Legacy vs. TMCC for R-27

Not in my opinion.  I use TMCC and like it- reliable, and has all the features I want, maybe more than you want?

In your case, probably not.  Legacy really comes into play if you have a bunch of Legacy locomotives, then you would probably want to be able to take advantage of the additional Legacy features.

@West Side Joe posted:

I own only one O gauge item, the Lionel R-27 subway set. I purchased the TMCC controller, which gives me what I want, namely door control and the station announcements. The layout I am building for the R-27 will only run the one train.  I see that the Legacy 990 controller offers some added benefit such as easier door control, as well as some crew talk (which normally wouldn't be heard outside the train anyway), and individual addressing of trains when more than one is on the layout (which wouldn't be so in my case).

Given the circumstances, is there any reason any of you would offer for spending the $350 or so to upgrade to the Legacy controller?

Thanks in advance for your comments.

With Legacy, you have better control over the doors (you can use the touchpad to control them rather than be stuck with the keys to open/close them). You also have better control over the stops, you can scroll through them to find a specific stop instead of having to play them all. Plus, with legacy you can do a recording so you don't have to constantly press the buttons for it to play the announcements and the doors. I did a video on doing a recording with the R27 which can be found here. FWIW, I love mine

Yes, go Legacy, get more Legacy equipped diesels and steamers and simply have more fun. I have the R30 Legacy Set and it’s a crowd pleaser. TMCC is fine, but in my thoughts Legacy Control is finer. Good luck and Happy Railroading.

Matt, you say you can scroll through the station stop announcements with Legacy. In the R-27 user manual, it says you can do that by repeating the start - stop operation multiple times until you get to the desired station. Is that what you mean by "scrolling"?

@West Side Joe posted:

Matt, you say you can scroll through the station stop announcements with Legacy. In the R-27 user manual, it says you can do that by repeating the start - stop operation multiple times until you get to the desired station. Is that what you mean by "scrolling"?

Just press the next stop key then the announcement key to get the stop you want. Like for instance if you want to hear Times Sq -42nd St then directly after that Queensboro Plaza you would hit the three key till times Sq is played then press the three key until the Queensboro Plaza stop is announced. Hope that makes sense.

I think so. If I'm at "Times Square", and I want the next stop to be "Brighton Beach", I would press the next stop key until I get to "Brighton Beach".

So then when I start the train moving from "Times Square", and I "arrive" at the next stop, the announcement will say "Brighton Beach"?

@West Side Joe posted:

I think so. If I'm at "Times Square", and I want the next stop to be "Brighton Beach", I would press the next stop key until I get to "Brighton Beach".

So then when I start the train moving from "Times Square", and I "arrive" at the next stop, the announcement will say "Brighton Beach"?

Yes. I've only ran my set with Legacy so I don't know if what I described above is legacy specific, if it isn't my bad.

With TMCC, scrolling through the announcements as you describe isn't possible. There's no display on the control, for one thing. The only way to get to the desired stop is by actually repeating the stop - door open - door close - start moving sequence as many times as necessary to get to the desired station.

That scrolling capability in Legacy, plus the ability to do a recording, just might tip me in the Legacy direction.

@West Side Joe posted:

With TMCC, scrolling through the announcements as you describe isn't possible. There's no display on the control, for one thing. The only way to get to the desired stop is by actually repeating the stop - door open - door close - start moving sequence as many times as necessary to get to the desired station.

That scrolling capability in Legacy, plus the ability to do a recording, just might tip me in the Legacy direction.

Ah gotya. Just so you know, the recording on the Legacy isn't near as accurate as the auto mode from MTH however, its the closest we can get. It's nice to have to press one button to have it put on it's show once recorded.  

Wowee! Seems like not only would I have to buy the current #990 at about $350, but also the Legacy Powermaster (currently I have the TMCC Powermaster) at about $100 and also a 180W Powerhouse at about $100 (I have the 131W Powerhouse).

So to get the ability to scroll through station announcements and to open and close the doors with one touch, I am looking at spending $550.

(Sigh).

@West Side Joe posted:

Wowee! Seems like not only would I have to buy the current #990 at about $350, but also the Legacy Powermaster (currently I have the TMCC Powermaster) at about $100 and also a 180W Powerhouse at about $100 (I have the 131W Powerhouse).

So to get the ability to scroll through station announcements and to open and close the doors with one touch, I am looking at spending $550.

(Sigh).

Why do you need to replace your Brick? All you would need is the legacy set and to replace your PM with the Legacy PM.

Well, I don't know.  The Lionel catalog says to get the 180W Powerhouse.  If the 131W Powerhouse is good enough, OK, I'm down to $450.  Less painful, still a lot.

@West Side Joe posted:

Well, I don't know.  The Lionel catalog says to get the 180W Powerhouse.  If the 131W Powerhouse is good enough, OK, I'm down to $450.  Less painful, still a lot.

Well, I'd use what you have. The 135 is fine for that set.

I located a new #990 version 1.54 for less.  I believe I read elsewhere in the forums that I can upgrade the software to version 1.6 myself using a PC.  Is that correct?  My PC runs Windows 10.

@West Side Joe posted:

I located a new #990 version 1.54 for less.  I believe I read elsewhere in the forums that I can upgrade the software to version 1.6 myself using a PC.  Is that correct?  My PC runs Windows 10.

Yes. You can upgrade it yourself.

Thank you for your help.

OK, well, I bit the bullet.  I used an OGR Forum advertiser.  His prices were much better than what I found on Ebay.

Waiting for a new 2-wire Lockon, as my original TMCC Powermaster setup used the 6-22914 Powerhouse which has a connection for only a single wire from the PM to the track.

I also was momentarily flummoxed by the connection instructions for the Legacy base. None of the diagrams in the Legacy Control System manual actually show a combination Legacy PM and Legacy base connected together to the track.

I finally found a single line on page 10 of the Legacy PM manual (Step 1 of "Assigning a unique ENG or TR ID#...") that mentioned how to connect them together. I wonder if Lionel should make their manuals a little more explicit in this regard for those of us who only have a graduate engineering degree! 🤣

Well, Legacy is up and running, and despite the somewhat vague set up instructions, I'm enjoying it. The R.R.Speed button and the 200 step momentum make for very smooth starts and challenging stops to avoid overshooting the next stop. I feel like a rookie motorman learning how to drive the train. I'm getting better at not crashing into the track bumper! And the ability to fast forward to the desired next station stop announcement is what I was trying to achieve by transitioning to Legacy.

I'm still going to keep my TMCC set up just in case Legacy has a hiccup.

Now that you have Legacy installed, you might want to consider taking advantage of the upcoming holiday sales and get a small steamer or diesel engine to run on your layout or maybe one of the new LC+ 2.0 steam engines that can run off your Legacy controller. 

You've given me a cool idea: I have a second R27 subway, so when I set up my subway layout modules in a loop, I could run two subway trains, one behind the other, just like the prototype. I'd need the 993 expansion set, so two of us could run each train independently. And delay the train behind me due to passengers holding the doors!😆

Actually, you can switch between two trains with a single CAB2 remote, no need for a second remote.

I was thinking more like having each train controlled by a separate operator, but still on the same track. Then I think it would be best for each person to have their own control, right?

Well, yes, if you want two people controlling them.