You are always going to have the problem with your club membership of some who would prefer to just stick with DC and the others who want to go DCC. Count on losing a few members whichever way you go on the issue.
As far as choosing a DCC system, Digitrax is the more widely used system and gives the user the ability to reach deeper into the operating parameters of DCC to do the whizz bang stuff while at the same time, is easy enough for the beginners to figure out in a few short periods of instruction.
I would suggest if you go with Digitrax, that you make a large readable poster that you can hang on the wall in a place that is visible to all on how to acquire a locomotive. It's a pretty easy function to do on Digitrax and is probably the most that the naysayers will ever want to do with it. You will also have members who will want to dig into every CV variable known to man with this system, and that is a good thing. What they are able to do will rub off on a few other members so you don't end up with one or two key persons that the club has to rely on to make the railroad work. Installing decoders in locos will be the same for both systems. Running power wire to the track, setting up power blocks, signals and controlled turnouts and laying out the data cables is all the same for either system. Your only real difference is in the hand held controller and with that, you have a learning curve for acquiring a locomotive, assigning addresses to locomotives and stationary decoders as well as controlling the power to the layout and reading fault codes. Both systems use the handheld controller to tweak the system.
Digitrax is simple enough that you can set it up so all you have to do is turn on the power and acquire a locomotive and run.
I've run extensively on both NCE and Digitrax and prefer the Digitrax without question.
So bottom line here, both systems have a few steps involved to acquire a locomotive which is the basic thing that most operators want to do. From there, it’s just a matter of being able to read the manual, learn a few basic terms and follow the steps on how to make the decoders do what ya want them to do. In addition to that, there are tons of forums on line that can help with deeper issues that ya might run into. Oh, and both systems can run a DC locomotive for those who just absolutely refuse to have anything to do with DCC. Just put the loco on the track, dial up 00 on any controller and hand it to the anti-DCC operator and watch him have fun. Promise him, it won't eat his soul.
