N-Scale Locomotive Encyclopedia (North American Prototypes)

Grade	Description
A	Looks and runs great. Smooth, quiet and accurate to the prototype. Worthy of any operational fleet. State of the art
B	Runs well enough, but not as smoothly or as quietly as an A. Minor visual drawbacks/prototypical inaccuracies. Good enough to operate until something better comes along
C	Has some performance flaw making it unworthy of operations- maybe it runs rough through curves, overly loud, too light, lousy puller, iffy pickup, jackrabbit stops and starts, etc. Looks toyish- oversized handrails, proportions out of scale, major prototypical inaccuracies, etc
D	Completely unsuited for model railroad operations. Runs poorly and/or barely looks like the prototype it professes to model
F	Complete piece of junk. Can't complete a simple loop without stalling or derailing. Looks like crap with coarse, oversized and/or molded on details. Prototype? What prototype?
I	Incomplete - I haven't been able to try one out yet

DCC-Readiness	Description
E - Equipped	Available with factory-installed decoder
SE - Sound Equipped	Available with factory-installed sound decoder
PNP - Plug'N'Play	Accepts a drop-in / plug-in decoder. No disassembly (apart from shell removal) required
R - Ready	Accepts a drop-in decoder. Some minor disassembly required
RD - Ready / Difficult	Accepts a drop-in decoder, but installation is more difficult (soldering or major disassembly required)
F - Friendly	No drop-in option available, but contacts are specifically provided for track power, motor control and lighting control (soldering required)
Blank	No specific provision for DCC - check decoder manufacturer's websites for installation ideas (EG, TCS, Digitrax, NCE, MRC, ESU, Soundtraxx