BLI definitely has better customer service, and seems to have better repair service, than MTH.A valuable conversation and one I really appreciate. Just as a side note to the one post about their locomotives being new, the locomotives they have on their web page were new in 2009. They are no longer available and haven't been available for years. You would think they would update the webpage at some point. I sent a local hobby shop operator on a wild goose chase until I figured out the dates involved (and he confirmed it with MTH directly). I'm not experienced enough to be dealing with incompatibility issues with DCC, and I sure didn't like being "slapped down" for asking MTH a simple question, so BLI seemed to be the wise choice for me.
Thanks again for the input everybody!
Jeff
Now, about MTH and their less than full DCC compatibility... It seems that BLI has some issues in that regard, as well. IF you own a DCC system that only does advanced consisting (such as NCE), you will have some rather bizarre oddities with their Paragon 2 decoders. Things like, when you blow the whistle on the lead unit, all the whistles in the consist will blow, unless you go in and change some CV settings on each and every Paragon 2 locomotive in the consist each and every time you change the position of that locomotive in a consist, and then change it back to default when you want to run the engine singly, or in a different consist.
I do still think BLI's decoders play more nicer with most DCC systems than MTH, but be aware neither are without their quirks.