How do you know a loco is DCC ready?

Hi
I am referring to a hornby Fowler tank 2-6-4

Hornby have a colour coded little box beside each illustration in their catalouge, on their free sheets and trade sheets.

You will see a little Blue box with the letters DCC in it by an illustration, this is for DCC Ready locos, DCC ready locos have a socket for fitting a Decoder but haven't got a decoder fitted.

Locos with a little Red box with the letters DCC in have a decoder fitted to them and are ready to run under DCC control.

Locos without Decoder sockets don't have either synbol. If you Hornby loco was made before the Hornby DCC era then the chances are it isn't DCC ready or hasn't got DCC, HOWEVER someone may have fitted a decoder after they bought the loco so it is always best to take a peek inside the loco to make sure. If you see a small circuit board with 8 or 21 wires running from it and Orange and Grey wires running to the motor and Black and Red wires running to the pickup system then your loco has a decoder fitted for DCC operation.