should try it. They would be amazed. I was. By the way, I think that Marklin presently still has a half price sale on American RR stuff. I've loaded up. Note: don't try to run their stuff on DC, it won't work. Start out with a Marklin starter set. It has all the stuff you need to get going. Locos, cars, track, digital controllers, etc. I'm very glad I made the switch.