Williams BL2 change to TMCC?

Get a hold of Boxcar Bill on here does great work plus good prices. http://www.mttponline.com/home2

The Electric Railroad Company offers TMCC kits to convert any O gauge locomotive to TMCC. The kits run between $70 and $110 (MSRP), but Boxcar Bill offers them usually for less. Electric Railroad also has a module to add Railsounds 4.0 to any locomotive, which typically retails for $100.

For more information, you can visit the Electric Railroad Company's page here.

-John

There's a new RS Commander in town, and it's cheaper now.  List price is $84.99 for diesel/electric and $89.99 for steam.  It's also one board so it fits in more places.

For the DIY 'er, we have the upgrade combo pricing as follows, Cruise w/RS 4.9 diesel are $179.95 and steam for $185.95 and this includes free shipping. We are still waiting for the new sound sets from ERR.

Bill 

Is it an easy thing to do? Comes with instructions etc?

Ok, I looked at electric RR which one do I pick up for a BL-2, also, does the original horn continue to work or do I have to get something else?

You can find the instructions here for the Cruise Commander here,

http://www.electricrr.com/Manuals/CruiseCmdr-Inst.pdf

and the new sound board here,

http://www.electricrr.com/Manu...lSoundsCmdr-Inst.pdf

 If you need assistance installing we will be glad to help. Also provide upgrade service for diesels around $240.00 to include the ERR kits, coil couplers, led headlights and labor.

Bill

I have to say Bill, you can't beat that price with a stick!  Hard to justify doing it yourself at those prices.

does the original horn continue to work or do I have to get something else?

Yes, but if would not be triggered by TMCC as the horn is not connected to the radio receiver. If you replace the horn with Electric RR's railsounds commander, you would get the full suite of sounds, fully controllable from TMCC.

-John

There is some evidence that running a Williams sound unit with full 18 volts on the  track will overheat the sound board.

Mr Boxcar Bill, Do I read this right? $240.00 for TMCC installed on my BL-2 including cruise commander and operating coil couplers and a sound board too? What kind of turnaround time?

On another note, could I have some MTH diesels changed over to TMCC?

Thanks everyone for all of your feedback, you all seem like a great group of guys.

You can convert almost any locomotive to TMCC if you want to.  Same basic board set.

 Yes, plus LED headlight, your looking at a 4-6 week turn around. 

Bill

This is so very tempting Bill.  I have several MTH PS-1 locomotives, but the TMCC bug has bit me.  I just don't know how bad the infection will be yet.  I just bought a ZW-C from a forum member, so we'll see if that is enough to treat it when I get it, or if I'll need farther treatment by full conversions...

Of course this may all change after I get my 1st Legacy locomotive, as we all know it's bond to happen once you step in the pool of TMCC.

A couple of TMCC locomotives will get you started.

I've got 4 in the house (2 of which are sitting under the tree right now, in wrapping paper).  I also have the TMCC base and 2 Cab-1s.  We'll see how I like running conventional locomotives with the Cab-1 via the ZW-C.  If I like it, then they stay conventional.  If not, I just may spring to have them converted.  Bill, do you have a discount for fleet upgrades? 

Once you start running true command, it'll be VERY hard to go back.

Any cheaper and I would have to pay you for letting us install for you.

Bill

lol

But in seriousness, I have an MTH PS-1 EP-5 that I'm considering having you do now that I read the new boards have a EP-5 soundset, and because it has been acting weird. But it may still be a while.  It's down currently for choking on a thrown traction tire it tried to eat.

The older RS Commander had the same GG1/EP-5 sound set.  The EP-5 is a pretty easy one to convert, it should be a piece of cake.   Maybe you should take a run at it yourself?

Do you already have the Williams unit?

Reason I ask is that MTH produced one years ago that is probably nicer in detail and scale fidelity. There are some PS1 models that surface from time to time that are reasonably priced and make prime candidates for conversion...

I didn't know that, but then I really didn't look much into it in the past.  Question though, does that mean the GG1 and EP-5 sound the same with these sound sets?  I currently like that my MTH EP-5 doesn't sound the same as my K-Line GG1.  They both have very different and distinct horns.

The old RailSounds 4 only had the GG1/EP-5 electric sound set, not two of them.  Both had the single note GG1 sounding horn.

Same with the new ones. Also Sinclair as John said they are easy to install. Visit ERR's web page and look over the instructions.

Bill

What about this new sound board?

EDIT: Bill hit post before I reloaded the page.  Well, if I lose the unique horn of the EP-5, I just may live with it's quirks.

There is always the DD Equalizer.   I have a couple that I acquired that I have yet to test, but those allowed you to keep the MTH PS/1 sounds and run TMCC.

Actually, I had a locomotive come with one, I yanked it and gave it to GGG because I couldn't get it to work.  I'd love a simple way to convert my PS-1s to TMCC like the DDE, but reading up on them, they didn't have the best track record.  Or I should say, those that had problems were louder on the interwebs.  But we shall see...

The clean way to do the conversion is to do the Cruise Commander & RailSounds Commander, they will offer excellent performance without any issues.  The only way I know to keep the PS/1 sounds with TMCC would be the DD Equalizer right now.

If you run DCS, you can probably find a PS/2 sound file that might be closer to what you expect as far as the horn, I haven't looked.

All my power is either PS-1 or TMCC right now, with PS-1 outnumbering TMCC 3 to 1, with one conventional Lionel Dockside, so I don't have any DCS engines.

That pretty much makes the choice the Cruise Commander and RailSounds Commander.

One possibility for a different sound for the EP-5 is the EP-5 specific sound cards Lionel lists for $45/ea.  You can use these with the older RailSounds Commander.  I have no idea what the horn sounds like on these, but maybe you could find someone with the engine and/or a Youtube video of one.

691PCB115B     RAILSOUNDS 4.0 / PRR EP-5 #2352         $45.00
691RS40037     RAILSOUNDS 4.0 / NEW HAVEN EP-5 #2350         $45.00

John, you make a very strong case for conversion.  Very strong indeed...

Probably the only difference in the sounds are the Road Number being used.

Bill

I guessed that as well, Bill, but I can't verify it.  It's always possible they had a better horn. 

Here's an MTH EP-5 with a different horn than the GG-1, though it still is a single note.

Guess I'll have to take a video of it so you can hear it, since not a single video of it is found on YouTube, nor did MTH use the horn in any later models of the locomotive.

Bill does such a clean and professional job with installing TMCC/Railsound upgrades that instead of asking for a discount he should get a bonus for doing such good work.  He really cares about your locomotives and it shows in the finished product.  Thanks Bill for upgrading my Lionel Texan FT set.

Steve, Lady and Tex

The discount remark was in jest, a joke, and it seems even with a smiley, no one got it, maybe except Bill.  From all I have read on here, Bill would be the 1st one I go to to get my locomotives converted, if I ever go down that road.