question about DCC in H.O.

Very early Atlas locomotives had a jumper plug to select DC or DCC. Most HO locomotives now sense whether there is a DCC signal on the track and, if not, default to DC. Note that your DC supply should be just that, DC; not a pulse power or PWM supply. Fast rise times can fool the microprocessor on the DCC board. 

Lou N

DCC locos require a DCC power/control system to use the DCC options and features.   Most of the new ones will run on straight
DC if they are still set at factory defaults.    It should not damage the decoders in theory.    It is worse to run a straight DC loco on a DCC power system.

The potential problem when running DCC decoders in analog mode (DC) isn't so much with running on DC, it has to do with potential loss of control (runaways) when running in DCC mode with the analog mode enabled. The decoder can accidentally shift to DC mode during a momentary short or power surge, which causes the decoder to continue running the loco because it sees the power on the track, but no control signal. Most of the time, this can be avoided by keeping analog mode disabled, and enabling it only for those times when you need to run on a DC. The down side to this is that most of the time, changing this setting requires programming the decoder, which requires a DCC system to accomplish. You'll either need to bring your system along or just remember to do the programming/re-programming before you travel to the DC layout.

Bill in FtL

Thanks for the replies! I won't be using DCC, but running at least one engine with DCC installed in it on DC. I don't plan on buying DCC any time soon if at all, just another expense to try justifying with the wife.

I am putting up a small H.O. layout with some H.O. race cars(Aurora T-Jets and AFX) from the 1960's & 70's.

Lee Fritz