If I buy a DCC “equiped” locomotive, Can I still run it as a standard DC loco until I equip my layout with DCC? Thank you Jamie
The answer can be simple and complicated at the same time. The simple answer is “yes”. All type accepted DCC decoders have a “passive mode” that they automatically switch into when the decoder senses DC voltage. Then they run just like a non-decoder equipped loco.
The complications apply to scale. In N-scale, the only answer is the one above. However, in HO scale, Atlas has a decoder which you can manually convert from DCC to DC (and back again) by switching a plug to different holes on the top of the decoder.
MOPAC 1
Thanks Robert. I am working with HO equipment. What if I don’t have Atlas’s decoder? I’m just looking at buying several engines with no particular brand in mind. Also, I would like to some day pick up a Riverotsi Big boy or challenger with come either DC or DCC ready or equiped.(can’t remenmber which one on th ready or equip.) I might as well get the non DC one and I realy don’t know how any of this all works. But I figure I would eventually get DCC for my layout but would like to start buying engines as I find them, and I want to buy the right stuff. And I need to know if the DCC engines will still run on DC power until I get DCC? sorry for the long drawn out explanation…Jamie
I have a couple of suggestions for you:
A) Always buy the loco already equiped with a decoder if possible. They will run just fine on DC, until you are ready to switch over to DCC. (Check-out the other DCC related posts here for an explanation of how it all works)
B) I would also recommend buying locos in pairs if at all possible. When I was young and foolish (now I’m just old and foolish), I would just buy one at a time, and I ended up with a HO collection of locos that won’t run together without decoders and DCC. Since I switched to N, I only buy in matched pairs, and it makes things easier. In real railroading, you rarely see single locos on the main, unless they’re the local run. Right now in my current run session, I’ve got 4-locos pulling 51 cars. Robert
Probably answered somewhere already, but…
I’m planning on getting a DCC system. Digitrax seems to be the ‘way to go’. One thing that bothers me with the Atlas (from what I’ve read), is that you must manually switch them back and forth from DCC to DC. This sounds like you would have to remove the body to change the decoder jumpers. This would not be practical with my locomotives, as they all have snow plows which prevent the body from being reomed without taking them off or the couplers off. I like the ‘auto’ changing mode between DCC and DC that you discussed, Does Digitrax ‘auto’ switch? This would be an important funtion to me, as I wouldn’t want to take the locomtives apart as I go from a DCC to a conventional (DC) layout all the time. Our club, currently, is conventional. My home layout will be DCC.
Mike
Mike
Yes the Digitrax auto switches between DC and DCC modes as should Atlas as it is one of the standards of DCC. I think it does as well as having the manual plug.
BOB H Clarion, PA