AC Commander in Lionel F3

Just completed a TMCC Upgrade to a Lionel PW 2344 with an AC Commander and F3/F7 Railsounds.

Attached is a video slide show of the upgrade...   hope it helps!

Nice and neat. Two thumbs up.          j

Nicely done. What are the metal parts you used for the upright positioning of the AC commander and sound board and where do you get them?

Once the installation is complete, do you set it up as Cab 1 or legacy Cab 2?   

Also, what is the piece that is holding the battery and where do you get it or how did you make it? Thank you. 

Hi All

Thanks for compliments....

Parts supporting the AC Commander are the last two 1/4" standoffs that I had laying around, and 1/8" x 3/4" alum stock. Couldn't find any on ebay, but I'm sure they are available.

Just did another upgrade and had to make my own standoffs using 1/4" x 1" thick stock.

Battery clips I had and are available through ebay.

Electric RR upgrades are TMCC. Can be set up with a Cab 1 or Legacy Cab.

I use 1/16" aluminum plate and cut out properly sized pieces and bend them for custom mounts.

I am a complete neophyte.  For those 1/4 inch standoffs with end and side holes, do you have to make those yourself?

Do you have to drill "screw" threaded holes into the bottoms and just regular holes into the sides.  Sorry - just no experience here. 

michaelblock

Michael

It is sure a lot easier to use a pre-made square standoff if you can find them.  Here is a photo of how I made them using 1/4" x 1" Alum stock...  (Home Depot?)    1 1/4" would be better.   It is easiest to work with leaving the cutting till last.  Use lubricant for all operations.  I use 4-40 drill/tap/screws as readily available.

I enjoy creating my own mounts, so don't mind all work...  

Since I'm more interested in the "shortest distance between two points" method rather than all these convoluted steps, I sidestepped them when converting my non-TMCC-R/S equipped F-3s to TMCC-R/S equipped ones. Perhaps not the cheapest method, but certainly easier and quicker, which is worth something if you need to do other things with your time.

I find a Postwar Celebration or other F-3 set at a decent price, which has TMCC and R/S, electrocouplers, directional lighting, cab interior and figures, etc. already installed, and simply swap shells. The only additional step is to transfer the antennas, a simple task. The one procedure that requires a bit of time is mounting the speaker in the B unit. I haven't tried to mount it in the fuel tank, but will take a look at that if I do this again. Rather than that, I made a baffle and mounting system, and mounted the speaker in the roof of the B unit (and in one case, an A unit), with the speaker pointing out the roof vents. The volume control knob I stick out the back door window - just fits.

Lastly, I took the old chassis' and mounted the unused shells on them, and sold them. I have done these conversions to 3 MPC era F-3 sets.

Here is another option... Made with 1.5 x 1.5 x 1/8 alum angle...

Thank you very much.