TCS Keep Alive DCC Decoders

Installing A DCC Decoder In A Poor Running Model Yields Surprising Results!

One of the advantages touted by DCC proponents is that it improves the performance of motors. So I decided to add a TCS Keep Alive Decoder to my poorest running model to see how it fares:

A Huntington Standard by Oriental Models.

It features a crappy open-frame motor and all brass gears ( usually alternating brass gears with plastic gears produce much better performance).

And wouldn't you know it, I was able to get decent performance out of it. In this short video I was able to run the car around the block with some realism:

Yes sir! Decent performance!

Dandy

Trafficky

Short Video: I Managed to get Four Cars Running Simultaneously on the Layout!

Just before this blog was started I purchased this MEW 1936 PCC. I became curious about it recently and wondered if it would be able to run on the layout. Looking it over I noticed it has a can motor and that it wouldn't take much to rewire it for overhead. So I gave it a go, and what do you know, it went! You'll see it in the video above.

Excited buy the sudden increase in traffic, I wondered what else from my collection I could convert to overhead...

Then I remembered I have this Huntington Standard from Overland, the second brass purchase I ever made, way back in the early days of construction of the layout. I had already wired it for overhead. But its open frame motor makes it a poor runner and requires more "juice" to get it to go. It barely makes the tight curves, but it works! You'll see this one in the video also, complaining about the curve.

Pretty fun to see some traffic on the layout now. Yes sir! Fun to see some traffic!

Dandy