B&O EM-1

Joe,

      My top 3 repair people on the forum are Alex M, Gunrunnerjohn, Mike Regan. I think Mike uses Mikado as his user name. Do a advanced search under usernames and find their email addresses. I personally use Alex M for all my repairs. Mike repaired my Lindbergh engine when he was heading Lionel’s repair department and GRJ is well know on the forum he has not repaired any of my engines but has fixed my friends engines with outstanding results.

JohnB

Just a point of clarification, I believe the correct spelling of Mike's last name is Reagan.

I believe in order to run a TMCC locomotive with a Legacy controller. You have yo use a Power Master Bridge, because the TMCC is not the same frequency as the Legacy. I run TMCC, but I bought a brand new #990 Legacy control system. And a TPC 400, the cables and a Power Master Bridge, but have not tried them yet.

The #996 PowerMaster Bridge provides a bridge between the LEGACY Control System
transmitting at 2.4 GHz and the TrainMaster Command Control system which transmits
at 27 MHz. The PowerMaster Bridge provides this bridge by accepting a serial stream of data
from the LEGACY Control System and transmitting the data on 27 MHz. Using the LEGACY
Control System with the PowerMaster Bridge and PowerMaster (PM-1) module(s), you are now
able to use the LEGACY Control System CAB-2 remote controller to control both Command
and conventional trains.

make sure the loco is set to TMCC on the legacy cabs menu rather than Legacy. I don't have a bridge and mine work fine with all my TMCC locos (most of my Locos) I only have a couple of Legacy locos.

How is your system hooked up ? Do you use a TPC and a powerhouse with your Legacy base.

@Secarider posted:

I believe in order to run a TMCC locomotive with a Legacy controller. You have yo use a Power Master Bridge, because the TMCC is not the same frequency as the Legacy. I run TMCC, but I bought a brand new #990 Legacy control system. And a TPC 400, the cables and a Power Master Bridge, but have not tried them yet.

This is not the case.  When you add a TMCC loco to the remote, you need to select "TMCC" as the control method.  All Legacy and TMCC engines listen for the 455 kHz track frequency.

Secarider,

Your detail on the different RF frequencies is correct, but as far as I know the PowerMaster Bridge only has one purpose: It is for use only to allow the original, first generation Lionel PM-1 PowerMaster to be controlled by a Cab-2/Base-2.

As such it cannot not come into play here with this poster's problem because he's stated that his issue is with command control, and not conventional operation (whether using a PowerMaster or not).  In the end he's already getting power to the track (because the loco's lights light up).

Mike

@PH1975 posted:

Just a point of clarification, I believe the correct spelling of Mike's last name is Reagan.

PH1975,

      Thanks for the assist, I was not sure and did not have a chance to look it up. I was more concerned about Mike’s user ID as that is a easy way of searching.

JohnB

@Secarider posted:

I believe in order to run a TMCC locomotive with a Legacy controller. You have yo use a Power Master Bridge,

Not true at all!  All you need to run TMCC locomotives with the Legacy command system is the Legacy command system.  You need to set the engine type to something besides Legacy, that's the only thing.

The Legacy PowerMaster Bridge is good for one thing only.  If you have older TMCC PowerMasters, the PM Bridge will allow you to control them from the Legacy system.

If running it TMCC mode doesn't work try disconnecting your legacy from that track and see if it runs in conventional.

Thank you to all who responded.Just to clarify,I have other Lionel engines that work fine with the Legacy remote.This particular engine has operated fine in the past with the Legacy remote.It is also in the remote as a TMCC engine not Legacy.I disconnected the Legacy remote and the engine does start up and operate as a conventional engine.So I am thinking there is some sort of problem with a board or maybe the antenna?

If that's the case it sounds like it's time for a trip to a repair tech.  The only other thing that I can think of that you could try without opening the locomotive, would be to cycle the Run/Pgm switch a few times to make sure there isn't some cruft causing it to be stuck in program mode, but I think that's probably unlikely.

Now that I think about it though, even with it stuck in program mode, it should come up in conventional mode with the Legacy system disconnected.

The fact that program doesn't work maybe suggests the RUN/PGM switch is broken.  The switch being closed puts the locomotive in program mode, so if it's not making contact, you may simply not be using the right TMCC ID to address it.  Without the ability to program, you'd have to hit on the right address to wake it up in command mode.

Should still come up in conventional though, no?

Yep, the PGM/RUN switch is just a reverse lockout in conventional mode.

Could try 01 and see if it somehow went back to the factory settings

Gunnerjohn, Are you the owner of Hennings trains or affiliated with them in some fashion?

Joe, I just do repairs and upgrades for Henning's Trains.  They also sell my enhancement products through their store and on the web.

Thanks John for the reply.I tried to flick the Run/Prog. switch several times to see if that may work but it did not.This train had not been run for 2-3 years but prior to that it worked fine

Time to pop the hood and look around.

When you run it in conventional does the locomotive cycle F/N/R with the PRG/RUN switch in RUN? Will it stay locked in one direction in Conventional with the switch in PRG? If so the switch could be ok. Do you have another TMCC locomotive you can try swapping the radio board with to see if that cures the issue of the locomotive not running in TMCC?

@gunrunnerjohn posted:

The fact that program doesn't work maybe suggests the RUN/PGM switch is broken.  The switch being closed puts the locomotive in program mode, so if it's not making contact, you may simply not be using the right TMCC ID to address it.  Without the ability to program, you'd have to hit on the right address to wake it up in command mode.

Been there.

01 whistle, 02 whistle, 03 whistle, ... 97 whistle, 98 whistle, 99 whistle.

Or you might try part of the road number (76 or 17) as a lucky guess.  If this is the case where the engine is not being addressed correctly.  On the other hand, a person still should be able to do a program change to the engine's ID as stated above.  Hmm.