I would like recommendations for N Gauge engines (both steam and diesel) that have preinstalled DDC inside them.
Help me spend my money. ;<)
Thanks
TMT
i don’t know about dcc equiped steam loco’s in n scale but i am quite partial to atlas diesel loc’s. i like them when they are decoder ready as i don’t like the decoders that they install at the factory. i have some that came dcc equiped and i ended up removing them and installing digitrax decoders which are easy to install. i have about 30 atlas locos that i have decoders in. i like the gp38’s and gp38-2’s. the sd 35’s, u25b’s, u23 b’s, b23 7’s and the new c420. i have several atlas loco’s that do not have decoders and i run them on zero but i don’t leave them on a powered track. also lifelike proto rs2’s run beautifly too and a decoder just drops in them too.
Athearns new Challenger has a DCC decoder installed and factory sound. It aint cheap though!
I’m sorry, but I have to ask…why not install a decoder yourself in whatever loco you want? It’s not hard at all.
I agree that the Atlas diesel decoders are not up to par for operational qualities.
As far as steam with DCC, ConCor has a few loco’s that are easily converted to DCC. A simple plug and play after popping the tender apart. Running qualities are not the best. Stuttering, lack of slow speed control and excessive speed are the norm.
Athearn has a challenger that is sound and DCC equipped. As Pete said, it aint cheep! It runs pretty darned good though. Athearn is also coming out with a 4-8-8-4 BigBoy. It aint cheap either.
LifeLike is coming out with the 4th run 2-8-8-2 with sound and DCC. Once again the price is not cheep. They have also issued an 0-8-0 switcher, but it’s too new to decide if it’s a winner or not. It is plug and play if you can figure out which decoder will fit while allowing the tender shell to fit properly.
Rumor has it that Bachmann is going into the DCC market with the N&W class J soon.
Bob
Thanks for the suggestions so far…does anyone else have any recommendations for N gauge engines for DDC?
It doesn’t seem like there is much out there.
TMT
DCC is a fairly recent addition to N scale (versus HO, anyway). Only in the past few years have decoders been small enough yet affordable enough to fit into N scale equipment. Furthermore, until recently, even those decoders were large enough that a lot of the engine weight had to be milled away to fit one.
Now we live in an age of micro decoders. They’re also a lot cheaper. A good TCS M1 mini decoder with run you less than $30; I just paid $19.95 for a Digitrax DZ123, and that was full MSRP at my local hobby shop.
So the manufacturers are catching up, but HO has quite the lead on N in DCC.
One issue I had with Atlas pre-installed Lenz decoders was that the speed tables on a pair of MU’d GP9s got scrambled.
The only pre-installed decoder locos I’ve ever bought were those Atlas GP9s. The rest were either dop-in board replacements or hardwired.
If you go the hard-wired route, I recommend TCS. They will replace your decoder free, no questions asked, if you toast one (either while installing it or while running it). Trust me. I burned one up myself due to a short on my loco frame I didn’t catch.
Thank you Dave…that explains why the offerings are so spare.
Thanks too for the sources for decoders…I tend to like steam and in N gauge placing a decoder in a N gauge engine will be a challenging experience.
TMT
I had four nice N Scale Kato locomotives on hand when I decided to build a new layout and go to DCC at the same time. With building the new benchwork I didn’t feel I had the time to learn how to install decoders myself; however, I plan to get into that later. So what I did is pay someone else to do the installs. I sent Caboose Hobby Shop (Denver, CO) my two Kato E8’s and they did a quick economical install and sent them back to me, they run great. I had Discount Trains (Addison, TX) do decoder installs on my two N Scale Kato Mikados which took a little longer and cost more since it is a more complicated install but they did a nice job and I am well pleased with them. Just another option to consider.
Mike B.
http://tonystrains.com/locomotive/index.htm
Tony’s trains sells a few brands in N-Scale (Kato, Atlas, Athearn) and offers selling almost any model loco with a DCC board pre-installed by them.
For steam, the newer releases of the Bachmann spectrum 2-8-0 and I assume the light mountain, have a piece of weight that can be easily removed for a decoder installation. As far as I know, the only steam available with factory installed DCC is the Athearn Challenger… not everyone’s cup of tea, especially if you have a smallish layout.
Diesels are much more readily available, particular from Atlas. Almost all of their recent releases have been available with DCC on-board, although most folks I know buy the DCC-ready version, and install their own chips, since the factory chip is a lowest-common-denominator chip.
Lee
Thanks for the info.
Since currently I have NO trains I want to make sure that ANYTHING I buy is DDC upgradeable or DDC capable.
Thus I am looking for a shopping list of what is out there…and I suspect many others are too.
Anything you can add to the list would be appreciated.
TMT
Uhm, your local nitpicker here. I believe that’s DCC (Digital Command Control), not DDC. [swg]
LOL…right you are…can you tell that I am a newbie? :<)
Feel free to correct me…making mistakes and learning from them is how we really learn.
TMT