08-28-2010, 06:10 AM
biL,
The brass locos can be converted. As noted above, it may be as simple as a strip of electrical tape, or may require remotoring/regearing. I've talked with our DCC guru at the club, and he advised that you simply take your time and be careful and methodical about it. He has converted everything from vintage brass to "PC Brand" (a Canadian supermarket Christmas set built by Mehano) successfully to DCC both with and without sound.
As far as Digitrax goes, I do like their system - I have a Zephyr and a UT-4R, and the club uses a combination of virtually everything Digitrax has built to run the set-ups. I am not a fan of their basic decoders - better to go with TCS for those. However, their new sound decoders show promise as they can be loaded with custom sounds. I currently have one going into a Bachmann 2-8-0 in combination with a Soundtrax mega-bass speaker, and I like what I hear.
Northwest Shortline might be a good place to look for ideas on updating the electrical in those old steamers.
Andrew
The brass locos can be converted. As noted above, it may be as simple as a strip of electrical tape, or may require remotoring/regearing. I've talked with our DCC guru at the club, and he advised that you simply take your time and be careful and methodical about it. He has converted everything from vintage brass to "PC Brand" (a Canadian supermarket Christmas set built by Mehano) successfully to DCC both with and without sound.
As far as Digitrax goes, I do like their system - I have a Zephyr and a UT-4R, and the club uses a combination of virtually everything Digitrax has built to run the set-ups. I am not a fan of their basic decoders - better to go with TCS for those. However, their new sound decoders show promise as they can be loaded with custom sounds. I currently have one going into a Bachmann 2-8-0 in combination with a Soundtrax mega-bass speaker, and I like what I hear.
Northwest Shortline might be a good place to look for ideas on updating the electrical in those old steamers.
Andrew