Hardly any DCC equipped diesels on ebay?

[jerrytbirdsc]

With DCC being around for quite some time now, I'm suprised that there isn't more used locos with DCC already installed selling on ebay. Is it that people with DCC want to keep their stuff or that people wont buy used locos with DCC already installed because of the elctronics? Most stuff I see w/DCC is new stuff, or never ran used and there isn't much of this either.

Jerry

 

[UP2CSX]

Mostly because people who have switched to DCC are unloading their DC engines that are hard to convert to DC. In addition, DCC really hasn't been in general use on home layouts for more than three or four years at most. As usual, there are also many sellers of new equipment they picked up somewhere at a bargain price. I just did a search on e-bay ond there are over 700 HO locomotives that either have DCC or have a DCC plug, which means you can pop a decoder in with no soldering at cost of less than $25. An example of a DCC equipped locomotive at a reasonable price is http://cgi.ebay.com/HO-BY-BACHMANN-...3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66:2|65:1|39:1|240:1318.

 

[MGWSY]

Most locos are easy to install DCC and even if they have aboard with a plug I yank it as I have blown more then one decoder due to shorts on the boards. Now I just hardwire the decoder soldering all connections thus minimizing any problems in the future. The hardest locos to do are older brass ones but besides that anything is possible. I have done hundreds of installs and never had a complaint.

 

[NYW&B]

What I think a great many hobbyists fail to appreciated is that in spite of the hype DCC receives in the hobby press, it amounts to only a minor percentage of those HO locomotives currently in the hands of modelers. Of the longtime modelers I know, only around 1 in 5 have bothered to convert to DCC.

Likewise, with the highly limited runs of HO locomotives in recent years, not all that many are out there. The days when companies brought in eight or ten thousand units at a time are long gone and many complete runs for a given roadname number only a few hundred. Odds are that existing DC engines out number DCC examples more than 1:10 .

NYW&B

 

[GN.2-6-8-0]

Not all older brass are difficult to install decoders in the most important thing being Isolating the motor.
Also because brass steam locomotives tend to pick up current on one side of the drivers and the other side of the tender they tend to need further contact points, though I have two ,one a articulated that run just fine.

 

[MGWSY]

Not all older brass are difficult to install decoders in the most important thing being Isolating the motor.
Also because brass steam locomotives tend to pick up current on one side of the drivers and the other side of the tender they tend to need further contact points, though I have two ,one a articulated that run just fine.

The decoders aren’t hard to install as in isolating the motor same deal. Some problems are older brass where half the pickup is thru the frame and the other half through the drivers. The only issue is if the loco derails and shorts out as it enhances the possibility of blowing the decoder. I have installed many decoders in Overland Brass locos without any problems though.