With more time at home, I was able to finish some projects I had been working on. One of which was a TMCC conversion/upgrade. About a year ago I purchased a MTH Greenbrier conventional steam engine (from 1999) and decided to convert it to TMCC. When researching the engine, I learned that this and other J-3's were sometimes used to pull the famous "George Washington". So, I also decaled the tender and have just purchased Lionel's GW set from 2007 to complete my project!
I am pretty novice when it comes to electronics and executed many of the conversions "old-school" style such as a wired teather with a 5-pin connector. I also used two chuff magnets on one of the driving wheels and used a relay-style trigger mechanism soldiered from the driving rod to activate and synchronize the fan with the chuff sounds. The original motor worked quite well with the ERR Cruise commander...it provides excellent slow starting speeds!
Attached are some pictures highlighting the upgrade and finally a video to see it in action.
Enjoy.
