Lionel base 3 and MTH TIU

You will need to purchase a LCS SER2 and a PDI cable from Lionel  as well as the MTH Serial Cable.

Fair warning, this only give you the ability to run Legacy engines (in TMCC mode) and TMCC engines from the DCS remote.  You WILL NOT be able to control DCS engines from the Lionel remotes.  If you have the MTH WiFi module and the MTH App you can run Legacy engines in Legacy mode from the App only.

Of course you will have to connect the TIU up to the track and transformer per the MTH instructions.

This topic was in the 3-rail scale forum.  I moved it to the proper forum based on the subject of the topic.

@MartyE I do not use remotes at all. I have a base 3. This allows me to use my tablet or phone, which I have a table mounted to the layout. I honestly have no desire to use remotes, but at the moment I can only run my MTH Burlington via the transformer and printout of specials functions, etc. That is why I bougt the DCS to be able to control MTH engines that I purchase in the future without having to be tether to the transformer. I am primarily a Lionel guy, but MTH offers similar locomotives at slightly reduced cost and sometimes better sound boards. I am a new train guy and have no desire for older models. I like technology. Just my own personal choice. My wife has a pristine 1950's Sante Fe set and used to like the older trains,but she is seeing that she likes the new ones more too. So, again, I just bought the MTH dcs (arriving Wed) for the few (or many) locomotives in the future that I purchase from MTH. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to provide all the information that you have!!!! Check out my little mobile layout. It is 80"x80" O45 curves 2 lines. It sits on a 1000lb capacity folding banquet table and I got wheels to go on the legs for mobility as I use the wall for my main job (an actor 😁) to do selftape auditions at home. Below are some videos of my layout.

https://youtu.be/foPB6yz-Pwc?si=nJtIRQBSbIakHTIv

https://youtu.be/l13mHBBD68M?si=HMk-L8J0GMkQ5Db2

https://youtu.be/l13mHBBD68M?si=7C5JkdQCXh5X1pf2

https://youtu.be/pKAdvSkLaSc?feature=shared

https://youtu.be/e9S76OoEZ1Q?feature=shared

The way I understand it, the purpose of the connection is for MTH's TIU to control the less complex TMCC locomotives. DCS sends instructions to the Lionel bases; Not the other way around.

@Stone Rhino posted:

The way I understand it, the purpose of the connection is for MTH's TIU to control the less complex TMCC locomotives. DCS sends instructions to the Lionel bases; Not the other way around.

With the MTH App the MTH TIU passes Legacy signals to the Base3 and will operate 95% if not more of Legacy Engine features from the DCS App.  The Lionel App cannot control DCS engines. 

@Stone Rhino posted:

The way I understand it, the purpose of the connection is for MTH's TIU to control the less complex TMCC locomotives.

The TIU (and WIU with DCS App) can also send Legacy commands to legacy engines and control Lionchief RF & Bluetooth engines through the BASE3. We tested this at our club and it works well. Our DCS App users currently run all of their Lionel engines this way. We've had a few minor incidents with the CAB3, and we want to wait a bit for Lionel to work out some of the bugs with the CAB3 app.