Adding DCC to Bachmann locos

[ACY]

ACY, my condolences.  A dozen decoders total spread across some 15 hobby shops is indeed a sad situation.  The one hobby shop in our small city (population about 250,000) keeps a much larger supply of decoders and systems in several different brands.

The Akron metro area has about 1 million people depending on what you count, while the Youngstown metro area has 750,000 people. That is only 7*10^-6 decoders per capita. I am lucky in that I am good friends with the owner of the Boardman Hobby Center, who will special order items only for me and one other person as far as I know. No other hobby shop will special order a DCC system. Some will order the decoders, but you are obligated to buy them and have to pay a portion of the cost in advance to make sure you actually buy them. The one hobby shop has much better prices than the others, but they mostly stock Bachmann and Williams, and most people I know still refer to them as "Botchmann" and do not realize they have excellent products. Most of my other non-chain local hobby shops will not stock much Bachmann because people still perceive them to be what they formerly were and not what they currently are. The hobby shops with the larger selections are a lot more expensive for some reason. Some do give club members discounts of like 10 or 15% though.

Back on topic, if it were me, I would buy the DCC loco if the price difference was minimal or if I was not confident in my abilities to install a decoder. If I had plans to mu with other non-matched locos, had a need for speed tables and bemf, or wanted sound then I'd buy a decoder separately.

[Doneldon]

ACY-

Just for the record, you can use superscripts on this board.: 7x10^-6. It's the button with "sup" written in small letters near the top of the button.
                                                                                                -- D

[Pacific Northern]

Quite frankly, I would prefer that Bachmann was still marketing their Spectrum Steam line as either DCC ready or Sound and DCC.

As I purchased a number of Bachmann steamers when the DCC ready was the norm I quickly added DCC decoders to them. Later when Bachmann started to add their DCC decoders I also bought a number of these. As I ran the steamers it was apparent that those locomotives where I had added DCC decoders ran better than the Bachmann  DCC on Board Spectrum steam locomotives.

Over time I have replaced the majority of the Bachmann DCC decoders and in the proces collected quite a number of Bachmann DCC decoders. I will sometime in the future attempt to sell those decoders. Thankfully, the price of DCC decoders has dropped dramatically from when they first became popular.

I do not regret purchasing the Bachmann Spectrum steam engines I have as I consider them to be the best of what is currently available for a reasonable price.

I will not pay the premium in price that the Proto steam engines are selling for. I have a few Proto Steamers and they are not worth the extra cost.

Other steamers on my roster are BLI. I would not consider them to be any better than my Spectrums