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    help identify this loco

    Athearn is a U28C - I couldn't see the shell in the first photo. The other one is still a Rail Power Products CW40-8 shell on an Overland drive. Andy
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    What's in your wallet^W roster?

    The Superfleet: A bit outdated. It's tough to get a group shot. Andy
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    help identify this loco

    I know the top one is Athearn by the bottom of the trucks and the 4 holes for the motor mounts. Some Proto 2000 locos also have the same motor mount holes, but Proto never made a U30C. The drive on the bottom loco is clearly OMI, but the body is a dash 8 - I said dash 9 earlier. RPP made...
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    Need Athearn Parts

    Athearn never made a 2-8-0, not even in the before time..... is it a 2-8-2? If it's Athearn and it's a 2-8-0, you might need to order up a trailing truck too.:) Andy
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    help identify this loco

    Top is an Athearn U30C. Bottom is a Rail Power Dash 8-40CW shell with an Overland drive. Andy
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    DCC, DC, and Maybe BS

    Perhaps HIS customers have given up DCC. I know people who attempted to buy a DCC system from a dealer that knew absolutely nothing about it, and without any support gave up on it. But more and more dealers do know something of it these days, although many of the ones who do are specialists in...
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    "POLL" What DCC System do you prefer?

    Interesting how this poll is skewed. It shows the Digitrax Super Chief as #1, but because they are split up into different systems within the brand, it creates the impression Digitrax is more popular. Actually if you add all of the systems up, NCE leads Digitrax 8 to 7 at this moment. Andy
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    "POLL" What DCC System do you prefer?

    NCE Andy:)
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    NCE Power Pro or Digitrax Super Chief??

    This is true of the NCE PowerCab starter system. The regular Pro system you can move tethered throttles at any time. At this moment my radio throttle has powered itself off to save battery... the train is still running. When I turn the throttle back on, it will remember where everything is...
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    SD40 and SD40-2

    The SD40 is 65'8" long, the SD40-2 is 68'10" long. Most of this is in the rear porch, the front porch I believe is the same as an SD40. Which gives the SD40-2 it's famous asymmetry. One of the reasons it's longer is to accommodate the HT-C trucks which replaced Flexicoils as the standards...
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    NCE Power Pro or Digitrax Super Chief??

    I forgot about the PowerCab ammeter function. But I wouldn't want to try the hard stall thing anyway with a decoder in the loop. The only loco I have that will stall before it slips is a Spectrum N&W J... the first Spectrum run from about 2000(?). I gutted and rewired the whole thing, and...
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    Athearn Engine mods?

    One of the problems with a question like this is that there are multiple causes for noise in Athearn drives, and for every cause there are about 20 home remedies, some work better than others. Treating the wrong symptom can be a major waste of time. The current crop of Athearn RTR (not...
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    Digitrax DH163 help

    If both locos are otherwise the same, but one has a 163 or 123 decoder and the other has an older Digitrax xx2 decoder, they will not match. The xx3 will run much slower unless you disable the silent mode by setting CV9=255. This will cause your xx3 to behave a lot more like an xx2... if...
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    Digitrax DH163 help

    Assuming you are using a 4-digit address, set CV29 to 34. If the loco runs the wrong direction, set CV29 to 35. Or reverse the motor leads (orange and gray). Here's something you won't find in the book. If your DH163 loco runs only half the speed of other locos you have, set CV9=255...
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    NCE Power Pro or Digitrax Super Chief??

    Is there any way to do this under DCC? I know it would require isolating the stretch of track - or I could use my bench system. But I don't think I could just stick a meter in series with the track leads as I could with DC. I have some older Proto locos that I suspect of pulling a lot of...
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    NCE Power Pro or Digitrax Super Chief??

    I didn't know that... my mistake. The DT400 is the most important thing Digitrax ever did. It *IS* far more intuitive and in fact, if you can use an NCE hammerhead, a DT400 will feel somewhat familiar. Even for programming. Lots of things get to be an order of magnitude more difficult...
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    NCE Power Pro or Digitrax Super Chief??

    That's the best endorsement of the NCE system I've read yet. I can say the same of mine. I can also say that I haven't looked at the owners manual of my car very often. I used it to look up the oil and oil filter type, and find out how to set the @#^%# clock. But I've never had to use the...
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    NCE Power Pro or Digitrax Super Chief??

    I'm sure there's a story there, I'd like to hear it some day from the source. I want to mention again, I used to own a Digitrax radio Chief and had both a DT400R and DT100R throttle. I taught myself to do the basic things with it, even though I really didn't think I'd keep it for the long...
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    NCE Power Pro or Digitrax Super Chief??

    I haven't used DecoderPro yet, but the reason I want it isn't so much to guide me through programming but to have a way to retain all my locos' decoder settings on the computer. Right now most of my decoders have pretty straight up settings and programming is very quick. But on units where...
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    NCE Power Pro or Digitrax Super Chief??

    Availability of local support and knowledge may be the most important thing of all. Cincinnati has largely been a Digitrax town, but this is changing now especially since NCE introduced an entry level system. Andy




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