SW9 and GP18 DCC out of the box ?

Biased turkey

Active Member
Apr 10, 2006
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Montreal, Canada Eh
I own a Life-like DC GP18 and was so impressed by the quality of that model that I want to purchase the SW9/1200 ( the TH&B looks great ).
Unfortunately ( I might be wrong here ) I didn't see any Life-like N scale GP18 or SW9 with a DCC decoder out of the box.
I found an article about installing a DCC decoder in a Life-like SW9 model
http://home.mindspring.com/~filker/NLLSW9/SW9_DCC.html
And I'm sure there is a similar one about the GP18, BUT I'm not confident enough to do the installation.
So, the question is:
Is there any N scale locomotive manufacturer that produces a GP18 or SW9 model with a factory installed DCC decoder ?
( I checked the Atlas website, but didn't find such a model )
Tia for any information.
 

GRSJr

New Member
Jun 29, 2004
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Raleigh, NC
home.att.net
Not to my knowledge. But you could hire an expert to do the installation for you.

By the way, all the "factory installed" DCC decoders I've tried leave a lot to be desired. They buzz badly and lack function. I've had to replace them with "drop-in" boards. So, I buy only DC versions now and replace the lighting boards with after-market decoder boards.