DCC-equipped...how to tell?

[fafnir242]

You'll have to forgive me, but I'm very much so a beginner when it comes to HO scale and DCC stuff.  I've only just started getting involved with my local model railroad club, and I don't even own any equipment yet.  How can you tell if a locomotive is DCC-equipped?  I didn't really see anything on boxes or anything to indicated whether or not it came with a decoder, so how do you know?  I'm assuming that price has something to do with it, because I saw a Santa Fe and Union Pacific F9 in a local hobby shop that were each $16.99.  I'm pretty sure those didn't come decoder-equipped.

[cacole]

 Nearly all locomotive boxes should indicate whether the item is "DCC Ready" meaning that it does NOT have a decoder installed; "DCC equpped" or "DCC On-Board" meaning that is DOES have a motor and headlight control decoder installed; or "Sound Equipped" or "Sound On-Board" or a similar phrase, indicating that is DOES have a sound DCC decoder installed. 

In  your example of $16.99 for an F9 it most definitely does not have a decoder installed, and may not even be DCC Ready.

[tstage]

fafnir,

Usually it will indicate it either on the front of the locomotive box or on one end, where the label is.  Low-end "DCC-equipped" locomotives (e.g. Bachmann) usually start around $40-$50 and go up from there.

As Chuck mentioned, there are three designations:

1. DCC-ready - Wired to receive a motion or sound decoder - without the need to isolate the motor from the frame*
2. DCC-equipped - Comes with a pre-installed motion decoder, w/o sound
3. DCC with sound - Comes with a pre-installed sound/motion decoder

*The Proto 2000 S1 switcher is an exception to this.  The box says "DCC-ready" but the motor still needs to be isolated from the frame.

Hope that helps...

Tom

[wjstix]

Generally it will say on the box. Bachmann has a number of engines that they note in their catalogue as "DCC Equipped". It should say so on the box I believe. Note that the decoders they come with are kinda cheap, and many folks end up replacing them with better decoders.

Many manufacturers offer their engines as either "DCC Ready" (meaning they don't have decoders) and only have decoders installed if they also have sound installed.

However just to confuse things, Broadway Limtied (BLI) make a line of engines called "Blue Line" that are sound equipped but don't have DCC decoders, so they run on DC but you have to add your own decoder to run on DCC.

As you surmise, the engines with decoders cost more than DC engines, and the ones with sound and DCC often cost quite a bit more.

[fafnir242]

Thank you all.  It dawned on me earlier, though, that the reason it was probably $16.99 was that it was probably a dummy.  I don't think even remotely powered locomotives would run that cheap.  Maybe I was just lucky.  I'm actually aiming a little bit higher than the F9s.  I'm hoping to get an Athearn EL SD45 when I get the money for it.