Atlas said when they made the Shays there was not way to make them DCC ready or equipped. That's been some time ago, hopefully that state of the art has progressed to the point now where at least a basic decoder can be installed.I have two Atlas Shays that need to be dcc. They are still waiting for me to do them. I just turned 67 and my hands failed me. Not to sure but i may have screwed the pooch on one of them. The jury is still out on that one yet. My question is why don't these folks sale there engines all dcc ready or dcc'ed from the factory. Shays are not even dcc ready. Knowing how to do it and doing it are two separate things when it comes to N scale. My way is not easy but the factories could have done it easy. No options here.