Decoder Selection for Athearn Genesis Locos

[Mike Walsh]

What is a good decoder for the Athearn locos? I noticed that the light boards seem to look like NCE mockups, for analog.

I would like to go ahead and put decoders in these, but would like to think about putting sound in these someday, so affordability would be a plus here.

BTW, the locos are an Athearn Gensis SD75m, another is a SD75I

Thanks in Advancee
Mike

[Mike Roque]

What is a good decoder for the Athearn locos?

It depends on the loco...

I noticed that the light boards seem to look like NCE mockups, for analog.

Actually, NCE (and others) make their decoders to be a direct replacement for manufacturer boards, not the other way around.

I would like to go ahead and put decoders in these, but would like to think about putting sound in these someday, so affordability would be a plus here. BTW, the locos are an Athearn Gensis SD75m, another is a SD75I

It looks like you can use an NCE DA-SR or Digitrax DH163A0 decoder. If you end up putting sound in it later, you can either add a sound-only add-on decoder or just replace the decoder with a sound/motor decoder.