Don't be intimidated by installing a decoder, even hard-wiring one. It is only 8 wires and very logical. If you can wire a DC layout with blocks you can handle a decoder. The only question I would have is: did the engine run well in DC. If it didn't, don't bother.
And, decoders can be as low as $12 each if you buy 10.
Chip
Building the Rock Ridge Railroad with the slowest construction crew west of the Pecos.
4 of the 5 current DCC locos were already DCC equipped, I added a decoder to one, and it was very easy. I do have a lot of old engines that I may or may not upgrade. Cost was not bad; I got the Digitrax Zephyr for $80 on Ebay and bought a power supply from Tony's Train Exchange for another $40 since the Zephyr didn't come with one. I also added a walk around throttle (UT4) for another $65.
I do have some old metal steam engines that I probably won't upgrade because of the engine isolation issues but that still could be a possibility. The older diesels that I have I will most likely upgrade. I understand each is a special case and you have to see what is needed on each model. They don't have plug in light boards so they have to be hard wired, which I haven't tried yet.
I had a lot of older Rivarossi steamers; Big Boy, Challenger, Y6B and a NKP Berkshire that I replace with newer versions with the smaller flanges and they all have can motors so they shouldn't be hard to convert to DCC.
I am going to have to take one loco at a time and see what needs to be done or if I want to replace it with a similar one that is already DCC. LIke most of us, I don't have the money to do this all at once, but $20 per loco for a decoder is a doable thing.
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
If none of your locos are DCC, you need to install decoders. If they are "DCC-ready", this could mean, that you just have to plug in a decoder, set the address to what you want it to be, and there you go. It could also mean, that you have to insulate the motor from the frame. If they are plain ol´ DC only, you may have to "hard wire" them, which can certainly be a hassle. There are, however, a number of services being able to do the job for you. Figure on $ 50 - 60 for the job for a "normal" decoder. Sound is much more!
I don´t know, how many locos you already have, but this could be quite an investment. I still find it worthwhile to go the DCC route, as it enhances operation. The DC hardliners in here will tell you, that you can achieve the same by simply establishing sufficient block wiring, but that effort can also be tremendous, depending on the size of your layout. And it will not quite be the same.
An alternative to having decoders installed may be selling off your DC locos and buying DCC locos.
Edit: I just saw you mentioned to have 10 - 15 locos. Converting them to DCC could cost you as much as $ 900. Why not sell off a few of them and buy 2-3 DCC equipped ones?
< DCC Made Easy is the one book I would recommend to get familiar with DCC and have it explained in plain English. I just got into DCC about a week ago and I am so excited about the possibilities that this system offers. I was building my layout (about 18 x 22) and was wiring as I went along thinking I would ........................
GO FOR IT AND DON'T LOOK BACK. DCC IS THE GREATEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD. (Well some of you may not know what that meant!). It is easy and gives you all the freedom of block control without the blocks. You run the trains not the track.
Bob >
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Bob,
Do you have old Locos you had to convert to DCC operation and sound, OR are your Locos, new" and already wired 100% for DCC?
In my case, none of my locomotive units are set up for DCC operation or sound, and from some of the other threads on DCC conversion & modification, it looks like a big hassle to convert them.
How much did you invest in the DCC equipment?
DCC Made Easy is the one book I would recommend to get familiar with DCC and have it explained in plain English. I just got into DCC about a week ago and I am so excited about the possibilities that this system offers. I was building my layout (about 18 x 22) and was wiring as I went along thinking I would run DC for now an go to DCC later when I could afford to or have the nerve to. Well, I never got that far. I have been reading this forum for several months and started to realize I shouldn't wait any longer. I had narrowed my choice down to CVP or Digitrax Zephyr from the knowledge I had. i finally chose Digitrax and hooked my Zephyr up last week. Just two wires from where my DC power pack was connected. Everything came to life and I now have 5 DCC locos runnng. There is no problem switching in the yard area while 3 other engines are sitting next to it on the same or different tracks. ONLY the engine I want to run moves and the others are sitting there idling (the ones with sound; 4 of them). I didn't see any difference in how I built the layout or wired it. I had blocks started but just wired them together since I wanted to run my engines around the layout. I planned to wire them to block switches as I have in the past. Now I can use them to create power districts if I want but at this point I don't think I wiill need to. I am only going to run 2-3 engines at one time, so the Zephyr will be plenty of power for that. I JUST WISH I HAD TRIED THIS A LONG TIME AGO.
Bob
Model RR is GoodI can't do that. It's not all mainline.
That's exactly the point. With DCC you can do that.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Space Mouse Said:
"With a 5 x 10 layout you run by yourself, you simply wire it as one block and hook it to the power supply/console. Wiring for DCC is much less complicated than DC."
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I can't do that. It's not all mainline.
I will have an interchange and a small yard etc.
I came back to the hobby about 7 years ago. I thought I was in about the same situation as you. I had boxes of trains, including locomotives that worked when I put them away, rolling stock, track, structures and DC equipment. I had no benchwork, though, so I was starting from scratch on that.
One of my first purchases was a subway train, since I'd always wanted to do subways on a layout. Then, a small financial windfall appeared, and I went for DCC. My original plan was to run the subways on DCC while keeping DC for the surface-level layout, until I could add decoders to my older engines.
When I put a decoder in the subway (easy) and powered up the DCC system for the first time, all those plans went out the window. Throttle in hand, the 8-year-old kid in me had finally come back. Now, this was the model railroad experience I wanted. Plan B suddenly emerged - disconnect that old DC power pack, and save it for accessory lighting. It's time to look into putting decoders into the old engines right away.
Plan C. As it turned out, engines that worked when I put them away 40 years earlier had issues. I suppose most of us would after that long in a cardboard box, shuffled between damp basements and hot attics. So, I basically ended up buying new engines as I found ones that I liked. I managed to rescue 1 or 2, and turned a couple of them into dummies, or "honorary locomotives" as I like to say out of respect for their vintage.
I discovered something about DCC that is seldom mentioned. It has a very big advantage on small layouts. On a large layout, DC blocks can be set up in a reasonable way. The blocks can be big enough that you don't have the problem of overlap. On a small layout (mine was 5x12 feet in HO at the time) if you break it up into enough blocks to allow multi-train operation, the blocks will be too small and you'll end up either running very short trains or spending all your time flipping toggles.
Recently, I got enough of the trackwork done on Phase 2 of my layout to achieve one of my design goals. I now have a single-track main with multiple long passing sidings. So, I can now run two trains in opposite directions and have "meets" at the sidings. All I have to do is control the turnouts and the speed of one train, and I can do this all day long.
I've been on this forum for quite a few years now, and as you can see from my post count I spend way too much time here. But, in all that time, I've only seen one member say he was giving up on DCC and going back to DC. That's a pretty good record.
OK I Give Up--Show me a book on DC & DCC.
Ok, the Internet has all the info you need. Search using different terms.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
I don't think that he's changing. If I read right he's getting ready to start over. He wouldn't be switching but starting with one or the other. I would go with DCC for sure in that case.
Springfield PA
Why convert to DCC if you don't need to? If you are used to and happy using DC then by all means stay with it. It was easy for me to swap over to DCC because I had no home layout built. I was still in the collecting phase of the hobby and amassed about 50 locomotives through the years. When I joined a club about 7 years ago they had a modular division that was DCC and a permanent layout that is DC block. I built 7 modules for the modular division and jumped into DCC. I converted most of my loco fleet and acquired many more with decoders already installed or easily installed. Currently I am building a home layout now that the kids have moved out. This will be DCC from the start.
Any way you do not need a book about DCC and DC there are many resources available right here on the WWW. Here are just 2 of the best.
http://www.wiringfordcc.com/intro2dcc.htm
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
Agreed. Simply wire exactly like you did before but leave out the blocks. For larger layouts blocks are still used for isolation with breakers and sometimes additional power boosters but not typically needed for a 5x10
With a 5 x 10 layout you run by yourself, you simply wire it as one block and hook it to the power supply/console. Wiring for DCC is much less complicated than DC.
DC is still the same as it was, when you build your layout.
DCC is very much different - with DCC you control your loco via a digital signal, read by the loco´s decoder, with track power remaining constant. DC allows you only to control the track power.
Getting started in DCC is really easy and most manuals pretty well describe, how to hook up the system to your layout. Just get started with it - you will have it up and running in no time at all. Get a book, when you want to spread it all over your layout, by introducing power districts etc.
Model,
Here are a couple that I can suggest:
DCC for Beginners - This is a DCC primer on Tony's Train Exchange web site. You can either read it online, or download it onto your computer as a .pdf file.
DCC Made Easy (Lionel Strang/Kalmbach Publishing) - Lionel has a real knack for putting things into very understandable terms.
Hope that helps...
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Here is my situation with electricity and Model Railroading operation.
I built a 15 x 20 ft. room size HO layout about 30 years ago using block wiring. That's what I know and am familiar with and why I asked about "Old School Block Holdouts" in another thread.
My power supplies are one quantity, "Model Rectifier" Tech 2 with momentum and one without momentum.
I have a 5 X 10 grid table in storage, with some mainline track installed, that I started several years ago, but job priorities and other things, put that on the back burner. Now I am pulling that table out of mothballs and have been evaluating everything, to plan how to finish it, and maybe later on, incorporate it into a 2 car garage size layout, and that's a BIG "maybe".
I have probably a couple thousand dollars invested in everything. I have about 10-15 Athearn Diesel Locos and a good quality Bachman Steam Locomotive. So I have missed a lot, and am set up for an earlier decade of Model Railroading, NOT with all the new fangled DC & DCC equipment.
What books or info can anyone recommend to bring my Model RR electrical-electronic knowledge into the 21st century with DC & DCC and all that other stuff?