Steam Engine Conversion from TMCC to Legacy

Unless something has changed recently, there is no way to upgrade anything to Legacy.

Andy

While you can upgrade to Odyssey II (Aka Legacy) motor control using older modular boards, Lionel will not sell you Legacy Railsounds boards of any vintage. Best you can do for sound is ERR Railsounds. Your only other option is to use the boards taken from a working Legacy engine. Legacy Motor control is only slightly better than ERR Cruise. Hardly worth the cost and effort to get Legacy.

Pete

If you manage to get the Legacy RS boards, the rest of the stuff can actually be purchased, though I doubt it's worth the expense.  The early Legacy R4LC and Legacy back-EMF DCDS is available.  A suitable motherboard, and the smoke regulator are also available.

The sticking point is the RailSounds, those are unobtainum.

GUNRUNNERJOHN, I am curious. Would your store have the aforementioned boards, and if so, could the upgrade be performed by you?

I await your reply. Thank You.

Like I said, the sticking point is the sound boards.  I can assemble a Legacy mode motor drive electronics package, but I can't get Legacy RailSounds boards except as replacements with a returned board.

A far better choice is to simply go with the ERR upgrade.  You get great motor control which is pretty much the same as the Legacy back-EMF board, and the parts are readily available.  You can also get the RS5 quality sounds as long as you can live with the choices that ERR sells. 

You can also buy many RS4 boards if you like a specific locomotive sound set, Lionel has a lot of those still available on their site.

I have personally never actually assembled a Legacy locomotive for that reason, though I have tested the configuration on the bench and verified that you can run in Legacy mode and control the motors, lights, and couplers from the CAB2.  The smoke even worked, which was a bit of a surprise as many times the R4LC didn't control the smoke, they used the separate smoke regulator to directly switch the smoke on/off for Legacy.  However, since early Legacy with the R4LC used either AUX1-1 or AUX1-2 for their engine type, that probably explains how that function was assigned to the cab lights.

GUNRUNNERJOHN, I have a question. You mentioned the following in your reply post to me.

As follows:

A far better choice is to simply go with the ERR upgrade.  You get great motor control which is pretty much the same as the Legacy back-EMF board, and the parts are readily available.  You can also get the RS5 quality sounds as long as you can live with the choices that ERR sells. 

You can also buy many RS4 boards if you like a specific locomotive sound set, Lionel has a lot of those still available on their site.

Where would I get the ERR Upgrade and also how or who do I contact for the RS4 Boards?

I thank you in advance for your reply to my question.

Mike, Do you know when you engine was converted to TMCC? Odds are very good you already have ERR components in there. There haven't been alternatives for about ten years. It is possible the installer used Lionel boards if he was doing the opposite conversion for someone else but more likely you already have ERR. You don't really want RS4 boards. They would ending up costing more and have simpler sounds than the new ERR Railsounds.

Pete

Santa Fe Mike posted:

Where would I get the ERR Upgrade and also how or who do I contact for the RS4 Boards?

The first question would be, are you planning on doing the upgrade yourself?

The RS4 boards are available on the Lionel site.  Obviously, a dealer can order them for you as well.  You search for Railsounds 4

When I do ERR upgrades, I supply the ERR boards and the labor as a package deal.  People sometimes send the ERR kits as well if they already have them, that's fine as well.

You may be right on the ERR.  Mike stated it works like a charm.  

With respect to RS boards being discussed I recently purchased an RS5 board / 691RS5506B from Lionel to compliment an ERR cruise light upgrade to Lionel HHP-8 / 6-18323.  They did not ask for an exchange board, just my Visa #.

BT

Interesting, I bought one a couple months ago and they did want the exchange...

John, with the ERR board installed, is it yet possible or advisable to do a consist with a legacy locomotive or a tmcc locomotive? 

You have to run in TMCC mode to do an MU with a TMCC and Legacy.  As far as ERR and standard Lionel TMCC, that may or may not work, the speed step profile is probably quite different between the two units.

Mike, I converted a GG-1 to Legacy for myself.  I do thing you need to explain what other Legacy functions you think you would get.  Also good to explain what is installed now?  Pictures would help.

If you have ERR Cruise commander installed, there is not much more benefit you can get. Yes a R4LC for legacy with a back EMF Legacy motor drive can be installed, but how much better it will be on an MTH Triplex is hard to say.

I could do this for you, but again, what specific items/functions are you looking for?  G

John, they are just selling the boards no exchange.   

Marty Fitzhenry posted:

John, they are just selling the boards no exchange.   

Good to know, I guess they've changed the policy again.  Too bad they don't have that policy with Legacy sound boards.

Santa Fe Mike,

I have a Weaver U25B and a Williams U33C with ERR boards. The Williams has a Dash 9 sound board and I can't remember what sound board is in the Weaver. Both run and sound great. I also just ordered a command board for my Williams BL-2. It all ready has a railsounds board in it not sure what kind either. You do have to run them in TMCC mode if you have a CAB2-L remote. The command boards are 4.1 command which is what I'll have installed in the BL-2 too. The only  thing is none of them have smoke units, but this will do until I get to York in October.