Ok im sure that im going to get beat to death for saying this…especially with all of the hoopla over sound and DCC. But i gave sound a try with Broadway limited and it just annoyed me. And as for DCC…well until they write a book in the language of stupid on how to work with DCC i will never figure it out. Honestly truth be told…i have played with DCC as well and just didnt like it. And everyone is free to do their own thing. With my disclaimer out of the way so no one kicks me LOL…my question is this.
Since Athearn hasnt and doesnt seem as though they will offer a standard DC Challenger that doesnt make noise…has anyone or does anyone have information on how to remove the sound and DCC from an Athearn Challenger without totally screwing it up?
Any help would be appriciated. And i know paying the extra money for something then ripping it out is kinda a waste…but the level of detailing on these units is quite good and even a DC version in my opinion would be worth the $250 i would pay for one on Ebay.
You should be able to turn the sound off, with all my sound loco’s I’m able to do this. I would give DCC a second chance, maybe join a club or go to a few shows and ask the guys running trains to better explain how it works. You can’t beat hands on experience. I honestly get at least 20 guys a day asking me how DCC works when I’m at shows with the club layout. I don’t mind explaining things and if they have a kid with them I usually get the kid to program the throttle and run the train as I’m explaining. If the kid can do it then the father should be able to, lol.
Dave, Thanks for the reply. I have had several people try and explain DCC to me over the few years it has been out. And at the club i do belong to they have talked for the last few years about going from computerized block control to DCC. The actual usage of DCC is easy for me to understand…its the wireing of DCC and setting up of DCC that i just cant get. On top of that…equipping my fleet of over 200 locomotives with Decoders is just something i dont really want to pay for. Before i sold my Broadways on ebay and did operate them on my layout what bothered me was their usage of power. I couldnt run anything else when i was running them. Thats the other reason i would like to just remove the sound and decoder and be done with it.
I know their are many fans out there that LOVE their DCC and want to talk anyone and everyone into trying it. And as i said i have played with it before…and it just doesnt interest me. And comeing from a 28 year old i know thats strange beacouse it seems everyone in my age ground and younger are just in love with it. I guess im just going to be one of those hold outs!! LOL. Again your info was helpful…but as i said i would just rather remove all that junk and be done with it and have just a nice quiet standard DC locomotive when im done! So again if anyone can tell me how to remove that stuff i would be very appriciative!
The Athearn Challenger may be a dual decoder so that you can run it in either DC or DCC mode. If so, you can just turn off the sound and run it that way. Athearn DCC-equipped locomotives come with the MRC decoders. I’m not entirely sure they will run in dual mode.
John, I’d also like to encourage you to give DCC a second try. Just in case you should ever change your mind, there’s a very good book by Lionel Strang called DCC Made Easy (Kalmbach books). Lionel does a terrific job of explaining DCC in very understandable terms.
For me, it’s one thing to have someone try and explain a potentially complicated topic to you verbally. It’s another thing to actually have the explanations in front of you so that you can read and re-read them until the concepts begin to sink in. John, I have DCC Made Easy and I have found it to be a very handy refernce to turn to time and time again.
Even so, with that said - and with 200 locomotives to your name - I can completely understand why you might not be as eager to jump into DCC. Even with a basic decoder, you’d be talking a minimum of $2,000-2,500 just for the decoders.
John, if you do end up removing the sound decoder from your Challenger, I would still keep the speaker and wiring intact - just in case you decide to sell it at a later date.
Sorry, I can’t tell you how to remove the sound and decoder, but the gurus around here will.
I just wanted to comment that while I LOVE my DCC, you have hit the one and only reason I’ve ever been able to think of why someone wouldn’t want it: 200 locos needing decoders. Run your 200 in DC, and more power to ya! We don’t all have to do it the same way.
Tom and Jack, Thank you both for your help. I had been looking at them in passing at my LHS and on the net at athearn.com. But i never actually dove in and took a good look. If they are dual mode…then ill get one and leave it be like my atlas masters. But ill just have to take a better look next time im over at the shop.
I got into the hobby “Seriously” at 17…so in 11 years it hasnt been to hard to rack up over 200 locomotives…and that is one of the biggest reasons i am avoiding DCC like the plague. When i moved into this house and was planning my layout i weighed the costs of doing conventional block control that i use now and DCC. I added up “granted this is from the walthers catalog…so im sure it wouldnt have cost exactly this much” the costs of wireing, controlers, power supply, etc. For my block control and DCC. And with DCC i included the number of decoders i would need as well…keeping in mind at the time it was only about 180 i would need. And the total cost was about $4500 vs almost $9000…and that to me was just WAY to much.
Also for the way i operate my layout and the type of switching i will be doing…its just as easy to use conventional block as it is DCC. Anyhow i dont want this post to turn into a DCC vs block control debate…so ill shut up about that now LOL.
Im just gonna take a better look at the Challenger next time im at my hobby shop. My layout itself is actually SP in the late 70s early 80s…but its nice to run steam every now and then…and i dont run my brass…but i look at the brass challengers i have in my case and think how nice they would look going round the layout…so i figured i would get one in plastic.
My thoughts on the subject of removing the brains of the locomotive would be just the reverse process of installing them. Find the leads to the motor. remove them from the decoder. Find the leads from the wheel pickups and collect them right and left and consolidate them into two leads and connect those to the motor leads. You’d have to take the covers of both the loco and the tender to make sure you pick up all the wheel leads. As for the decoder and speaker, my address is, no wait just kidding. It may tke some poking around if there are circuit boards which are hard wired into the system. Also lighting may need to be changed and/or resistors installed if the lighting is LEDs. Know… I have not done this operation but I did stay in a Holiday Inn last night. Seriously ,I think that solution would be a beginning and I’m answering because I thought you haven’t had a better answer yet. I have only 12 or 15 locos and about 10 of them have decoders and two have sound.I like the sound from time to time but it wears on me after a few minutes. I prefer to listen to music while operating just like in the movies and the loco sounds fade into the background of my imagination.I operate alone so more than two locos operating at once can get too hectic. But DCC gives me the option of using all of the locos as needed by simply readdressing.While only two power leads are needed to the track with no block switches areneeded at all unless maybe one for a program track. This is for a bedroom size layout.