Got mine today. The bad news is that nothing has changed as far as DCC-Readiness goes (same exact internal design as before). The good news is that the worms are now brass instead of plastic, so that should make at least a few people happy. -Mark
Yes, the flanges do appear to be lower profile than before. But since I've never had any problems running the older ones on code-55 it's not anything I've ever had to worry about myself. -Mark
Yes, apart from the aforementioned worm and wheels changes, everything else is the same as before. -Mark
Well, it's friendly insofar as if you hardwire a decoder into it and power it up you won't start a world-ending chain reaction.
Technically, almost anything which a person will willingly commit effort to, possibly including a few non-printable words, is DCC "friendly". The ties in my track, a warehouse model and some trees are probably also considered DCC "friendly".
Aye, what they said. "DCC Friendly" isn't really an official DCC designation that I'm aware of, but in my world I consider what Model Power and Bachmann provide as being "DCC Friendliness" (contacts specifically provided for wiring up a decoder and room for said decoder). Walthers' definition seems quite a bit broader than that (to the point of being meaningless, if you ask me). -Mark
FWIW, the box doesn't say anything about DCC one way or the other. I think Walthers would've been better off leaving that DCC Friendly nonsense out of their marketing spiel as well. -Mark'
What sort of DCC setups are the most friendly? I would venture to say it is "anything that does not involve tape, a soldering iron, or a risk of breaking the shell". By those standards, only a few are truly friendly.
My old Atlas C Liner is DCC friendly! If I decided to list on ebay Im gonna put that in the despription!!
Now, can we get the brass worms from Walthers, to upgrade older SW's? I know some Kato ones fit, but is their supply steady? Joe D
So the extra money we pay for the new SW's over the old ones is to pay for a couple of brass worm gears? I think I'll get a couple more NW2's.
Yeah, but just wait 6 months, and the Walther's units will have a firesale and be $30 a unit, while the Kato's are still $75