Running Legacy and TMCC engines @10V

Hi Marty,

The problem with that is that I have about 20 passenger sets that I would have to convert. I wonder if a resistor would be simpler and less costly. Still a lot to convert over.

you'd be better off dimming the car lights with a resistor or something, and running the track power at 16+ (ideally 18) volts for the engine's electronics. At low voltage the current demand goes up. A heavy train and insufficient voltage will drive the current through the motor driver way up as it struggles to satisfy the commands of the speed control. Legacy's protection mechanisms will kick in to save the electronics if the current needed by the motors exceeds a programmed value (you'll get the blinking cab light motor driver error).

I usually run at 14-15 volts but I have smoke off and only run short passenger consists. I'm with Marty on recommending you swap bulbs or wire in some diodes to act as "dimmers".

I don't think TMCC will work at 10 volts. I'm not sure what the exact number is but my TMCC locos do not function if I lower the voltage more than a little.  Don

I tried the Legacy and varied the voltage.  I managed to get one locomotive running at a bit over 10 VAC, but it was sluggish and as soon as it had a slight conductivity issue with the track connection, it stalled.  They seem to run at 12VAC, but I can't get the electrocouplers to fire reliably on less than 16 volts.  Smoke is somewhat anemic at the lower voltages as well.

Use a diode to power the lights with just half wave AC. You need 2

diodes per car,one per truck. Connect the diode between the truck

wire and the wire into the car. Connect the diodes in the same direction

on both thucks. Alternate the direction of the diodes for every other car

so half the cars are lighted by the positive half cycle and half by the

negative half cycle. With 18v on the track, try a car with the diodes

to see if the lights are what you want. Diodes are cheap and easy to

install without opening the car body.

You may also have issues with the sound system running the battery down if it is near the threshold for Lionel's Railsounds system to use back up power over track power.

I realize that I'm probably going to be the odd man out here, but how many lights have you seen on in passenger cars at night in whatever 1:1 trains that might have passed by?  I haven't seen many. 

I took the lights out of my passenger cars.  That also saves watts for other things that I might want to do.

My passenger cars only use about 1/3 of a watt each, so I don't need to save watts for something else.   I don't look for passenger cars at 4:00 AM, but I've seen them come by with plenty of lights a bit earlier.  I will admit that the lighting is not regular in many of them, some seats are lighted and some are not.  However, I prefer to have them lighted.

I run only passenger cars.  I run DCS and Legacy at 17 volts.  I have never burned out a bulb.  Running at lower voltage is not a good idea.  I am old school and like bright lights.

I've never done this with passenger car lights, but on occasion I have "dimmed" lights by painting a little heat-resistant black paint on the bulbs (got it at Home Depot), covering part of them up and thereby reducing the light. About as simple as you can get, although here obviously you'd have to open the cars to access the bulbs.

Reducing the light intensity for passenger cars.

I prefer to replace all passenger car lighting with LEDs.  This way I can easily adjust the light intensity with a dropping resistor and also reduce the total current draw for each car.  I can also add constant intensity by adding a zener diode with each LED.

Another way is to rewire pairs of incandescent lamps in series to reduce the intensity.

For what it's worth I run my TMCC from the 14 volt fixed voltage terminals of an MRC transformer, the one that had the walk around controls.  The variable voltage terminals did not work at all with TMCC so I gave the fixed voltage a shot.  It works just fine.

How many have you done and what does it take time wise?

I don't know about other folks, but for a simple passenger car conversion to LED strips, it normally takes me anywhere from 1/2 to 1 hour, depending on the exact configuration and what I have to do with the wiring and existing lights.  I did some Lionel cars where I had to snip off the support posts that held the incandescent lights, that slowed me down a bit.

For stuff like dome cars, it usually takes a bit longer.