Hi all,
I was surprised to find this Bachmann switcher with DCC onboard for only 30 bucks at wholesaletrains.com. I hope my weathering made it appear less toylike. Runs smooth. Wish it had a better decoder.
Proto photos attached…
Nice weathering job.
Pretty much matches what was said before you bought it - an nice runner that’s probably worth more than $30 without a decoder, so you can pretty much guess how good the decoder is when they throw it all in for that price. You’re not stuck with it though, you can replace it with a better one and better take advantage of the fine running characteristics of the loco. IMO the Bachmann DCC on-board (non sound) decoders aren’t worth the weight of the copper in their circuit boards. They may be adequate for the ‘train set’ level locos for those getting started with the EZ Command, but when put into a fine running Spectrum class loco (and especially the steamers) I think it detracts from the overall value.
–Randy
Well, whaddaya say - the bloke sneaks in a couple of proto pictures and calls it a model - oh, wait - there is a trip pin on the coupler - dang, it is a model!
Superb job!
[bow]
And what decoder should go in this loco? It looks like the whole circuit board IS the decoder, so I’m not sure how to go about replacing it. Any tutorials on this?
EK
Sweet! Looks good! [tup]
“F” equals front:
The prototype’s “decoder”: