ERR Command Upgrade

I have upgraded a couple of AC motored locomotives with the ERR AC Commander.  My most recent one was the Lionel Phantom that I added a second AC motor to and then used the AC Commander.  That upgrade made the operation much smoother, and I get really nice low speed performance, better than I expected.  I did an older Conrail SD40 with dual AC motors and also got very decent running.  I've done a couple of steamers in the past for other folks, I was happy with the operation, but I didn't really have a lot of experience with them in conventional mode before the operation.

I don't know if every locomotive will be the same, but some will have a major improvement.

For any DC motored locomotives, you can use the ERR Cruise Commander and get really smooth operation, it will be night and day from the conventional behavior.  You won't recognize the engine after the upgrade.

My advice would be to pick one and give it a try, I think you may be pleasantly surprised.

Depending on how many PW engines you want to upgrade, you might consider getting one of the 135 watt Powermasters. These provide Pulse Width Modulated (PWM) AC to the track much the same as an AC Commander does directly to the motor in the engine.

This will give you a good idea how an AC Commander will operate your engines. Not a direct comparison due to track resistance but close.

They can be found on most of the auction sites for less than cost of one upgrade kit and won't require any modification to your engine.

If you like the effect then you can jump in with both feet.

Pete

I'd get the Legacy PowerMaster if I were going to do that experiment.  You get the finer power steps and better circuit protection to name a few benefits.  The old PowerMaster only has 32 speed steps and won't really give you the smoothness of the AC commander's 100 steps, I can attest to this first hand.