Downgrade From DCC to DCC Ready

Thanks for that excellent explanation, Randy. It’s a huge help.

Thanks for all the advice, diagrams and everything else everyone!

Ooops - doubled up!

That doesn’t surprise me - well it does a bit to be honest - I’m just glad to see that I’m not the only one here who has had a supercilious response from BLI. I thought it was me who was being singled out.

I know nearly all of you fellas will be into DCC with sound but I for one liked it about 10 years ago when they’d offer the models as DCC ready too, that way both markets were catered for and the Luddites like me weren’t paying the extra hundo or so for the pleasure of a heavier tender and the peril of an electronics issue that’ll strand the locomotive as is the case here.

Another market they are ignoring in this respect - I know the DC guys are getting thin on the ground - are those who will just display the models. They are such high quality they must make up a reasonable proportion of their market and again they have no need for the complexity and price.

If I was going to venture into the DCC world from what I have read I would probably rather just be allowed to chose my own brand and type of decoder in any case. That may be from them or otherwise.

They come from a tinplate/hi-rail background, same as that ‘other’ company, and have a similar attitude of superiority when it comes to HO scale models as well. Our way is best - so everything comes with sound, a proprietary system which at least is fully DCC compatible , unlike the ‘other’ guy. But like the ‘other’ guy, they don;t offer it as a retrofit for those who would want to convert other brands of locos to use their system. They expect you to buy only their locos, just like it was back in the hi-rail days. You either bought Lionel or you bought American Flyer, there really was no middle ground. That attitude didn’t last 5 minutes, even in the early days of HO.

–Randy

True, Randy. The problem being if it’s say modern GE six axle in UP colours there are plenty of alternatives. If it’s a N&W A class you’re after it’s them or go hungry.

Or I suppose pay 3k for an elusive brass model.