DCC and Japanese Modelling

[67016]

Hi all, I’m new to the forum but not new to model railways. I’ve only modelled UK OO gauge previously and have a good level of experience and knowledge.

 

I’ve recently developed a keen interest in modelling Japanese N gauge, and I have a couple of questions. It doesn’t seem like there is much DCC fitted N gauge stock available to buy (I might be completely wrong so do tell me if so!) If so, do all/most N gauge items come DCC ready? I’ve read that Kato is much more DCC friendly than Tomix, for example.

 

I’ve got my eye on the Tomix Mizukaze as my first purchase. Does it come DCC ready? If so, how many decoders does the 10 car set need and what sort would be suitable?

 

I’d be looking to use Kato Unitrack with their power droppers spliced into a DCC bus and run the lot from my Hornby Select. Is that feasible?

 

Many thanks in advance for any help/advice on any aspect of the above.

[Kanpai Keith]

Looks like we’re in a very similar boat! 👍🏻

[paolo]

Japan has little interest in DCC unfortunately.

Almost all of the latest KATO sets (made from 2005 onwards) are "DCC friendly" (if you search the forum, there's a topic with a list), meaning you can just drop in KATO decoders and you're good to go. KATO makes three types of DCC decoders (they're actually made by Digitrax). There's one for the motor car, one for the head and tail lights for the cab cars, and one for the interior lights.

No set comes with pre-installed DCC decoders.

 

If you go with Tomix (or any other Japanese brand), that's more complicated cause they have no DCC ready sets, so you'll need to make some modifications and soldering.

 

I have a DCC layout, and I have all KATO trains with one decoder in the motor car (KATO EM13), and one decoder each in the two cab cars (FL12). For the interior lighting, since you'd have to put one decoder (FR11) in each car (and those decoders are not so easy to find), I went with a custom solution.

 

So for your Mizukaze set, you' have to put at least three decoders, plus ten more (one for each car) if you want to control the interior lighting.

Also KATO has a Mizukaze set, 10-1570, which should be DCC friendly.

 

In my layout I use Unitrack with the Kato unijoiner feeders(24-818). The command station is a Digikeijs DR5000.

Everything runs smoothly.

 

Here you can find more details about DCC and Japanese trains:

http://www.sumidacrossing.org/ModelTrains/ModelTrainDCC/KatoDCCDecoders/

 

[67016]

14 minutes ago, paolo said:

Japan has little interest in DCC unfortunately.

Almost all of the latest KATO sets (made from 2005 onwards) are "DCC friendly" (if you search the forum, there's a topic with a list), meaning you can just drop in KATO decoders and you're good to go. KATO makes three types of DCC decoders (they're actually made by Digitrax). There's one for the motor car, one for the head and tail lights for the cab cars, and one for the interior lights.

No set comes with pre-installed DCC decoders.

 

If you go with Tomix (or any other Japanese brand), that's more complicated cause they have no DCC ready sets, so you'll need to make some modifications and soldering.

 

I have a DCC layout, and I have all KATO trains with one decoder in the motor car (KATO EM13), and one decoder each in the two cab cars (FL12). For the interior lighting, since you'd have to put one decoder (FR11) in each car (and those decoders are not so easy to find), I went with a custom solution.

 

So for your Mizukaze set, you' have to put at least three decoders, plus ten more (one for each car) if you want to control the interior lighting.

Also KATO has a Mizukaze set, 10-1570, which should be DCC friendly.

 

In my layout I use Unitrack with the Kato unijoiner feeders(24-818). The command station is a Digikeijs DR5000.

Everything runs smoothly.

 

Here you can find more details about DCC and Japanese trains:

http://www.sumidacrossing.org/ModelTrains/ModelTrainDCC/KatoDCCDecoders/

Thanks very much for the advice!

[gavino200]

2 hours ago, paolo said:

. For the interior lighting, since you'd have to put one decoder (FR11) in each car (and those decoders are not so easy to find), I went with a custom solution.

 

 

What's your custom solution @paolo? 

[paolo]

50 minutes ago, gavino200 said:

 

What's your custom solution @paolo? 

 

I was going to make a post about it, but to make it simple, I created a custom PCB with the LED's and some other components to make it work with the AC current of a DCC system.

The only downside is that they don't have a decoder, so they're always on

 

 

[gavino200]

1 hour ago, paolo said:

 

I was going to make a post about it, but to make it simple, I created a custom PCB with the LED's and some other components to make it work with the AC current of a DCC system.

The only downside is that they don't have a decoder, so they're always on

 

 

Yes, please make a post about it. There are quite a few people here who'd be interested. I wouldn't worry about having no decoder. Trains generally have the interior lights on during the day anyway. On my (currently dormant) layout I took @Kiha66's suggestion and put a simple on off switch for my yard, so I didn't have a row of parked trains glowing in the background. 

 

C1 is a capacitor, right? @chadbag championed a similar project here a while ago to make a non-flicker light strip. I'm wondering if you saw that.

 

 

 

[Kiran]

9 hours ago, 67016 said:

Hi all, I’m new to the forum but not new to model railways. I’ve only modelled UK OO gauge previously and have a good level of experience and knowledge.

 

I’ve recently developed a keen interest in modelling Japanese N gauge, and I have a couple of questions. It doesn’t seem like there is much DCC fitted N gauge stock available to buy (I might be completely wrong so do tell me if so!) If so, do all/most N gauge items come DCC ready? I’ve read that Kato is much more DCC friendly than Tomix, for example.

 

I’ve got my eye on the Tomix Mizukaze as my first purchase. Does it come DCC ready? If so, how many decoders does the 10 car set need and what sort would be suitable?

 

I’d be looking to use Kato Unitrack with their power droppers spliced into a DCC bus and run the lot from my Hornby Select. Is that feasible?

 

Many thanks in advance for any help/advice on any aspect of the above.

 

I have a temporary layout with Kato Unitrack and an NCE based DCC system. It all works pretty nicely. I try to stick to Kato trains because of the EM13 and FL12 decoders. Just ordered the 10-1570 Twilight Express. The EM13 and FL12 decoders are pretty easy to install. But I have some Tomix trains as well and the newer ones can be hard wired for DCC. I have 2 Tomix Shinkansens (500 & 700a) that have Loksound decoders in them.

[paolo]

10 hours ago, gavino200 said:

 

Yes, please make a post about it. There are quite a few people here who'd be interested. I wouldn't worry about having no decoder. Trains generally have the interior lights on during the day anyway. On my (currently dormant) layout I took @Kiha66's suggestion and put a simple on off switch for my yard, so I didn't have a row of parked trains glowing in the background. 

 

C1 is a capacitor, right? @chadbag championed a similar project here a while ago to make a non-flicker light strip. I'm wondering if you saw that.

 

 

 

 

I saw that post after I finished my project unfortunately!

Correct, C1 is a capacitor so you avoid the annoying flickering effect