2 Railing Lionel Legacy Locomotives

I may be wrong, but I would have thought that with the Liondrive trucks on these locomotives that it should be fairly straightforward, although it may prove a technical challenge. Provided that you are staying with AC power of course. If you are wishing to switch to DC, then it's a different matter entirely.

As the trucks can be easily removed, you should be able limit any work needed to the trucks themselves. Fitting an insulated wheelset and new power pickup to replace the centre rail rollers should be all that is needed in theory. 

Good luck. 

That's the theory I have also....I have a feeling there's more to it though.  Yes, I'm staying w/ AC.  I run on AC 2 rail DCS now.

I am in the middle of 2- railing an FEF, and that is straightforward.  But I am not familiar with the Diesel trucks.  One consideration is how to pick up power from the insulated wheelsets.  Normally you want all insulated wheelsets on the same side of the locomotive to prevent insulation headaches.  When I am in a hurry, I simply take a lead out the back of the locomotive and use a freight car for pickup.

The elegant solution is spring-loaded pickups that press a plunger against the tread of the insulated wheel.  We have great success with that technique at the museum, although the plunger presses on the back side of the wheel on our MTH units.

I believe NWSL make a kit for this, or supply wheels for this conversion.      Stephen     (cTr...Choose the Right)

I will probably be 2 railing some Legacy engines at some point this year.

If you want to run 2 rail AC with Legacy then I would take the axles out of your trucks, measure them with a set of digital calipers and call NWSL. That way you can verify that you are getting exactly what you need. Once you get the new wheel sets assembled and installed the only thing left to do is to fabricate a power pickup from the insulated side and run it to the screw that held in the center roller. You should be fully functional with 2 rail Legacy at that point. Of course pilots/handrails/couplers still need to be addressed.

That's how I understand it anyway. I haven't attempted it as I am still working on a few TMCC engines. It is basically the same thing that Lionel does with their American Flyer S gauge offerings.

I wish they would address the 2 rail O scale crowd at some point. Until they do I'll be going this route for the Lionel engines that I want.

Good luck.

There is no "turning down" the wheels.  They are powdered metal and will only destroy any turning bits you have in the process.  If you can use fine scale wheels (.115 tread width) you can get them from Protocraft.   Otherwise It's NWSL.

At least the ES44s have removable axles.  The latest SD70ACes have blind axles and that makes removing them really annoying.

 I have an older Lionel engine with six axles. It won't make a single lap without derailing. I have not worked on it to see why. I shelved it. I would take a close look at the trucks geometry to make sure this will work. At least, consider using larger flanges to help and get ready to modify the trucks free swiveling.