New to DCC--Can You Still Use Older MRC Powerpacks & Locos?

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I’m from the old powerpack and “blocks” era, but I’d like to upgrade to DCC.

Does this mean I have to get rid of my old MRC powerpacks and conventional
Locos? (I have Athearn deisels-circa early 80’s and Bachman Spectrum steamers-circa late 90s)

Thanks
John

2

No.

You can place your DCC system in place of one of the power packs and change all blocks to the DCC “block” for a quick change over to DCC. Just make sure that all your power packs are off, when running DCC and your decc system is off when running your power packs.

As for your Athearn Diesles you can wire decoders in them to get them to work on DCC. And if you can solder track, you can solder decoder leads in place. As for your spectrum Steamers, There shuould be a DCC Plug and Play port in the circut board in the tender. I have two Spectrum steamers (The 2-8-0 and a 4-8-2) and thats how they are set up.

James

3

You can use your power packs as the power for your DCC system. Some come with thier own power supply & some dont. Digitrax has a decoder with everything else needed to convert older Athern diesels to DCC. These engines have one motor brush attached to the frame. The first rule in DCC is " isolate the motor ". The motor leads from the decoder are the only electrical connections you can have to the motor. You can put a decoder in anything. Check amperage draw of motor & rating of decoder

4

Jumping in to this topic, I would like to know what kind of soldering equiptment would your recommend…what voltage and what type of solder.

Thanks

5

For soldering Decoder leads I use a small 40 watt iron. Silver Solder and heat shrink tubing to insulate all connections.

James

6

The Digitrax Zephyr DCC system has a feature called the “Jump” port. You can conect your DC power pack to this and use it as an extra throttle. The Zephyr can accept 2 such DC packs as extra throttles.

7

Thats pretty much what I use too. Its light-duty soldering and you dont need anything fancy. However you dont want to use any kind of resistance soldering equiptment (ie: ColdHeat soldering iron). If you do you run the risk of ruining your decoder.

8

I believe most decoders can run pure DC, they may have a higher starting voltage to run.

So if you have a decoder in a loco, it should run on DC.
I decided for myself to do block control and DCC, it will take a slow investment for me to switch to DCC, but I have plenty of non-DCC eqipment.
So I decided on max compatibility.
Not all equipment out there is on DCC but technology is in the catchup phase.