Jim - thanks for pointing that out.  My original (careless instinct) was also to include removing the decoder which would have elminated any concern with damaging it due to incorrect wiring but I would have had a problem to deal with regarding the lights.  I'm glad you brought this point to my attention so I would not have mude such an error.

That sounds like a plan.  Greatly appreciate the advice.  We've only been with the hobby since Christmas but have put a lot of time into it and received a ton of enjoyment out of it.

Thanks again,
Steve

Tim,
It does not appear the decoder was designed on this loco to be easily removed but instead an integral part of the loco. 
There are no sockets for the decoder but instead six wires soldered directly to the board.  Four are for the contacts from the trucks and the other two go from the board to the motor.

The parts diagram only shows the decoder board without any details and no jumpers.  My Kato loco has an 8-pin socket board with a jumper so in comparing the two, I can follow what you are saying when looking at the Kato but not the Bachmann.

Careless instinct is telling me to remove the four wires coming from the trucks and reconnect them to the motor leads to bypass the decoder but in doing that I would also disable the lights which are connected to the decoder board.  Those could be rewired with a resistor in between the contacts from the trucks but that sounds like I would be making it too difficult than what it should be.

Any thoughts of what I may be overlooking?

Thanks,
Steve

My son and I have a DC layout and recently purchased a Bachmann loco that was DCC equippped and compatible with conventional DC powered layouts.  I did not see anything on the instructions regarding steps to take to make it DC compatible.  It runs but is not smooth at low speeds and actually requires a relatively high voltage (over 6 volts) to get it moving.  We also have an Athrean and a Kato locos that operate very smoothly and are much more responsive at lower voltages.  Is there anything that I need to do with the DCC connections on the Bachmann loco to make it perform better on the DC layout?