Hey Everyone!
First, allow me to apologize in advance for asking what may be a foolish question. After quite a bit of Googling and searching, though, I'm still feeling a bit confused.
First, here's my setup. I have an old school first gen Lionel TMCC box and remote. I have three isolated loops of track, each one connected to a separate "throttle" on my Postwar ZW (so three of the four are used). The ZW has voltage suppressors for each track, and modern breakers tied in. I know a lot of folks think running the ZW with modern engines is a little crazy, but I still have several conventional MTH PS1 engines that only run properly with the ZW's "pure sinewave," and I still enjoy running conventional engines on a regular basis. (I had a Z4000 I bought used, but it failed within two months of purchase. UGH.) I'd rather not ditch the ZW if I don't have to.
Anyway... Since getting the TMCC unit, I've only had it on the outermost loop, as I only have a couple of TMCC capable engines. The other day I finally bought a couple of Legacy engines that are in transit as I write this, and now I'm considering running TMCC on my inner two loops as well. Of course that bit of info is my purpose in this post, as I don't want to screw something up.
What, exactly, is the best way to connect a single TMCC unit to all three tracks? I'm thinking I can simply "jumper" the signal from TMCC across the common posts on the back of the controller that connect to the outside rails of my loops, correct?
I'm obviously no electrician, though, so I wanted to double check this. Would it cause any issues if I have TMCC on and one loop's throttle maxed out for TMMC operation while using variable voltage on another loop to run a conventional engine? (BTW, I like running my conventional engines with the old school throttle handles. I'm in a relatively small home office space and I'm not concerned about being able to run the conventional engines with a TMCC remote.)
Hopefully the above questions make sense. One another note, I'm finally stepping into the modern age and placed a deposit on a BASE3... It should hook up in the same manner as the TMCC unit I currently have, correct?
I appreciate any advice/input! (As well as criticism with my janky control setup, lol.)
