Combined DCS/Legacy Wiring Diagrams

All -

I'm brand new to the OGR Forum and am just returning to the hobby (3-rail O) after a 20 year hiatus. In that time along came DCS/Legacy and it's amazing to me the leap forward in technology and scale detail from the last time I ran a train around my Dad's ping pong table back in the early '90s (I was 14 at the time).

Now that I have the time/space/$$$ I'm re-educating myself in order to plan for a large-ish layout in what will be a finished basement. With that said, I'm really struggling on the electrical side of things. I'm fairly certain I want a dual Legacy/DCS (which means MTH equipment, am I correct?) setup. My request is this: can anyone share wiring diagrams of their layouts (or if they have a mock up of a simple one) to show me how a typical, modern track is wired up that can support both Lionel Legacy and MTH DCS trains and controls? I've already ordered The DCS O-Gauge Companion (hasn't arrived yet) but I wasn't sure if that would address the Lionel Legacy piece. I'm a visual person, so looking through a wiring diagram or a layout would be very helpful and interesting. If anyone has any available, I'd be grateful if I could take a look. One caveat: I don't have RR Track software so it'll have to be a .bmp or some type of picture or PDF file.

Also, if anyone has any links or suggestions for other reference material, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!

-Dan

1/15/142:10 PM

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Original Post

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RickOOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBER

In short, just wire your layout for DCS as recommended, then you just connect one wire from the legacy base to a common on the layout.

1/15/142:16 PM

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gunrunnerjohnOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBERDIGITAL SUBSCRIBER

What he said.

1/15/142:46 PM

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GudzyOGR Forum Member

Originally Posted by RickO:

In short, just wire your layout for DCS as recommended, then you just connect one wire from the legacy base to a common on the layout.

Using this method, can you operate DCS and Legacy equipment at the same time? Like I said, I'm a novice on the electrical piece of this. I would have thought that having both wired directly to the layout would cause interference between the two systems if they were both communicating to engines at the same time? Or is that handled with addresses for the engines? Thanks again!

1/15/143:48 PM

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RailRideOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBER

You can run both at the same time. The signal protocols and method of broadcast are different so they don't interfere with each other.

In fact, if you're adept at juggling remotes, you could hitch a Lionel to an MTH and run both together with the two remotes. (I did this with a single DCS remote with a TMCC command base hooked to my TIU).

---PCJ

1/15/143:58 PM

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RickOOGR Forum Member SUPPORTING MEMBER

Both systems use entirely different methods of communication so there is no interference between the two controls.

DCS uses the center rail, Legacy uses the outer rails. An MTH loco can not "see" the Legacy signal, and a Lionel loco cannot "see" the DCS signal.

DCS has "preferred" wiring style, Legacy does not which is why it is typically recommended that you wire your layout for DCS and then simply add Legacy to it.

Its all in Barrys book.

1/15/143:59 PM

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sinclairOGR Forum Member

The DCS manual that you can get from MTH's site shows how to connect the Lionel base on page 100. Just replace the TMCC base with the Legacy base.

1/15/144:01 PM

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GudzyOGR Forum Member

Thanks gents. All very useful information. Much appreciated.

1/16/1411:33 AM

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