I have been reading the manuals on the various Digitrax and Lenz Systems. At this point it looks like the Lenz System is right for me. I do have a question, though. What Lenz decoders fit into what locomotives? I'm looking for something similar to the plug & play decoders from Digitrax. My locomotive collection consists mainly of SD40-2's and Dash-9s, but I also have a couple of SD60s and SD60Ms.
The Atlas SD50/60 will have an Atlas branded Lenz decoder out in a month or two. You can currently order them from Atlas as a replacement part. As for the Kato SD40-2s and Dash 9s I think Digitrax is the only one to do the PNP for these. You should have no problems with the Digitrax decoders on a Lenz system.
Just because you are planning on using a Lenz command station doesn't restrict what brand of decoder you can use. All decoders will work with all other NMRA compliant command stations. This means you can use Digitrax, NCE, SystemOne, Lenz, Zimo, Atlas, MRC, etc with your Lenz system. I mainly use NCE decoders with my Digitrax system and have never had a problem.
I assume we are talking N scale... According to Tony's, Digitrax is releasing a new PnP decoder, model DN163A1 with 6 FX3 functions and is replacing the older model DN147A for all Atlas SD50/60/60M models. The Kato SD40-2's use the DN149K2 PnP decoder; I believe the C44-9's use the DN144K. I hope this helps... Harold
