If you upgraded an older Lionel steam locomotive to PS3, would it speed match and allow you to run a MU (lashup) with other PS2/3 locos? Or is it impossible to get two different older Lionel locomotives to run together due to differences in gearing? If so, then how does MTH make it so that all of their locomotives are able to be operated together? Do they all have the same gearing or is it some secret sauce in the DCS?
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Yes, no, maybe.
MTH manages it with software if there are different gear ratios, that's the beauty of being in control of how the tach input is interpreted. I guess you can call this MTH's "secret sauce". You can tweak many non-MTH locomotives to run at MTH scale speeds (or within a couple of percent) by using a custom tach strip on the flywheel. Each strip added or subtracted changes the speed calibration around 4% near the default stripe count of 24. Obviously, as you take away or add stripes, the percentage of speed variation for each stripe will change as the ratio of your custom count to the MTH default count of 24 stripes.
There have also been discussions about modifying the internal speed control constants in sound files, but I have yet to try that for myself.
What do you mean by "older?" "Old" is a relative term. I won't say it's impossible, but older Lionel locos without can motors aren't readily convertible.
Thank you GRJ for the response, that is the answer I was looking for.
RJR, I am thinking late 90's to early 2000's when Lionel and K-line started to make well-detailed scale and semi-scale steam locomotives that may or may not have TMCC. You do make a good point though that it would be difficult to upgrade locomotives without a flywheel.
No flywheel and PS2/3 ain't happening. 
However, most of the can motor equipped locomotives of that era did have flywheels, so that's not a major issue.
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