No plain DC version available from dealer

[FCIN]

Maybe it depends on the area?

Very good point Larry. We only have two well stocked model railroad hobby shops in my area (if you call 60 or 80 miles one way "in the area") and it's the DC/DCC ready locomotives that don't seem to sell. As the owner's of both shops told me, they will order a few of the DC/DCC ready versions of some locomotives that are available for local railroads (NS - CSX), but they also stock decoders as when they sell one, the buyer almost always want to covert it to DCC. The larger of the two hobby shops has a whole shelf of DC/DCC ready loco's that seem to always be there when I stop by and when I went there about two weeks ago, I noticed that several of them were now on sale. Both shops do carry a very few DCC systems, but as GEC noted, you can save yourself some money by ordering them on-line.

I recently visited the only model railroad club layout that I know of close to where I live, and the fellow that was showing me the still under construction the layout, said they were initially wiring the layout for DC, but since so many people were now running DCC/Sound locomotives on the layout, they were now planning on just going with DCC, as that is what most of the club members now want.

I made the switch to DCC about two years ago and will never look back. Of course, paying almost $300 for a single locomotive is often a bit hard to swallow, but I guess it's on par with the price of all model railroad equipment these days and the continuing decline in the value of our dollar. $30-$40 for a single car? Ouch!

Even though I only operate one locomotive at a time I love the control I have over adjusting each individual locomotive to operate the way I want and really enjoy the sound too. Absolutely love my NCE DCC system! Like so many of us, I've managed to acquire far more locomotives than I really need, but all are DCC and only two don't have sound. I certainly agree with GEC that DCC isn't just a fad as it just keeps getting better. It's here to stay.