Aristo Craft Train Engineer

You do realize that to use this system, each locomotive has to have the receiver, right?

The TE I'm talking about is the older unit that doesn't require receivers in the locos.  It controls the power to the rails therefore any train on that line.  The Revolution of course as you indicate requires the receivers in each loco.  I have that system as well.  I've been reading and it seems there is a difference in AC and DC equipment and therefore the TE will not work with the Lionel system.

MG,

If your talking about the AristoCraft,  Basic Train Engineer system & Crest 55460

10 Amp. power supply and IF your Lionel train will operate on the PWC DC output, just hook it up to your track and play with your trains.

If your speaking of the TE that the Revolution replaced, probably best to sell them & purchase an appropriate O scale control system.

 Dave

Thanks Dave. I found this information on another site a few minutes ago.

"One known incompatibility is between PWC and Lionel Railsounds. It is a fact that running Railsounds on PWC will burn up the Railsounds unit in a very short time."

So, I guess I need to look at the Lionel System down the road and not chance using the Aristo TE.  Such is life! lol

If this was the old system used for HO, then no.  I have one and it has a DC output.

I did run a couple of O scale engines with mine, but the only electronics inside the engines were the DC can motors.

You CAN run Lionel engines with DCS (the full DCS system that is) in either conventional mode or, if you have a command base, in Command mode.

MG

drop me an email at the email address in my profile.

Dave

For what it's worth, I have the old system and used it for my HO scale stuff.  The instructions specifically say "DC" only.

Do you have the DCS commander or the full DCS system?  Is any of your Lionel engines TMCC or Legacy equipped?

If you do and they are, then you can run them in command mode using the MTH DCS unit (you will need either the Legacy or TMCC command base and special serial cable that interconnects between the two).  You just add them as TMCC engines in the DCS remote and you can control them all using that one remote.  If they are Legacy engines then you can still do it that way with full TMCC-specific commands but would need to also have the Legacy remote to access the full-fledged Legacy features.

If they're conventional you can still control them with the DCS remote by using the variable channels on the DCS TIU.  This will give you the equivalent of having wireless control over your transformer voltage output to the tracks.

Thanks John,

They are conventional.  I do have the commander.  I hooked it up to the Lionel track to try it...the train ran at top speed and almost detrailed! lol   Guess I need to spring for the full DCS system at some point down the line.  For now however, will run with the transformer.  Thanks again for the information. 

The basic DCS remote commander (sometimes it's unofficially called DCS lite) that comes in most MTH starter sets nowadays has no provision to vary track voltage (not it's function) so any non ProtoSound 2.0/3.0 locomotives will see that full voltage and take off like a rocket.  With the full blown DCS it offers a far greater realm of flexibility and functionality.

Yep, it was a rocket to say the least! lol  I'm learning. 

MG;

Just to be clear here, the Full DCS system can control conventional trains with the 2 variable channels of the TIU. The other 2 fixed channels are like the DCSRC in that they pass full power to the rails all the time.

Each TIU has 2 Fixed and 2 variable channels, the Variable channels can be switched to fixed mode as well. They can be switched back and forth between fixed and variable with the remote at any time.