WELCOME to the forum David!
i bought two of the bachmann DCC on board FT's, was the best $35 i spent. dont get me wrong, they are NO atlas, PK2 or Kato,ect., but for $35, they run GREAT!
they are real heavy, not as smooth as atlas or kato, but seem to run plenty good enough.
are they my best or favorite engines? NO WAY, but they aren't the worst engines have bought either. i bought a bachmann spectrum FM H16-44, i know spectrum's are supposed to be good, but it ran like crap, kept the shell replaced the frame and motor with an atlas RS3. BOTTOM LINE, for a DCC beginner engine, or if you want to add cheep motive power, i say its good for that.
again, for $35, i say its well worth it, and if it broke in a year or two, it wouldn't be an expensive loss. oh yea, the detailing on it wasn't bad either. hope this helps, good luck,
-Dean
these engines have the most BASIC DCC you can get, NO FRILLS. honestly, i bought them for two reasons:1= a DCC engine for just a stinking $35, had to try it out. 2=i had an athearn DC F7 that i wanted to convert to DCC, i use soundtraxx decoders, but don't run this engine alot, so instead of converting it to DCC with sound i put the athearn F7 shell on the bachmann DCC frame and motor. it worked out great and was a cheep conversion.
