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DCC Ready or DC?

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Archive:
Originally posted by chessie8171 on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Aug 19, 2015

My layout is still in the bench work phase so I only own a few loco’s at this point. So looking at future purchases with plans to use a Railpro system should I stick to buying DCC ready units from now on? Or am I better to just buy DC only units? I gather from other post, units w/DCC and sound are not the way to go as you have to remove the factory installed decoder and speakers.

Archive:
Originally posted by William Brillinger on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Aug 19, 2015

Greetings Chessie8711 ??

DCC Ready will allow you to plug the Railpro Module directly into the locomotive, DC will require you to do some wiring to finish the install, but both are acceptable choices.

Buying locos with DCC installed is just wasting the extra money if a DCC ready version is available.

Cheers!
- Bill

Archive:
Originally posted by kpack05 on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Aug 19, 2015

Like Bill said DCC-ready is the easiest way to go.  Railpro modules plug right into Athearn DCC-ready locomotives, though on the smaller EMD units it may be difficult fitting the module on top of Athearn's DCC-ready board with the old RTR/BB motor they use.  Other brands like Kato are easy, but you will need a harness to convert from 9-pin to 8-pin. 

If you stick with DCC-ready locomotives I would at least remove the factory plastic clips that hold the wires to the board and solder them on.  Anything you can do to increase reliability always helps later on.

For myself it doesn't really matter if I get DCC-ready or straight DC.  Most of the time I remove all the factory electronics anyways and hardwire all my own electronics.  I do this to free up space for multiple speakers and all the wiring the comes with those and LEDs.  I just find that the factory boards take up way too much room and make sound installs difficult.

-Kevin

Archive:
Originally posted by chessie8171 on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Aug 19, 2015

Thanks Bill and Kevin,

So I gather from your other post you have quite a bit of experience with RailPro, so if you had it to do all over again would you still go that route? I felt since I'm starting from scratch I should pick an operating system before I start laying track. Doing a log of complicated wiring or programmng isn't my favorite aspect of the hobby so from what I've read here and around the web it sounds like Railpro is the way to go. Plus I really hope mu consisting is as easy as Ring's website makes it look.

Craig

Archive:
Originally posted by William Brillinger on the RailPro Users Yahoo! Group on Aug 19, 2015

Craig,

When I came back to the hobby several years ago, I had no investment in DCC to consider so RailPro was a no-brainer for me.

I love my RailPro and I would not look back.
And yes, consisting is as easy as it sounds, and it works as advertised.

- Bill

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