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Gentlemen,

I have done several ERR installs now with most things going well.  This will be my first MTH conversion as I have a Premier Greenbrier that lost it's chuff and whistle long ago.  I need help on the connections though.  Please see the photo:

The four multi color connections are for the tether.  The black seems to be the ground as I traced it down to a lug on the rear tender truck (no pick-up roller).  But, maybe not.  Can anyone tell me which are the two motor taps, and which two are the ac hot and ac ground?  The tether wires are matching color so this will tell me what wires to use where on the ERR hook up.

In addition, I was told that the rear tender light is in jeopardy if I just hook it to the ERR board.  If so, would I not just add a resistor between the board and the LED?  If so, can anyone suggest what resistor and what side of the LED to put that on?  Why would the rear light be in trouble but not the headlight... again IF this is true.

Thanks to all!

Troy

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First off, your picture didn't come through.

The lights on your MTH locomotive are 6V bulbs, so connecting directly to the TMCC board will make quick work of them.  I change to LED's when I do these conversions since I have to change the bulbs anyway. The tender markers will just require a resistor to protect them, and I connect them to the headlight output so I can turn them off, but in normal operation, they're always on.

I suspect the locomotive has a CV board that you could wire directly to the headlight output and it would control all the locomotive lights.

Unless you want to just control the motor with the TMCC, you'll need more than 4 wires in the tether, I use the MTH 10-pin tethers for my TMCC steam upgrades.  Typically I use at least seven wires.

  • (2) track power
  • (2) motor
  • (1) chuff to tender
  • (1) headlight to locomotive
  • (1) smoke unit

If you're considering fan driven smoke, I recommend the Chuff-Generator and the Super-Chuffer II, this will give you 4-chuffs and synchronized chuffing smoke, smoke at idle, Rule-17 headlight, and automatic cab light control.

Picture is reattached.  

I have a few locos with working smoke to show the rookies.  Otherwise I end up shutting it off anyway.  So just looking for the basic hook up right now.  If you can see the board in the pic, black seems to be "common" but I can't determine the remaining 3 as to AC hot and the 2 motor hook ups.

Thanks,

Troy

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  • proto 1 board

The engine bulbs are 6 volts, but the tender bulb is 1.5V run off the PS-1 board for Directional lighting.  You can leave the CV board to run the engine lights.  Tender change to LED or a 16-18V bulb.  Markers in tender also run off the PS-1 board at about 5-6V so you do need to add a resistor and diode if your going to run off track power like Lionel did.  G

Last edited by GGG

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Ste 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
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