MTH Engine conversion to Dummy

Interesting question.  IMO, I don't think it would be too difficult for a diesel.  I'm not qualified to provide advice on how to do it.  BTW, is this a diesel that does not operate because the operating system is irretrievable?  (I need to do further research but I thought there was a fix for that, although more expense than value perhaps).  The reason for my questions is that I have an MTH PRR consolidation that long ago became inoperable and thought I could do the same and use the engine in a double header with my Lionel consolidation.  Good luck in the event you decide to make the modification.

I have done this with four or five Proto one diesels but have not tied a steamer.

Diesels are very simple.  Remove the motors from the truck assembly.  Once this is done remove the adaptor on the end of the motor (two small screws) and attach the adaptor back to the truck assembly (this of coarse secures the truck to the frame).  There is no need to worry with any of the gears because you should find the trucks to roll freely with all the gears left in place.  

Give it a try.  It is pretty easy.

Good luck and happy railroading,

Don

As stated.  The smoke is powered via track power and the switch, so just keep it connected.  Lights also are driven off a CV board that gets track power.  The one exception is the headlights on diesels.  They are 1.5V and powered from the Proto 1 board.  You would need to replace them with 6 volt bulbs and splice into the CV Board, use 18V bulbs and splice into track power, or go LED with resistor and do either.   G

Hi

Pennsynut, the reason is I want a couple more dummies and two of my P1 engines are prime candidates. The cost is my favorite: $0.00

DG, thank you for those instructions - sounds very straightforward.

GGG, good point - think I'll opt for a LED.

I appreciate all the information gentlemen.

Paul

I have done it many times.I install a light in the cab and hook it up to the pick up rollers.I have never kept a smoke unit.If you run it off of track voltage you may need a different smoke unit resistor.It is easy to do.Nick

You could go deluxe and use a small Minitronics Tether to bring over the reverse light voltage so the lights would be directional.  Another cool option is to change out the speakers for 8 ohm units and have one in the dummy, the difference in sound with both units with speakers is amazing!  If you have 3V PS/2 boards, the board will drive two smoke units, so you could actually have full control of the smoke unit as well.

I don't think MTH recommends driving a remote smoke unit via a tether.  The PS-2 Slave board has the FET and Diodes to power the Slave Smoke unit.  You would be pushing .5 to .7amps through the harness, if you tried to run the second smoke unit from the Lead A board.

Plus he was talking about a PS-1 engine.   G

He's making a dummy out of the PS/1 engine, don't know what he's running.  The connectors I suggested are rated at 1 amp, and I've used them for smoke without issues.  Since he's not likely to add the slave board, I was going for the direct approach.

I like "smart" locomotives, not dummys!!

Ok, but then that dummy could only be used with the engine you now have to modify.  Since the only way the smoke unit would work with a PS-2 engine is to modify it as a PS-2 smoke unit, which makes things more complicated.

You can certainly modify a dummy to work off PS-2, but I would than use the standard MTH 4 pin harness to activate coupler, headlight and Cab light.

The problem still becomes it only works with a PS-2 engine with external harness wired similarly. 

If you want a stand alone dummy, track power with switches is the way to go.  And a PS-1 engine is not hard to convert.  G

Since we don't really know about the environment, this is all guesswork.  I think I'll wait until we have more information.

I have been thinking about doing this conversion of PS-1 diesels also.  I run all my other trains in command mode with at steady 18 to 20 volts on the track.  My goal would to be use the PS-1 diesels to simulate mid train helpers.  I don't care if the lights or couplers work.  Mid train helpers aren't going to use these functions.  Sound and smoke would be a plus but not necessary.  The engines at the front of the train doing the pulling will be TMCC.

What do I get with the PS-1 if I just remove the motors as recommended above and leave all the other electronics intact?  Do I get sound and smoke or nothing at all?  I am using TMCC to control the other engines.

Joe

SMoke and interior lights.  But if you are doing TMCC I would seriously consider the Lionel LCRX or ERR equivalent.  This would give you remote couplers and directional control of lights.  It can be added as a lashup.  Has the port to add sound, if you wanted to add a RS board.

If it was me, I would add a TMCC unit and gain control of the motors and use a lash up.  You could get control of the lights, coupler, motors and even rig it to run the smoke unit via command.  G

I'm with George on this one, the decision is pretty easy with TMCC.  The dummy engine board is pretty cheap and gives you full control of all the stuff.

For the engines I have converted from PS 1 to a dummy, I leave the lighting board in tact so the headlight is always on as well as the Mars light on certain engines.  I let the dummy engine be the lead engine with the command engine pushing it.  This allows one to have remote coupler at the rear of the consist and the headlights are easy to turn on or off using remote for type of powered unit one is running.  This configuration worked really well creating an A-B-A consist with the two lead engines being old PS-1 A-B and the trailing A a TMCC Atlas F-3.  Old PS-1 locos were very cheap and this saved me a great deal of money.  I did no worry about the smoke as I seldom run smoke due to breathing problems it creates for me.

Good luck and happy railroading,

Don

Lionel uses a plain R2LC in some of their dummies to control the lights, couplers, and smoke.  If you have an old steamer motherboard and an R2LC lying around, it's a cheap upgrade.