First Railway - Its confusing

3rd Planit, CADRail, and XTrackCad are all good design programs. They aren't scale specific because computers are real good at handling scaling issues. I believe all of them have Kato track libraries available for them.

DCC is really not confusing - you'll need a command station/booster (the central brains) from one vendor. The decoders (chips that go in each train, with and without sound) can be from any vendor. Do a search on the forums, there is a lot of good discussion on DCC systems.

Kato is  in the enviable position of doing such good work over the years that they have some very popular gear from pre-DCC days. They can't really discontinue those items due to popularity, but they are a real pain to make DCC. The USRA Mikado being the prime example here. Again search is your friend, not only here but also the Kato web site and Google.

Daniel,

First of all, ANY DCC decoder ("chip") will work with ANY controller. There is absolutely no reason to restrict yourself to controller and decoders from the same manufacturer. The NMRA standards are (surprisingly) universally adhered to.

Second, the Kato controller shown on the site you referenced is actually a Digitrax Zephyr with labels in Japanese. Search the Web and you'll find lots of information about this product.

Third, the only manufacturer I know who makes DCC sound decoders for N scale is MRC. And their decoders (but not their other products) are universally reviled! If there are alternatives in the Japanese market, you might try them.

-Wayne