So I will share my experience and you can make a decision depending on how you feel.
My intro into O Gauge, like a lot of us, was with a Lionel Starter Set (Polar Express to be exact) which came with a CW80. I soon became obsessed with Scale Trains and soon after purchased an MTH Premier SD70M Proto 2. It absolutely HATED running with the CW80, it was such a bad experience I almost gave up on the hobby. Thanks to this forum and the great contributors, I soon found that the culprit to this issue was indeed the CW80 and its chopped Sine Wave vs normal smooth Sine Wave power most transformers give off.
I soon wrestled with how to proceed. I knew I would never have a big enough layout to warrant the 400W Z4000 but I also knew that I wanted to spend the money once and not have to worry about it for a while, or ever again.
I decided to go with the Lionel PH180, it has a fast blow circuit breaker second to none and I have ran more than 5 engines w/ smoke ON and the single transformer has not ever given me an issues at all. I think the PW180 is a great transformer BUT it is not suited for conventional operation as it sits, you will need either a Lionel Legacy PowerMaster to act as the transformer handle or get the full DCS system and you can use the Variable outputs for the conventional engine you have.
With that said, your best choice for a transformer depends 100% on YOU and YOUR layout. I have two loops (A third is in progress now) on my layout and the two loops are center rail isolated so I can, and have, wired my outside loop to a VAR output to run a conventional loco and the inside loop to a fixed output to run command engines, or vice versa. I can achieve this all with the Full DCS system as well as a single PW180.
For me this setup gave me the most bang for my buck as well as the ability to run both Conventional and MTH Command locos at the same time.
The story doesn't end there for most of us, and I was no exception. Legacy engines started coming into my collection and as it stood at the moment, I had no way to control them via Command control so as a result I added a Legacy base to the mix to finish off.
I hope this helps you understand a bit more of what is needed to run both conventional and command locos as well as command MTH and Legacy/TMCC locos, long story short, their is no short, you need a few items to make all of your locos run.
Hope this helps!
