DCC and "Seasoned" Brass Locomotives

[Gary S]

biL, I don't think it would be that difficult to convert the locos to DCC. Still, that's just a guess, as I don't have any old brass locos. Basically as mentioned above, the motor leads have be connected only to the gray and orange wires of the decoder. In other words, the track power cannot be connected directly to the motor. Track power goes to the black and red decoder wires. It is okay to use the chassis as part of the circuit, as long as the isolation just mentioned is observed. As an example, on P2K diesels, the chassis is used as one of the conductors to get track power to the decoder. The question for your brass locos is "how easy will it be to isolate the track power from the motor leads?"

You mention Digitrax, I have had my Empire Builder for 5 years with no problems. Programming is fairly easy. The drawback to the Empire Builder is that it doesn't read the CVs in the decoder. You have to keep records of what yuo have programmed.... not a bad idea in any case though.