DCC'ing the Northern 4-8-4

[unseenthings]

I did a search and was a bit confused, so hear me out. I was browsing craigslist and came across a used ez empire builder set for $25, missing tender and two cars. I figured it was worth it for the track and remaining cars, and could find a tender on ebay. I already had northern 4-8-4 (old style), and been happy with that loco, good strong puller. I'm thinking of making the leap to DCC, and was wondering if it was worth converting the northern to DCC, or get rid of all my locos and start over. Does the DCC have to go on the loco itself or can it go in the tender? I see lots of tenders with electrical pickups for cheap on ebay, and since I need to buy one anyway... I read a thread on here about it being a pain to fit the dcc to the loco, was that just because there wasn't a electric pick up tender?
How does the new DCC J class compare?
Thanks

[ABC]

The J class is better than the AT&SF northern. You can't fit a decoder inside most N scale steam locomotives, but if they have a good size tender with some free space you can fit either an N or Z scale decoder inside. You'll need a means to transfer everything from the tender to the loco (electrically).