Jump to content

Starter set for Beginners


BigAllan

Recommended Posts

Hi,

I am a 13-year-old student living in America and I am obsessed with British Locomotives!

I am a new collector to the OO Scale community, and I wanted to buy a Hornby Starter set. I have saved enough money for a DCC Starter set. And I narrowed my choices down between a Hornby R1172 "The Majestic" and the R1126 "Mixed Freight Set". I am good with both sets, but I just cannot decide if the E-Link in "The Majestic" set is better or is the DCC Controller in the "Mixed Freight Set" is better. 

Leave your suggestions :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to the forums bigA.

 

The Select is a very basic controller with limited ability to change decoder settings...

...whereas the eLink is a black box with no user controls which needs a Windows PC to run the Railmaster software which is the only Way you can use this controller.

 

Railmaster software allows you,to do much more in the way of changing decoder settings, if of course the decoder allows such change.

Rob

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I too started with the Majestic, although I soon discarded the wagons and coaches and replaced them with better quality equivalents (still Hornby). Still very good value though at the 'street price' of £230. Although I haven't tried the Select controller, I can't imagine controlling my 17 points with it in the way that I can from the computer screen diagram in Railmaster.

 

Regards, John

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you're going to simply buy a train set and run 2 trains round then maybe the Mixed Freight's Select controller will suffice. Bear in mind that this controller is not fully compatible with all manufacturers decoders if you start buying more locos.

If you have any kind of geek-streak, ie you love computers, you want to play with all the settings, programming your layout onscreen, see pictures of your locos then go for the e-link set. You can do so much more. I love it. As RAF96 says though, you'll need a windows laptop to control it all with the e-link. Once set up, you can even control locos from your smartphone or tablet (Ithink you need to buy the app though).

The two sets have very different locomotives so this might influence your choice.

My choice would be the Majestic for sure and then in the future get yourself a shunter or pannier as your layout expands. I started out with the TTS sound e-link Western Express set. Only one loco but I love the sound stuff. Completely brings it all alive.

Remember train sets take up a lot of space so bear that in mind.

Stu

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have Majestic set. Superb value for money. Dont know where you are buying it from, but is heavily discounted on some uk sites. Worth shopping round. With the money, you may/ could save, you could consider adding an Elite, which would give you both computer and hand control. john. You would then have best of both worlds. john

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
  • Create New...