Thanks for the input gentlemen, As I knew the controllers I have now are a basic starting point but not what I'd need for the future. I like the Dynamis and the MTH DCS commander..hard call, for me, to decide on which.
No christmas layout for this- My planned layout will be 5' wide and done in an "L" at 8' on the one end and 10' on the other end...that should be enough space- I hope! I'm trying to figure in some elevated and lowered trackage to keep the grade at 2-3%...zero point would be flat and if I can get the numbers right I can ease the grades over the lengths a tad easier by the old cookie cutter board set up...just gotta get it all on paper via "anyrail 5" 1st.
My 3 rail Ac has the old lionel log loader and unloader and a coaling bin so my son has some things to do...I know he'll get bored watching the trains just run around, but he's already showed me that "the sounds make it funner"{his termage-he's 7}.

Almost wish Bachmann would make some action cars for On30 to bring the kids into it..might make it toylike then at that point, but as always, to get the kids in will make for more long term users...what did we start on when we were young?

My 7yr old son and I are planning a layout together and I want an outer loop of 3 rail O scale, A middle loop of On30 and a small intererban line of On30. For the outer loop of 3 rail O scale we plan on running an MTH Zephyr w/protot2{1st version}, a Lionel GP9{regular AC} and/or my wife's K-line 4-6-2 Coke steam engine. The middle loop of On30 is planned for our newly aquired Bachmann 2-6-6-2 and the intererban route is planned for our Bachmann railbus.
My MTH Zephyr{O} and the Bachmann 2-6-6-2{On30} have sound and I'd like to get that used...maybe I can add sound to the Lionel GP9 and K-line steamer and the Bachmann railbus.....I currently have 2 Lionel CL80s and a Bachmann EZ DCC for power...both low end units simply for basic usage....I"m looking for a controller{s} that will run the sound well off of the DCC units and my MTH 3Rail Zephyr...is there such a unit that can do that? and can it run 3 rail AC. I'm probably asking too much here, but if I can get a lead on a better solution I'd go with it. Is it possible to run 2 different controllers for a line- one DCC and one AC{as I recall the MTH should be able to run DC or AC}?
Thanks for your time and looking-