I was big into model railroading back when I was in high school now 10 years later after the whole college experience is finally over and I’ve started a family and career, I’ve started getting back into trains. A lot sure has changed since the mid '90s, now we have DCC and the prices of everything have skyrocketed.
My old Athearns barely run and I’ve since drained the savings account to purchase some now engines.
I’ve added a couple of engines from Athearn Ready-to-roll and Geneses, Kato, Proto 2000, and lastly: Atlas. Now with everything going to DCC (which I have no clue about) do these come with DCC Decoders in them? If so, and I run them DC does it screw them up? How do I know if my engines are DCC equipped? I open them up and they sure don’t look like the old Athearns. What do I look for?
It should say right on the box whether a locomotive is “DCC-ready” (wired to receive a decoder) or “DCC-equipped” (decoder already on board).
You do need to be careful which decoders you run on DC. (There’s is one in particular that you shouldn’t run on DC but I can’t remember which one it is right off the top of my head.) BLI (Broadway Limited Inc.) has locomotives that can run on either DCC or DC. Any decoder that is designated as a “dual” decoder can be run on either.
Go to the link NEW DCC For Beginners! and click on it. It’s a great source for learning all about DCC. You can either read it online or download it as a .pdf file.
Hope that’s a help…
Tom
BTW, you picked some good quality locomotive lines there. Good choices! [tup]
Tstage stated it well about coming with or without a decoder. For information besides Tony’s, run a Google for DCC. There are many good sites covering the subject, including some with photos of decoder installations. As a last suggestion, go to the manufacturer sites, they have more information.