A couple of easy (hopefully) locomotive questions

[Anonymous]

Okay, you might be saying "duh" to these, but I am just making sure.

1. I'm looking at an engine listed as "DCC friendly," but I don't have DCC. Can I still run it?

2. Is there an easy way to get the cover off of a locomotive? I'm always afraid of warping or breaking the plastic.

[challenger3802]

Answers

1) Yes, DCC locos run fine on ordinary DC layouts, just you won't get the nice sound effects, lights and bells!

2) Look for screws, the instruction leaflet that sometimes comes with a loco. Once you have located the screws and undone (put them in a small pot so they don't get lost) them you may find there are small securing tabs around the chassis to keep it together - these are easy to gently prise apart, the cover then comes off!

Ian

[Anonymous]

1 Yes

2 Remove the couplers first. If we are speaking diesels, most are either friction held, or most likely, have tabs that click into the chassis. Sometimes you can flip the loco over and see where the tabs are (remove the fuel tank if possible). Just take a small screwdiver and pop them loose. If not, then you kinda just have to wiggle and pull (don't pull on the trucks). Refer to the parts diagram to get an idea of how it's put together. It may be better if you tell us what brand and type of loco we are talking about to really get to the specifics.

Glenn

[MisterBeasley]

"DCC Friendly" means "this is a DC engine, but it's not too hard to install a decoder."

Who makes the engine? If you tell us which manufacturer (Athearn, Atlas, etc.) and which model (F7, GP-9, etc.) someone who has one can explain the steps to open it up.

[Anonymous]

Kato, F7 (Newly-released Super Chief engine), N Scale

[cacole]

DCC Friendly does not mean that there is a decoder in the locomotive, so it will run just fine on DC. The term DCC Friendly just means that it is easy to add a decoder to it if you want to run it on DCC.

[Medina1128]

I have two DCC locomotives (both are Broadway Limited Imports) and most of the sounds work fine with DC (bells clanging, whistles, brakes, turbine sounds!!) The neighbors' kids go wild over that!!