Model Railway Forum

I have a dozen or so Hornby and Bachmann DCC ready steam locos, as far as I am aware all 8 pin.

Its a long time since I bought decoders, what would people reccomend?

2 of the Hornby Princess Class have glowing fireboxes, all others simply need a forward/back feature.

Am I best to buy the Hornby decoders or is there a better (and cheaper) alternative?

Cheers

For cheap and cheerful have a look at Hatton’s own brand. Rails of Sheffield also have their own brand but I have yet to try them.

Don't worry about the glowing firebox in the Princess, it runs straight from the pickups.

Goingdownslow wrote: ↑Sun Jul 25, 2021 12:16 am Don't worry about the glowing firebox in the Princess, it runs straight from the pickups.

On DCC that means it will always be lit. Controlling by a Function output allows it to be turned Off when the loco is stabled.

My recommendation is either from Lenz or Zimo. Best decoders I've come across to date.

If you are looking for cheap then lots of people like LaisDCC decoders. I have tried three of them and they have all failed, the latest just two days ago. The last decoder I bought was a Zimo and I am very happy with that, so I am going to replace the LaisDCC with a Zimo and only use Zimo from now on.

I use Frizinghall Models and an 8 pin Zimo decoder from them is about the same price as an own brand from Hattons or Rails of Sheffield.

https://www.modelrailshop.co.uk/c/985/Z ... -Exclusive

C37 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 24, 2021 10:13 pm ... all others simply need a forward/back feature.

There are other functions you can have, such as setting maximum speed, acceleration, deceleration, and of course sound.

Never been tempted to buy LaisDCC, had plenty of Hattons in the past but now prefer to spend a little more, in my decoder box I have a mixture of Gaugemaster, Lokpilot and TTS decoders. Even a TTS decoder works fine without the sound if you are not bothered but it's there if you want to use it.

One recent experience I fitted a Hattons 8 pin direct to a Hornby Fowler 4P to which the loco stalled over a couple of sections of track inc one point, this doesn't happen with any other loco or a Gaugemaster decoder of the same type fitted to the same loco. The Hattons decoder works fine in my test bed chassis (Heljan Class 17 or 16 or 15, the one that had the slow running issues) so why is it an issue in the 4P whereas the Gaugemaster isn't.

Some Zimo decoders are next on my list to keep as spares.

Just fitted a Zimo MX600 to my Bachmann Fairburn 2-6-4T and I am hoping for great things from it!

darkscot wrote: ↑Mon Jul 26, 2021 2:29 pm Just fitted a Zimo MX600 to my Bachmann Fairburn 2-6-4T and I am hoping for great things from it!

It should even make the Tea for you
Hopefully you will see the loco run very well

Well it runs very well on the straight Brian. The acceleration and deceleration is a bit enthusiastic, but plenty of time to tweak the relevant CVs. Unfortunately performance off the straight and narrow is less than acceptable, so I feel obliged to start a new thread on that. Not making the tea is less of an issue.