Williams Scale GG-1 Upgrade

Nice, I plan to to leave mine along, but this is great.  

As to a smoke unit, did GG1- have smoke?  I didn't think so, but them I don' know much about them except they are pretty.  

Lee, they had a boiler.  MTH version uses a special code that not only operates the pantographs automatically, but belches "steam" at certain times.  So more of a boiler effect than smoke from an engine.  Neat.

Part of the reason I did not jump right to adding it.  There is a hole in the shell with a cap glued in, so you would have to drill it out.  I was thinking of a higher resistance element and maybe a lower voltage to the fan so that it would look more like a boiler steam escaping vice steady smoke. 

With the mods it really can do switcher duty.  The top end speed is still fast for hi balling.  Neat little engine with a little Command Help.  Here is a short clip at speed notch 1.  G

Well, they had steam. If you will go back to your own GG1 thread and look at the "Big Red" video #2 at the 2:40 mark you will see a picture of a GG1 at the Army/Navy game venting steam from the steam generator. I also think that somewhere in one of the video's linked to in your post the is a movie of one venting steam. BTW, the last Lionel scale GG1 had this very feature.

Nice conversion!!   following Big Jims reply how about aiming the smoke to the under body and smoke it on cue, say along with the whistle to emulate the steam venting.

Cant wait for your video. nice work

AWESOME, I have two of those and am considering upgrading them.

I'll leave mine alone....but good info. Also nice these locos are cheap enough to do this type modification and still have an affordable loco!

I've thought of adding the smoke to my Williams ERR conversion.  The JLC has the steam release at random times like the MTH.

If you do the steam release feature, you may want to keep the smoke unit heater warm all the time so you get an instant release, that's the way that the JLC handles it, and the MTH P5a does that as well for it's pressure release feature.

Another thing I did to my Williams GG-1's that makes a big difference is to remove that giant light bulb on either end   I purchased these little babies from forum sponsor Train Electrics   I just glue the LED board to the body so that the LED is now the headlight  It doesn't light up the whole cab like the light bulb did and looks a lot better

Ben, I never leave the giant light bulb in any upgrade, I use an LED and frequently hot-glue it in.  Then I use liquid tape to black out the back-scatter so it doesn't reflect light into the shell.

Very nice upgrade George!

Alan

George, did you use the pans for your antenna?  The Williams G makes a great locomotive with upgraded systems.  I have many and love them.

Ahhh good idea with the liquid tape   Have to do that  Thanks John

Marty, In the one picture of the shell you can see I attached the strip antenna to the rear pan so yes.  interesting enough the R4LC I used had good pick up with the antenna NOT attached on my layout.

I retained the bulb for now and installed an 18V large globe bulb.  Interesting enough it works great at illuminating the headlight and also the cab.  When you shift directions there is no back scatter in this shell because of the length.  I do intend to add the marker LEDs though and make them directional.

Bob, Legacy R4LC won't work a ERR TMCC based emf board.  There is a Legacy emf board.  I used it.  Works great.  That 1st notch crawls fine with no jerking with the Williams motor and drive train.  Since these are 385 motors it is like a premier MTH engine.  I intend to film high speed, it runs pretty fast at top speed, so this has the full range of smooth ops.  G

I'll be attempting the same on an MTH PS1 GG1.  Been dying to find out how it performs under command control since it already crawls like a snail.  The addition of cruise should make me love it all the more.

Bruce

Bruce, the MTH is a metal body and you will most likely have to use the pan for your antenna.

The upgrades are great. I am sure she will run allot better now. As well as sound better. Was most of this plug and play technology? Or did you have to do more work?

George, what Legacy back-EMF motor controller did you use?

Whats the part number?