SW9 and GP18 DCC out of the box ?

Biased turkey

Active Member
Apr 10, 2006
912
0
36
76
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.
 
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.