...
As far as future tech to replace other COMMAND Systems. I still do not think so. Not that it can't be done by a new manufacture that wants to take on Lio and MTH using spread spectrum Radio Control. But the investment in Legacy and the Legacy and TMCC Compatible product sold would not be backwards compatible. For Lionel to try to get their customers to sell their old to buy new, not because the engine performs more, or does it better, but just because the control system is better will never happen in my opinion. They are bonded to the current methodology unless some translator is made.
... But there still is a vast Conventional only group of operators that exist invisible to this forum. Lionel product will have to have that capability, or they won't sell it. ...
As I read through this thread -- aside from the entertainment value provided by the Kool-Aid drinkers 
-- it became crystal clear to me how there could be so many folks still only interested in conventional operation. Each of us has our "comfort zones" that we've settled into... whether we realize it or not.
For me, it's Legacy/TMCC/DCS. All this LC and LC+ chatter isn't even on my radar screen. And when new locomotives using that technology are catalog'd, I just glance over those pages. I "get" the fact that it's Lionel's new way to deliver starter sets. But to me it's a solution looking for a problem to solve. It's highly unlikely that the technology will ever "replace" Legacy/TMCC/DCS. And if it does, I won't be buying a ticket on that train, because I'll already have had too much invested in existed product. Holds absolutely ZERO interest for me.
So if anything, I now better understand the thinking of the conventional-only crowd, 'cause that's where I'll be with Legacy/TMCC/DCS if any newer technology tries to supplant it. I'll even go so far as to predict the newer technology might encounter an even higher resistance rate, because so many of us already have more trains in this lifetime than our great-grandchildren can enjoy. There's only so much new technology that can be absorbed into this already "little corner of the world".
If a newer-technology system builds on -- and is compatible with -- Legacy/TMCC/DCS, then that's fine, and I'd be interested. If not, then it's a non-starter in my world. Forgettaboudit. 
David
