[jason101]

Hi all,

I'm back in the hobby after many years out, and I'm happy to admit I have no idea.

Since my local Borders bookstore had NO (ZERO) books on model railroading I'm slowly finding my own way along until Amazon delivers some books to help bring me up to speed.

I had a roco digital starter set, which has rapidly expanded.

I want to buy some new locos to run on the set - German ebay is confusing me a little:

Wechselstrom Loks - Alternating Current, Right ?

Would I be correct in Assuming these wont run on my system ?

Are these the trains with the middle pickups required ?

Gleichstrom Loks - Direct Current - Are these the ones I need to select from ???

Do I then need to make sure the loco's I buy have the "digital interface" or can any DC loco be converted ?

Im getting confused because many websites say DCC layouts are AC ? Yet there are many listings on ebay for DC loco's with DCC chips installed - so does this classify them as then AC ?

 

[Richard Johnson]

Hi

in the context of what you are looking at:

When they say AC they mean suitable for marklin 3 rail. This is what you don't want.

When they say DC they mean 2 rail DC. This is what you do want.

The DCC signal is a high frequency square wave not AC or DC. The decoder converts this to an effective form of DC for the motor.

Richard
DCCconcepts

 

[jason101]

Hi Richard, looks like your my default mentor ;-)

Can one (say someone like me) easily convert a DC loco to DCC - for example some of the HAGS I've been looking at online appear NOT to have a simply plug in chip ?

On a scale 1-10 how hard is the wiring and soldering for a novice ?