Hi Greg-
Regarding your comments:
>>>Lenz is good quality, but in my opinon the support is somewhat lacking in the US (German made, or is it Austria?)
Lenz is located in Giessen, Germany. The manuals are in English and US support comes from the Lenz Agency of North America:
http://www.lenz.com/contacts/index.htm
>>>D.I.E.T.Z. (that's the way they like to spell it is great in Germany, support here is poor)
Gee, I did not know that Herr Dietz spells his name with the extra punctuation! Perhaps you are confusing the website address spelling with the formal name of the company?
www.d-i-e-t-z.de
vs.
DIETZ MODELLBAHNTECHNIK
>>>>Zimo is good stuff, but again offshore is best support in another language.
While Zimo is based in Vienna, Austria, there are two NA bi-lingual (English/German speaking) contacts for technical support, plus an English language Yahoo! Zimo forum. The manuals are translated by Art Luescher from MRS in Kelowna, BC, Canada. I have received excellent technical service from Art.
>>>>Heller is great stuff, but hard to find any English anything (and I want to buy one of their monster boosters).
The Heller boosters are indeed very nice. I have three HV4 2x7.5A boosters which I purchased in 2001 for about $160US each. By far, they were the least expensive option for adding additional power to my layout. There is no english manual, but the instructions can be easily translated via Google, Babblefish, etc.
While technical support is not readily available in English, I haven't needed any help since they were installed in 2001.
Best regards,
Bob