Lionel Sensor Car

Hi John,

I just got my first sensor car.  It does what it is suppose to do and works well with my older Legacy and TMCC locomotives.  Do you have to re-program it each and every time you change to another locomotive?  In other words can you run a locomotive under a different ID# which has the sensor car tied to it?

How can I save the information in my Cab One legacy remote?  The directions seem confusing.  I appreciate any help.  Thanks.

Well, if you want it to indicate what it's connected to, you would have to reprogram it to match the locomotive.  OTOH, I guess you can just program it as "Sensor Car #1" and have it report that way, but I haven't actually tried that.  It would be reporting incorrect information for the unmatched locomotive.  Much of the value of the sensor car is being able to have it report location to the LCS system.

Try fooling around with it and see if a generic name works for you, you won't hurt anything.

I bought some REA sensor cars and changed the shells to various road name same type of reefers. I put them behind non IR locos of the same road name that way.

cjack posted:

I bought some REA sensor cars and changed the shells to various road name same type of reefers. 

Chuck, I have two of the REA cars but they are the wrong era for my layout, and want to change the shells.  Which ones did you use that will fit without too much modification? Thanks.

You can have it run behind any engine with any ID but I suspect it could get confusing when another engine is triggered to either make a sound or trigger a recording.

CAPPilot posted:

cjack posted:

I bought some REA sensor cars and changed the shells to various road name same type of reefers. 

Chuck, I have two of the REA cars but they are the wrong era for my layout, and want to change the shells.  Which ones did you use that will fit without too much modification? Thanks.

The reefer cars are mechanically the same as the REA sensor cars. Lionel calls them Steel-sided Refrigerator Cars. Various road names. I've done a CN, UP, NYC, and Santa Fe. The part numbers are 6-27xxx. I'm not sure about the era of the cars.

The inside shell has the antenna mounted with a single screw and the LED mounted as well. I used a well fitting screwdriver so I didn't strip the screw head since they use a bit of glue sometimes. The LED is mounted under the hatch nearest the brake wheel. That way you can find it without opening all the hatches. Remove the trucks first to gain access to the two screws down in deep wells to remove the shell. It's a simple swap.

Chuck, thanks.  I checked out all the reefers, 6-27xxx plus others.  None really fit my era/locale.  I'm hoping maybe some boxcars used the same frame so I'll keep searching there.  What I'd really like to do is transfer the electronics to an MTH R50b, Weaver Baggage/Mail, or Atlas X29.  These cars can be put on almost any PRR train.  I guess I can just take one apart and see what it would take.

Anything can be done Ron.

CAPPilot posted:

Chuck, thanks.  I checked out all the reefers, 6-27xxx plus others.  None really fit my era/locale.  I'm hoping maybe some boxcars used the same frame so I'll keep searching there.  What I'd really like to do is transfer the electronics to an MTH R50b, Weaver Baggage/Mail, or Atlas X29.  These cars can be put on almost any PRR train.  I guess I can just take one apart and see what it would take.

 

Try to find a car with the same mounting for the trucks. The rest of it is pretty straight forward to retrofit in any car.

Lionel or someone  should sell a sensor car set up with mounting instructions for any car or engine or tender.

AlanRail posted:

Lionel or someone  should sell a sensor car set up with mounting instructions for any car or engine or tender.

Baby steps... That's all I'm saying.

Then I wouldn’t end up with an entire REA steel sided train? It is kind of cool...