Wondered if anyone had any experience with this engine. What decoder comes standard? How is the sound and performance? Thanks very much
I have one Genesis F9 painted for Northern Pacific. I think its a MRC decoder inside. Many people think the decoder sounds crappy. For me it sounds not so bad. But i will change the decoder with a Zimo MX64 in any case. I don’t need sound.
If this is a ‘factory’ installed DCC/Sound decoder, then it is a MRC decoder. The Athearn ‘Genesis’ line of engines are very nice. The MRC decoder is OK, but the motor control is not as good as some other decoders, and there is no ‘CV read-back’ capability in the decoder.
I have an Athearn/Genesis MP15AC with DCC/Sound - it runs fine, but programming the address into it took some doing - I had to use ‘blast’ mode on the main to get the address into it! All of my Athearn/Genesis F units came out before DCC was a factory option, and have Digitrax non-sound decoders in them. If I buy any more Athearn/Genesis engines, I will get them without DCC/Sound and put a decent decoder in them myself.
If the engine you are looking at has DCC, but no sound; then it has an ‘after market’ decoder installed.
Jim Bernier
If you’re planning on getting one of these locos then take some good advice. Get rid of the POC [xx(]MRC[xx(] decoder as soon as possible. MRC makes a fine DCC system but their decoders are the absolute pits.
You can always buy a “DC” version of the engine and add the decoder (either a regular one or sound, or piggyback both) of your choice.
Why do you hate the MRC decoders so much? They aren’t the best, but they are OK. I have not had any problems with mine. What kind of problems have you had with your MRC decoders, since maybe this is some stuff I need to look out for. Thanks
Every one of them that I’ve had burned out within a day. These were non-sound types. The sound ones are worse. Most of my friends won’t touch them with a 10 foot pole. I have some cheap, absolute bottom of the barrel, Bachmann decoders that are still going after more than a year. The MRC’s (2 I bought, 3 I got in a trade) all burned out within a day from being installed and the longest train was 15 cars. I’m running HO locos with Z Scale decoders and pulling 25 car trains easily.
MRC decoders have the following problems:
-
High DOA rate
-
Poor Motor Control
-
Lack of ‘CV read-back’ capability
If I pay a ‘premium’ price for a model with DCC/Sound(like Athearn Genesis) - I expect a ‘premium product’ for my money. Having issues to set the engine # in the decoder,and the lack of an ability to ‘read’ the CV setting is frustrating. I feel like I am programming ‘blind’. I usually do a ‘reset’ to get the decoder to factory defaults and program from there with Decoder Pro. That way I have a record of what CV values in the model. But I cannot do a ‘read’ of a MRC decoder, even with Decoder Pro.
MRC has made the best DC power packs for years(I had a ‘Golden Thottle Pack’ and a pair of Control Master 20 throttles before DCC). Rock solid products. But when it comes to DCC, MRC really does not have a clue. They keep changing directions, and produce products that cannot ‘run with the pack’ in a DCC world. And to read their advertising in the publications, you would suspect that they are the innovative DCC manufacturer with the ‘industry leading’ products/features. At least that what they advertise!
Jim Bernier
I had several Athearn F units with factory sound used on a radio Digitrax layout. I have a command station and two boosters, each with a 5 amp power supply and use DCC Speciality boards for power management.
If I were only running one sound equipped Genesis (or a set of engines together) and I was the only person operating, the units were OK.
However, they were unusable during operations sessions. The first problem was that I like the sound at a low volume and have them programmed that way. Too often, if someone ran a switch or created a brief short somewhwere on the layout, even though the Athearn engines weren’t involved, they lost their low volume programing and went back to their default setting of max volume. It’s possible to do Ops programming and lower the volume again but that’s a pain during an operating session and you shouldn’t have to do it - I don’t with Soundtraxx and QSI-equipped engines.
Worse is that the amp draw of the engines routinely prevented automatic restoration of power after whatever fault caused a short circuit. Sometimes I would have to rock the wheels off the track for the system to restore, sometimes I would have to power down the layout and then restore power. I have power management boards and they work well with everything else but the Athearns would have this problem with just two or three engines in a power district. Other times the engines would just come to a stop, go silent and then start up again. These problems kill an operating session.
My solution was to get rid of the MRC sound - I did and operating sessions since then haven’t had the problem.
Bottom line, if you run trains by yourself, the units are probalby Ok but they don’t fit in a busy model railroad operating environment.
F9’s I believe were offered in Genesis only, +.,different releases used different DCC / sound combinations. and lack of choices…
Athearn (Horizon) is now an importer only…
Yikes!!! 0 for 5 ain’t good (especially burining them all out within the first day of installation). I purchased 2 Genesis FP45s with sound and DCC, and so far so good, although I would like a little bit of better motor control. Did you try sending them back to MRC, and if so, did you have any luck with that? I would hope that with that many decoders burning out on you that they would have done something.
Thanks to everyone for the quick and helpful responses. Given this input think I will take a pass on the Genesis. Only other option for the ATSF F7/9 diesel frt in blue with DCC and sound I have found is the Walthers Proto 2000 which seems too expensive for me and I am not sure it still is available. Also I just need an A unit. Am I missing something?
Do you want an F9 or later era Santa Fe freight F unit? Or do you have an earlier era in mind? Just asking because the F9 and Walthers units can be considered late era and I’d like to know what year your layout is set in.
If I were you I’d still go with the Genesis line of F units. Best out there in my opinion for apperance and the motor is fairly good too. I have 4 (F3 ABBA) and mine work fine. Here is an ABA set on the layout:
The sound is not the best out there, but after tweaking and adjusting you can pretty much get the most out of them. Single chime horn, right bell speed, etc…
But there are too many complainers out there with valid reasons to ignore the potential problems associated with the buggy MRC decoders.
My personal feeling is a lot of the reported problems have to do with what DCC system is being used with these. I have Digitrax Zephyr and although I cannot read back CV’s I can reprogram them on the main. And have done so without any issues. Not sure why anyone really needs CV read back unless you forgot what you entered. I rarely use it. I do agree though that during large operating sessions the potential for a short somewhere affecting the sound settings is very high.
But if you are really troubled by the reports on the DCC/Sound Geneis F units, you can always get the non-sound equipped versions. They are the same and are DCC ready. You just have to install the decoder.
I’ve been looking to get some freight F units and I like the looks of the older Genesis F7 sets, but they are currently not in production and hard to find.
Thanks Matt. Great looking engine and nice photo! I too have the Digitrax Zephyr which meets my needs nicely. Maybe I should go with the Genesis, I just want the original programming (numbering to be easy) with the decoder and sound in and ready to go. Is it hard to replace mrc decoder with a Digitax? The Blue Line Warbonnet f7 is at a great price right now as well but no freight diesels. Thanks again.