Athearn Genesis FEF with or without DCC

[BigBoy4023]

I'm running DC.

[elansp]

I purchased the unit without sound and added the Tsunami Heavy Steam. I use a Digitra Zephyr and it was not capable of running the engine in DC mode before I installed the Tsunami so I can't comment on how it will run in DC. As far as DCC is concerned, the engine runs and looks great. The only major headache that I had was taking apart the tender. It takes a real technician to disassemble the tender without gouging or otherwise marking up the tender.

[BigBoy4023]

I've seen plenty of videos and looked at pictures of Athearn's FEF. I would love to have an FEF on my layout, and Athearn's model looks pretty good. The only thing is I really don't like their sound decoders, and from what I've seen and read, I'm not too excited about the locomotives performance at low speeds. I'm curious if anyone has tested the FEF without factory installed DCC, and if it's low-speed performance is any better without DCC. I can live without the sound. Thanks! - Anthony