thank you guys so much for the advice 7 the link , so it looks like im gonna be digging in storage shed & replacing the circuitboards
If by "DCC ready" you mean "is the motor isolated from the frame," I believe the answer is yes. If that is correct, then replacing the factory board with a similarly shaped/size decoder will be a simple job, as mentioned before. If, however, it turns out the motor is not isolated, some additional work will be required to isolate it so that the only power it gets is from the decoder.
AFter looking at the TCS install for these locos:
http://www.tcsdcc.com/public_html/Customer_Content/Installation_Pictures/HO_Scale/Life_Like/Proto_1000FM/proto_1000_fm.htm
These are a classic example where I would remove the circuit board and hard wire the decoder, and it's about as simple a hard-wire install as you can get because the various wires are all in phycial positions that makes it ovbious which wire goes were. These locos have that silly "cut these traces" board which just begs for trouble. Much easier to just remove it completely.
The P2K SD7's are similar. I have photos of one of those installs on my page, somewhere.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
No, they have no DCC plug. But that doesn't mean they aren't easy to add a decoder to. Just replace the existing circuit board with a decoder. Something like the NCE DA-SR would drop right in there.
http://www.crstrains.com/dcc_files/images/ebaf2a.jpg
That reminds me. I have an ABA set of those sitting around somewhere I need to get out of the box and see if they run, and convert, etc.
The SD7 would have been a Proto-2000 not the 1000 series.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/PROTO-1000-ERIE-BUILT-U-P-A-B-POWERED-704-A-B-UNION-PACIFIC-/121071139366?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item1c3066fa26
I have a set in storage & i cant remember if they are or not, since i bought them in 99- 2000ish timeframe i think they are ,i know the proto SD-7 that i bought in that smae timeframe are ,so any guesses ??