I bought a prototype MTH Railking CP Holiday Engine. I am only set up to run tmcc or legacy on my layout. Can it be upgraded to TMCC or Legacy operation & keep the MTH sounds? If it can be upgraded what would the approx cost be?
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@NeOhiofan posted:I bought a prototype MTH Railking CP Holiday Engine. I am only set up to run tmcc or legacy on my layout. Can it be upgraded to TMCC or Legacy operation & keep the MTH sounds? If it can be upgraded what would the approx cost be?
Yes it can be upgraded, no you can't keep the sounds. There's a couple of guys doing Legacy conversions and you are looking well north of 700-800 bucks to do it. TMCC conversion ERR cruise, generic railsounds 250-300??? it's been awhile. You want chuffing smoke and rule 17 lighting from Gunrunner designed boards add a 100 to that. The TMCC costs do not include labor, all prices are estimates and may not be accurate. You could always run your engine in conventional with no issues.
Here is my MTH L4 converted to Legacy. @Bruk did this conversion. Parts were purchase during the Lionel 50% off sale which is the only way this type of conversion is worth it to me.
@superwarp1 posted:Yes it can be upgraded, no you can't keep the sounds. There's a couple of guys doing Legacy conversions and you are looking well north of 700-800 bucks to do it. TMCC conversion ERR cruise, generic railsounds 250-300??? it's been awhile. You want chuffing smoke and rule 17 lighting from Gunrunner designed boards add a 100 to that. The TMCC costs do not include labor, all prices are estimates and may not be accurate. You could always run your engine in conventional with no issues.
Here is my MTH L4 converted to Legacy. @Bruk did this conversion. Parts were purchase during the Lionel 50% off sale which is the only way this type of conversion is worth it to me.
Gary, just the two ERR components are $300 nowadays, so the TMCC conversion is North of $400 for a basic job nowadays. If you want chuffing smoke and 4-chuffs, add more money. 
Has anyone bought LionChief innards during Lionel's parts sale and converted a conventional loco? With the Base 3 such a conversion would, in theory, be operable with any of the Lionel remotes, or the forthcoming app. Just seems this might be the least expensive command conversion, but I'm no expert. Obviously for those who want advanced features and highest quality sound, this would not cut the mustard. But for some this might be quite sufficient, especially for older locos such as MPC, PS1, etc.
What has to be done to convert some old Proto 1 diesel engines to dummies? Do anyone know of who can upgrade some proto 1 engines to TMCC railsounds, they are ABBA diesels E8s.
@rkricko posted:What has to be done to convert some old Proto 1 diesel engines to dummies? Do anyone know of who can upgrade some proto 1 engines to TMCC railsounds, they are ABBA diesels E8s.
You can turn them into dummies by simply removing all the electronics and the motors from the trucks. Re-use the motor mounts to hold the trucks on and you have a dummy.
Can I just remove the motors and leave the electronics in for lights?
@rkricko posted:Can I just remove the motors and leave the electronics in for lights?
If you're looking for sounds, that will likely be problematic. The PS/1 electronic will get confused on full track power. The prime mover will be running max RPM, and the directional lights will obviously not be going in the right direction most of the time.
@NeOhiofan posted:I bought a prototype MTH Railking CP Holiday Engine.
Are you referring to a PS3 engine like this ???? https://mthtrains.com/railking/spotlight/09_2017/a
If that's the case, I would say no- do not pull the motors because you want TMCC or to run it as a dummy and leave the electronics.
Yes, the string lights can be separately powered with 6V and a 150 Ohm resistor in series- however, again, I would not leave the PS3 board in just to power the lights off an output.
Why would you modify a working functioning PS3 engine- when you could run it in conventional or just have to be that diehard TMCC-Legacy control???
@NeOhiofan posted:Can it be upgraded to TMCC or Legacy operation & keep the MTH sounds? Yes- A legacy powermaster $129 or less http://www.lionel.com/products...powermaster-6-37146/
If it can be upgraded what would the approx cost be? Given current ERR pricing $160 for ERR Cruise Commander no sound, no smoke (because an MTH smoke unit requires modification and changing of resistors minimally along with 5V for the fan).
Sound costs at least $130 more, smoke even more custom to make it work too. - roughly $350-$400 is not an unrealistic total cost of the project for all features.
Your wallet, your railroad.
