These RDC-2s were some of the last trains I bought 20 years ago before I packed up the first layout. Kato released several versions of the Budd RDCs for several different rail lines, and because Alaska Railroad tends to be a bit rare in N Scale (at least compared to UP or some of the other lines) those were the ones that I picked up. Plus, I do like trains from places I’ve been, and I’ve been to Alaska many times although never ridden on the Alaska RR – yet… The said, I really wish I had the money at the time to pickup one or two of the Kobo Customs NYC M497 Jet Powered RDC.
I purchased these as a two car set, and like all Kato “green box” engines these are supposed to be DCC friendly. Digitrax makes the DN143K2 decoder specifically for Kato’s RDC’s but even Digitrax admits that installation is “somewhat challenging because of the model itself.” As much as I wanted to get these upgraded to DCC – that text right there scared me off…
Since I was sending the Eurostar out to Duford Model Works I figured that this was a good opportunity to get the RDCs worked on as well….
When I reached out to Kelley and told him that I wanted to the RDCs upgraded to DCC – he made the mistake of asking me “what I was thinking.” Even though I knew about the Digitrax decoder, I also knew that Kelley installs a lot of the LokSound Micro V5s – and that LokSound has a sound file for the Budd RDCs, so I tossed the idea out there – that I’d love it if he could get sound in them, to which he responded that he had no desire to try and put sound in an N Scale RDC. Knowing I was pushing my luck – I dropped the idea of sound and to be honest just getting these upgraded to DCC would have been great to me.
Kelley however pinged me after he got the RDCs – and told me he was willing to give sound a try… And thanks two him I have two DCC sound N Scale RDC-2s – and they’re really cool…
The decoder install is mostly hidden, unless you look really close and get in tight you don’t know it’s there, and where you can see it, I don’t think it’s particularly obvious as to what it is.
Overall, Kelley did a great job with these, and I’m thrilled to have them back on the layout. As a bonus – they’re not divas like the Eurostar!
