Electric RR TMCC upgrades

I upgraded a Williams 773 hudson with the ERR kit.

Pretty easy to do.  The only difficult task was fitting the cruise commander board, sound board, speaker and all the wiring into the tender.  Other than that, the wiring is simple (just read the directions) and doesn't take all that long.  Everything seems to work OK.  I've had a few issues that I think were caused by tiny bits of corrosion at the screw terminals that hold the wires to the board.  I pulled all the wires, redid it and everything seems to work fine now.

The sounds aren't bad either.  I ended up drilling a bunch of tiny holes in the coal pile and mounted the speaker face up because it was too quiet coming out the bottom.

Doesn't take an electrician to figure out the directions, works well and I'm happy.  I'd recommend it.

I've probably installed about a dozen of them so far, and they usually go pretty easily.  I spend more time doing custom lighting and the like that I do getting the TMCC and sound working.

I recommend the ERR Cruise Commander for any DC locomotives, having cruise is great, and it's not that much more than the DC Commander.

Thanks for getting back to me SanteFee158 and gunnerjohn.

I will attempt the Electric RR Cruise Command and Railsounds upgrades myself. I emailed Ken at Electric RR and he said they are so backed up on upgrade installations that they are not accepting orders at this time. He suggested I contact one of their dealers.

But I have decided to try the upgrades myself. I'll call Electric RR tomorrow and place an order for the kits I require.

I'll upgrade my Lionel Harry Potter Hogwarts Express first. If I like it I will do a few more.

Can Electrc RR's Cruise Commander be added to a Long Island Railroad commuter train? I am questioning it because the interior of the cabin is visible and I cannot imagine that there is space for the Cruise commander boards in the LIRR engine.

As long as it has DC motors and you can fit it in somewhere.  The CC circuit board is pretty big (actually it's two stacked on top of each other).  If you blank out some of the windows somehow you could probably pull it off.

I've upgraded 6 of my engines to TMCC.  I was using TAS boards and smoke units, and when they were no longer available I changed to ERR.

I have a 736 working very well with the AC TAS boards. 

I put DC motors in a C/NW Trainmaster 8056 and have ERR Cruise Commander with a TAS smoke unit.I'm really happy with the performance of that engine.

Adding cruise control from ERR is not very difficult.  The only special tool you might need is a small screwdriver to tighten the wires down, but most of us have one already. As others have mentioned, the only hard part is fitting the components in the space.  You might want to pay attention to keeping the wiring neat as possible.  I always have to be careful as I put the shell back on not to pinch wires.  

Be aware of the need to sometimes help reception with ground planes.

Good luck.

Hey Neil,

I was under the impression that the Cruise Commander unit goes into the Harry Potter steam engine and the Railsounds (including the speaker) will go into the tender. If that is the case, then everything should fit just fine. If you look at the first post in this thread, I included a You Tube video of an Electric RR upgraded harry Potter engine and tender. The person who made the video made it work (his video has a text description on YouTube.com that states he used the ERR upgrade kits).

I will call Electric RR on Thursday afternoon.

Just wanted to say good luck. That sounds like fun. I'm interested in doing this too and all my locos are already TMCC. I have a triple lash up of Wabash F3s from the PWC series set. The lead unit is powered- but no sound , Bunit is unpowered with sound, which is outstanding-great horn, last a unit is unpowered-no sounds. and I'm dying to put sound in the quiet units. They are already TMCC couplers and lights so it should be a good starter project. Then I may try a rehab project. Hope Harry Potter enjoys his custom ride.   

My kit for the Polar Express arrived today, I`m anxious to get home and ride !!

After riding I send the results !

Leandro...

Hey there Leandro,

Congratulations! Please tell us exactly which Electric RR kits and parts you ordered so you can upgrade your Polar Express to TMCC. Did you get the Railsounds upgrade too?

As you may know, I am going to upgrade my Harry Potter Hogwarts Express engine to TMCC. After doing all the research, I decided I will send it out to have the work done by an Electric RR authorized dealer. For me to do it requires buying more tools and supplies -- and I could potentially mess it all up. I am also entering my busy season at work.

Keep us posted on your project and let us know how you like the upgrade once you've completed it and run your TMCC-coverted Poler Express.

Thanks,

Terrence

PS - Speaking of Polar Express, I am running my Polar Railroad diesel right now!

Terrence

After various contacts with Ken, he stated the following:

Mini Commander 2 Version 3 and Railsounds 4 Generic Steam

I live in Brazil, I have to do the assembly, but seeing the manual did not find on the web
complicated.

Once finished I will make a video with the outcome, I hope everything right!

Leandro ...

I heard back from Ken at Electric RR regarding the TMCC upgrade for the Harry Potter engine. He said the Cruise Commander boards will NOT fit n the Hogwarts Express engine, but there is an alternative

You later indicated you added cars to go in the consist. I had the cruise commander installed for my SMR Tahoe.  The electronics are in the tender and the box car behind the tender using a tether.  There are many ways to skin this cat. Because I run multiple consists on the same loop, not having cruise control was a non starter.

I've done several steamers with all the stuff in the tender.  Since you're going to have a tether anyway, why not just install it all in the tender?

I'm also a diehard cruise fan, the only stuff I have without cruise control is the AC motored stuff.  I'm working on converting a couple to DC motors and I'll upgrade to cruise control.

I'm with you gunrunnerjohn,

I truly want my Harry Potter engine to have cruise control so I can run it as fairly low and consistent speeds.

If I get this correctly, Mini Commander adds TMCC, but has no cruise control? 

So are you suggesting that I could put the Electric RR Cruise Commander electronics into the Harry Potter tender -- and could I STILL FIT the Railsounds (with speaker) in there as well? If it's too tight I would consider Cruise Commander without Railsounds. I'd rather have Cruise Control over Railsounds (but truthfully, I would like BOTH).

The Mini Commander does not have cruise, only the Cruise Commander.

I don't have that tender to look at, but I managed to stuff the AC Commander and the RailSounds Commander with a speaker into a small PW plastic tender.  The AC Commander is the same size as the Cruise Commander.

Doesn't the HP Tender already have sound, so it has a speaker mounted on the bottom?  Remember, if you put the TMCC in the locomotive, you have to consider what to do with the antenna, for factory installations, the handrails are insulated for the antennas.  For diecast tenders, it's pretty easy to float the whole tender shell and use it as an antenna, that's what I normally do.

The cruise commander is 2.75" long, 1.25" high, and 1.15" tall.  the RailSounds Commander is 1.95" long, 1.25" wide, and .95" tall.  End to end they end up taking about 5" of space, which should fit in most tenders, even with the speaker sticking up from the bottom.  On one, I mounted a platform right above the speaker to stick the two components to.

Thank for the info gunrunnerjohn.

The Harry Potter Hogwarts Express only has an air whistle in the tender. If I can fit all of the Electric RR components crammed into the HP tender (Cruise and Railsounds) that would be awesome. I will ask one of the Electric RR authorized dealers about that. 

Is the tether a single wire or a bunch of them? If the tether between the tender and engine look neat, then it would not be a factor for me.

Since the Harry Potter tender is plastic, the antenna wire could easily be hot glued under the roof (plastic coal). I a post somewhere by a guy who added ERR's Railsounds to his HP tender that the sound upgrade was not load enough with the speaker facing down (even with small drill holes made into the bottom. So he faced the speaker up and drilled very small holes in the top of the tender. The guy said the holes were not visible because of the "texure" of the plastic coal.

Obviously, the whistle will have to go to make room.   Take the shell off and measure the space you have, we should be able to figure it out for you.  You will probably need a number of wires from the locomotive.  First off, you need track power and common.  Next, you need two wires for the motor.  You'll also want a wire for the smoke unit and another for the headlight.  Sounds like a six wire tether to me.   The tether can be reasonably neat, I try to cut a spot in the rear of the locomotive to fit the connector so it's just the wire between the locomotive and the tender.  For this locomotive, wiring that will support 2 amps should be sufficient, I doubt you'll pull more than that.  I also try to have the tender supply power in parallel with the track power from the locomotive if I can to minimize dropouts over poor track sections.

Can one add an ERR board for engine control and NOT have the sound board?

Yes. Electric RR sells the TMCC / Cruise Commander kit and the Railsounds kit separately.

Terrence !

Successfully! 

Personal after two nights it was ready! Everything works perfectly, the Kit is perfect is all you will need, wonderful!

It's nice to see the Polar Express is controlled by the Legacy, my son went crazy for it is his passion!!!

I can not say it was not labor intensive but I am electronic technician did not think hard now for anyone who knows nothing about electronics or do not have skills in assembling and disassembling recommend sending to the Electric RR, as I am in Brazil would be very expensive freight shipping and return so I decided to risk it!

The manual is perfect if followed step by step can not go wrong.

Now I want to change the unit of smoke can someone help me which one to buy and where to buy, I will send an email to Ken to see if it can indicate, but if any of you know I appreciate it.

Soon I will make a video and send the link!

Leandro ...

Wow-that's awesome! Congrats. I'm dying to give this a try as a project (Wabash-not Hogwart) and you just gave me some encouragement. Can't wait for the video. For the price of 2 nights you did it yourself. That's more fun anyway.

What exactly do you mean "change the unit of smoke", are you thinking of replacing the smoke unit?  I'd try getting the one that's already in there working better.  You can also wire the smoke unit to the ERR board and turn it on and off.

Yes, I want change the unit of smoke to unit a fan !

I'm guessing the big issue will be fitting the fan driven unit in.  I've never done this, but I'd post this in a new thread in the 3-rail O-gauge Trains forum for wider exposure, folks may miss it here.  It's not really a TMCC issue, right.

Hi, Guys !!

I`m sending the video of the Polar Express with TMCC, by Kit Eletric RR.

I hope you enjoy !

Leandro...

Looks like you fit the RailSounds Commander in, good job!