First Test Of DCC With A F40PH 2016 ONP

After I got the track all wired last night, I had to do a test with DCC. When I first laid down the track I had done a test with DC, but this was going to be the first with DCC and my new decoder in the engine.

When I made my initial track purchase, I added the KATO 2016 Operation North Pole Christmas Train to my order, along with a DCC decoder from TCS (model K5D7). I grew up right next to the old C&NW West Line which then became the Metra West Line, so seeing and riding the Bi-Level passenger cars on an every day basis, I knew I had to have these for my layout.

KATO 2016 Operation North Pole Christmas Train

TCS K5D7

A few days ago I installed the DCC decoder and now it was time for the inital test with DCC power. I took a glance at the manual for my NCE Power Cab in advance, so I knew what I had to do in order to program the decoder to a 4 digit address. It is recommended to leave the 3 digit address at “3” and program the 4 digit address to match the engine number on the model, so that is what I did.

Here is a short video of the initial test run.

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Well the last couple of days I have really been giving our USPS lady a workout, packages and packages arriving for my layout. I added another diesel freight locomotive to the roster with a KATO Chicago & North Western #928 SD40. This model I had purchased used through a Facebook Group and already equipped with DCC. The following is borrowed from Don’s Depot . 928 was built in September 1966, #32099, FN 7912-8, as CGW 408. It became C&NW 928 in 1968. It was retired on September 25, 1987 and sold to Washington Corporation in November 1989. It was rebuilt for Corporate Leasing Inc as 3001. It then became MRL 3001 and was later renumbered 220. It was later transferred to I&M Rail Link as 220 in 1997 and sold as Iowa Chicago & Eastern 220 in July 2002. It was retired in February 2007 and scrapped by Jabco Industrial in March 2007.

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