DCC and "Seasoned" Brass Locomotives
#31
Steamtrains Wrote:Oh boy......I just clicked on the sound link.....Why did I have to go do that..?? Now I'm gonna have to go looking for some sound decoders.... Sad

Question...Will the locos do that "breathing" sound when stopped..?? That's the sweetest sound in the world.... Goldth

On DCC they will. It can be slightly annoying after a while at a 20 stall roundhouse with each one loaded with a sound-equipped loco, but yeah they sit there and sizzle, periodically the air pump comes on for a few pumps, etc. Cylinder cocks open when you start to move and then close - it's all there.

--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad of the 1950's in HO

Visit my web site to see layout progress and other information:
http://www.readingeastpenn.com
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#32
Yeah! All the cool stuff I remember from when I was a little kid ... it was like they were alive! You could hear the fire in the firebbox, the pumps would turn on and off, small bursts of steam would escape from time to time ... it was, oh, so cool!
biL

Lehigh Susquehanna & Western 

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
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#33
Granted though the original poster of that thread on MRR has a bunch of old 60's and 70's AHM and Athearn locos. Most of the Athearns from back then are way out of scale, for one thing. If they have the old black motors or the big giant ones, they draw too much power for decoders and need to be remotored - and why spend $30 for a good motor when you cna get a Proto Geep for that on ebay?
I had a lot of old stuff fromt he 60's and 70's myself - mostly Tyco with some AHM. I actually did get rid of all but a few pieces that had sentimental value, those are still in their boxes, I doubt I will ever convert them to Kadee couplers and bother with DCC, for the most part they truly AREN'T worth it. And I don;t even want to think how I could put DCC into that Stephenson's Rocket model.
Brass is a completely different animal. Even today very little is available as an alernative to somemodels - it's more than just nostalgia, if you want a particular model and it was only ever made in brass 40 years ago, well, that's what you have to work with. The extra effort is worth it - it's that or have nothing. An old Athearn GP 7 with rubber band drive - if it hold some special value because it was your first loco or something, sure. But if it's just part of a collection you can do better with a more modern version with correct scale width hoods, a better mechanism, and nice handrails. Not to mention drop in DCC.

--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad of the 1950's in HO

Visit my web site to see layout progress and other information:
http://www.readingeastpenn.com
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#34
Thanks, Randy! It helps to hear that maybe I'm not nuts to want to keep with my plan and use the older brass ... where else will you find a Reading I5c Consolidation with a canopy over the tender? I have no old, sentimental locomotives. Just some older brass locomotives. Early on, I developed a plan. I've been continuing to develop that plan for the last 35+ years.

My first locomotive after the Varney F3 (from a Kix cereal box-top offer when I was seven) was a Gem Reading I10sa Consolidation in 1973, then an RDG A5a, then another, then a B8a ... and it continued. The most recent addition is an OMI Reading D-Class American. There are now 15 Wooten fireboxed Camelbacks on the roster! They have not been easy to accumulate! You don't find one in every hobby shop glass case!

And they will all get the DCC treatment ... somehow!
biL

Lehigh Susquehanna & Western 

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
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#35
I converted an old Tyco GP-20 of mid-60's vintage to DCC....It was the first loco Santa brought me, so I just had to have it in running condition... Goldth
"Running" is a bit of a stretch....It was never much in that department, and still isn't...DCC and all.... Wallbang
Gus (LC&P).
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