Like so many questions, the immediate answer to this one likely is, “it depends”. “It depends” implies other questions. For example, are you a newcomer to the model railroading hobby, or are you an established railroad modeler? As in many hobbies, model railroading aficionados form a spectrum extending from those whose enthusiasm is directed toward the technical side of the gadgetry of the hobby to those who just want to play with the gadgets. Then, through the middle range of the spectrum are those who do some technical work and some play. The newcomer is likely to be totally on the play end of the spectrum. Where you see yourself on the technology-play spectrum will affect your answer to the title question. I probably lean more toward the play end of the spectrum, but, over the years, I have done my share of the technical side, too, not just in railroad modeling but in my other hobbies, too.
Each locomotive conversion path offers opportunities. Each path has financial considerations. The DIY path requires skills, tools, supplies, and patience while the LocoFi™-ed path obviates those requirements. The only patience needed for the LocoFi™-ed path is waiting for the product to be delivered. For my stage in life and in model railroading, I am likely to go down the LocoFi™-ed path for any future locomotive additions to my modelled rail line. This article offers some of my thoughts and experiences.
My DIY path to LocoFi™ control of a model locomotive started in the 2019-20 winter. I had returned to the model railroading hobby after a 20 year hiatus, and I learned of the LocoFi™ decoder board as I was researching DCC and other alternatives to the traditional DC locomotive speed and direction control that I had used during my 1990’s modeling. In another part of this forum, I describe my DIY path of installing a LocoFi™ decoder board in the Athearn Blue Box GP38-2 locomotive that I had used during my previous phase of modeling.
The DIY path in making the conversion was a little bumpy for me. Along the way, I needed to acquire a soldering station, fine-gauge solder wire, a “third hand” device, and Kapton tape. I probably should have invested in a wire stripper for very small wires, also. Each item updated tools/supplies that I had on hand but that were not up to the detail of the conversion task. While the acquisition of the new supplies and tools incurred some costs, I have used them all with other hobby and household tasks in the ensuing years. In the end, with the new tools and supplies in hand, with LocoFi’s online installation resources, i.e., the Forum and videos, and with patient mentoring by the LocoFi staff, I completed the DC to wifi conversion and got to the play end of the railroad modeler spectrum.
In the 2019-20 era, DIY conversions were one’s only option for migrating to Loco-Fi™ locomotive control. As the years passed, I can imagine that LocoFi received many inquiries about custom LocoFi™ decoder board installations. I know that I submitted such a question at one point along my DIY path.
Today, my house has only a small space for a model train layout, sadly, much less space than I had in the previous modeling phase. My baseboard today is approximately 48 in (1.25 m) by 75 in (1.90 m). I have a “rectangular” loop around the edge of the baseboard using 15 in (38 cm) radius corners, definitely a curve radius at the limit for my GP38-2 and too tight for longer locomotives and freight cars. A turnout from the outer loop provides access to sidings that serve a few trackside industries inside the loop.
The real life EMD GP38-2 was designed as a general-purpose mainline freight and switcher locomotive and was built from the early 1970’s until the mid-1980’s, according to the internet. Many GP38-2 units are still in service. I often see a GP38-2 moving cars around the web of tracks in an industrial area that I traverse in my daily routine. On my small layout, my GP38-2, therefore, is not prototypically out of place pulling a short “local” train around the outer loop or moving cars on the sidings to my industries.
After enjoying the LocoFi™ control of my one locomotive for a couple of years, I began thinking about obtaining a second locomotive in order to have two locomotives operating simultaneously. With my small layout, I wanted a locomotive with a wheelbase shorter than the GP38-2, nominally, a true switcher.
In early 2024, I found a used S-2 switcher at a train show. It had the road name that I wanted, and I purchased the item. It was an Athearn DC product, like my old GP38-2. I was confident that I had the tools, supplies, and experience to install the LocoFi™ decoder board in such a unit, even if my motivation to actually do the conversion was somewhat tepid. When I got the locomotive home, though, and took the shell off, I realized that there was just not enough room under the hood for installation of a decoder board, at least not enough room considering my position along the technology-play spectrum of model train hobbyists.
Later in 2024, LocoFi introduced an option to the DIY conversion path. The company calls the option LocoFi™-ed. Loco-Fi™-ed refers to specific products and to a custom LocoFi™ decoder board installation service. In one aspect of the product sense, Loco-Fi obtains new, boxed trainsets and converts the locomotives in the respective sets to operate under wifi control using the Loco-Fi™ decoder board. Available sets are advertised on the LocoFi website, and a customer orders a LocoFi™-ed set online from LocoFi just like ordering any of their other products.
In parallel to offering the LocoFi™-ed trainsets, LocoFi offers a few styles of locomotives that they have purchased and converted to wifi operation. With so many locomotives on the market, I can believe that once LocoFi announced the availability of certain LocoFi™-ed locomotives, the following question must have come up. “Do you offer an XXXX locomotive with the YYYY roadname?”. Fill in your own locomotive type and rail line.
This is where the installation service aspect of the Loco-Fi™-ed program comes in. If a customer has a specific locomotive from a specific retailer in mind, with the personal service for which the LocoFi folks are known, they will provide a quotation to the customer for acquiring the locomotive and making the conversion to LocoFi™ operation. If the customer accepts the quotation, the customer places an order online, and the modified locomotive shows up on the customer’s doorstep in due course. Not being a newcomer to the hobby, i.e., not needing a newcomer’s trainset, and not seeing a LocoFi™ ed locomotive offered on the LocoFi website such as I was looking for, I saw an opportunity in the service aspect of the Loco-Fi™-ed program to add s switcher locomotive to my layout. I would have the benefit of a custom installation completed by the LocoFi professionals, the service I had once inquired about.
The LocoFi folks explained to me how the custom installation service worked, and I started checking the online catalogs of the big-name model railroad retailers for a switcher with the roadname and color scheme that I wanted. Indeed, after a couple of months of occasional online shopping, an Athearn RTR EMD SW-1500 was offered, at an attractive sale price, no less, by one of the larger retailers. The key difference between the S-2 from the train show and the unit advertised online was that the SW-1500 was a modern DC/DCC ready unit, a key feature these days in an efficient conversion whether along the DIY path or the LocoFi™-ed path. In DC/DCC ready, the space provided under the locomotive shell for a DCC board can generally be just as easily used for a LocoFi™ decoder board.
I contacted LocoFi, and I was given a quotation and instructions for how to place the LocoFi™-ed order for the specific locomotive that I wanted. After I placed my order, LocoFi obtained the locomotive from the vendor, did the conversion, and now that SW-1500 switcher is running on my layout simultaneously with my 30 year old Athearn Blue Box GP38-2. That was easy. What might be hard in your case might be finding the XXXX, YYYY that you want to complement the era, locale, and rail line in your model.
Is the answer to the question at the top any more clear now? The answer still is “it depends”. However, now, you know to consider where you are on the technology-play spectrum of railroad modelers. One aid to assessing where you are on the spectrum is to watch the various decoder board videos on the LocoFi website. Assuming that you lean more toward the play end of the spectrum, as I do, the LocoFi™-ed approach for adding individual locomotives to a layout already LocoFi™ equipped would seem to offer an opportunity for relatively easy expansion of a model. For the established modeler using classic DC control, a LocoFi™-ed locomotive would seem to be an attractive option to a DIY conversion in making the jump to modern wifi control of locomotives on a layout.
Keep your position on the technology-play spectrum in mind, whichever path you choose.
Bob Lankston
Thank you Bob for the compliments. We strive to do our best make our customers happy.