The single largest factor in delaying a DCC purchase is my older roster: 4 Lifelike SD-9’s 2 Atlas GP-9’s 1 Kato F3 A/B set 1 Kato F7 A/B set 2 Kato F7’s 1 Lifelike SW-8 1 Bachmann ABBA set (don’t really care as these will be replaced by IM units) 1 Atlas VO-1000 (not old but funky frame) None of these are DCC ready which means they ALL have to be milled or have the frames replaced ( don’t know how to get the VO milled!). Now, if I send the frames out to be milled then I have to re-assemble the locomotives. This shouldn’t be that big a deal but several of these older locos run so well that I’m afraid when I put them back together they won’t run as well as they do now! One of the F7’s I took apart to clean hasn’t run as well since! Buying new Kato mechanisms would be expensive. At $50 each I would have to spend $300. I'm leaning heavily towards the Prodigy Advance system because of ease of use and nice price but it doesn't support DC locos. Any advice?
Espeeman: Have the frames milled and move on to DCC. I just finished milling Some Kato F-7's; hardwired some decoders in place and they and they run better than before with the DCC. Stay cool and run steam.....
