# Vintage Arnold Rapido Track and use with DCC



## fossilboy47 (Feb 18, 2021)

I have a large amount of Vintage Arnold Rapido track, including many turnouts. Most of this came from my father's old DC layouts. I also have 20+ DC locomotives (vintage 1970s-1990s), including 2 articulateds (a Con-Cor/Rivarossi 4-8-8-4 Big Boy and a 4-6-6-4 Challenger). I would like to consider building a DCC layout; however I am retired and living on a limited fixed income. Does anyone know whether Arnold Rapido track can be used for DCC operations. Do the turnouts need to be modified? Also, does anyone know if my two Con-Cor/Rivarossi articulated locomotives can be converted to DCC? If the answer to either of these questions is 'No', then I will probably have to build a layout the old-fashioned way with DC.
I appreciate any and all responses to these two critical questions.


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## Mixed Freight (Aug 31, 2019)

As far as track goes, if you can run regular DC on it, then you can run DCC on it. That being said, some manufacturer's turnouts may be a little more problematic with DCC at times than other manufacturers. Hopefully someone with Arnold Rapido turnout experience can weigh in on their turnouts and DCC ease of operations.

I have worked on quite a few N-scale locos over the years, both my own and for my local hobby shop. Mostly diesels, though. And installed decoders in a bunch of 'em, but mostly diesels, and from the late 90's and later. In my experience, most of the vintage locos from the 70's to the 90's don't run that good on DC to start with, and therefore aren't worth the effort or expense to put decoders in them. There are some exceptions of course, and in the case of your Big Boy and Challenger, if memory serves, these were some good running locos and worthy of installing DCC in them.

Hope this helps for now.
Paul.


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## traction fan (Oct 5, 2014)

fossilboy47 said:


> I have a large amount of Vintage Arnold Rapido track, including many turnouts. Most of this came from my father's old DC layouts. I also have 20+ DC locomotives (vintage 1970s-1990s), including 2 articulateds (a Con-Cor/Rivarossi 4-8-8-4 Big Boy and a 4-6-6-4 Challenger). I would like to consider building a DCC layout; however I am retired and living on a limited fixed income. Does anyone know whether Arnold Rapido track can be used for DCC operations. Do the turnouts need to be modified? Also, does anyone know if my two Con-Cor/Rivarossi articulated locomotives can be converted to DCC? If the answer to either of these questions is 'No', then I will probably have to build a layout the old-fashioned way with DC.
> I appreciate any and all responses to these two critical questions.


fossilboy47;

Why do you want to use DCC? Not that there's anything wrong with DCC, but since you have DC equipment, and are short of money, maybe you could save money by continuing to use DC?
The advantages of DCC over DC come into play when you want to run more than one train at a time. To do that with traditional DC control, requires a lot more wiring, a control panel full of toggle switches, and insulated blocks of track. DCC lets you run two, or more, trains with no special wiring, no panel of toggle switches, and no insulated blocks of track. DCC also lets you have sound from the locomotives, but that requires a more expensive DCC decoder with sound, and a speaker, both installed inside the locomotive, or tender.

I'm not sure what metal was used in the rails of Arnold Rapido track. It might have been steel, or perhaps nickel-silver. Try sticking a magnet on one of the rails. If the magnet sticks, then its steel rail track, and my normal advice would be to junk it and replace it with modern nickel-silver flex track. However, you say you have more old track than money, so that may not be an option for you. If the magnet won't stick to the rail then it's probably nickel-silver, and fine to use.
I don't think any brass rail track was made in N-scale, though it was once common in HO-scale. You can tell by the gold color of the rail. Nickel-silver is best, Brass second, but needs more frequent cleaning than nickel-silver. Steel is the worst. It rusts, and needs very frequent cleaning.

On the turnouts, I don't have any specifics on Arnold Rapido turnouts. My guess would be that they are similar to Atlas "Snap Switch" turnouts, which are not good, but can be modified to work reasonably well. The file below "Improving Atlas turnouts" explains the problems and how to fix them. Turnouts made for DC controlled model railroads are mostly usable  on a DCC controlled layout, but some may cause short circuits and temporarily shut down the DCC system.
I suggest that you try running a DCC locomotive through your Arnold Rapido turnouts, and see how that works. There are turnouts made today with the DCC friendly/compatible configuration built-in. They are designed to prevent a short circuit between the point and stock rails of the turnout. This is a nice feature, but not absolutely essential. Your present turnouts are not going to harm a DCC system, though they may shut it down temporarily. The DCC system can't harm your turnouts either, so go ahead and try.
A good simple DCC system is the NCE Powercab. I use it, and recommend it. It is easy to hook up (two wires ) easy to program, and easy to use. Other excellent brands are Digitrax, and MRC Prodigy. I don't recommend the Bachmann EZ-command system.
The files below have lots of information on model railroad topics.

Traction Fan 🙂


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## prrfan (Dec 19, 2014)

Fossilboy: (Love that username!) Regarding steel track - I had a large HO layout some years back that I built with a combination of all three types of track. Stuff I’d gathered up over the years.
I cleaned all the track at regular intervals, every few weeks or so, and found that the steel didn’t pose any greater problems than the brass or N/S.

Yes, it absolutely will rust but the critical area for power pickup is the railhead, not the sides. We sometimes paint the sides a rust color, so nature can do that for you.
I know some will say the foot of the rail where your rail joiners attach may rust and lose contact but that was not my experience. I had that layout up for 5 years.

There’s no question N/S is best but if you have steel and you’re on a fixed income (I can definitely relate to that) it should be ok. Can’t hurt to try it and see.


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## prrfan (Dec 19, 2014)

Found this regarding Arnold track. Apparently they had a unique railhead design. And it was steel.


The Birth of N Scale: Arnold


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