DCC for Old Lionel?

[Fred Bear]

Is it possible to run the old Lionel steam loco's with DCC? If so, what is needed? Thanks, Jake

[lionelsoni]

You might have to put a bridge rectifier on the field or, better, the armature, to be able to control direction with DC polarity; but that's not a big deal. I don't know how you would work the whistle into the DCC scheme.

[Anonymous]

Hey,

I think you mean TMCC (Trainmaster Comand Control) or DCS (Digital Comand System).

Those are for Ogauge trains. DCC is for trains that run on DC (Direct Curent) power such as Z,N,HO,and G scales.

Lionel and Most O gauge trains run on AC (Alternating Current) power

Yes, iot is possible to make old Lionel engines run on TMCC. You have to buy a special box or something like that. Go to Lionel's website and check in their Online catalog in the TMCC pages. You will see everything you need there.

I'm not sure wheather or not you can use DCS with Old Lionel engines. Maybe some others here can help with that.

Lionel Did experiment with DC on few engines in the 70's. There were two sets that had DC power. The James Gang, and the New Englander. But these are hard to find. I've only seen 4 or 5 James Gang's for sale on the internet. And I beleive Gryziboski's Trains had a New Englander set once, but its gone now.

So just stick with AC and TMCC (Made by Lionel) or DCS (Made by MTH).

steel rails

[lionelsoni]

Lionel trains have always run on AC or DC, except for the few that Steel Rails mentions. The difference between Lionel operation on DC and scale operation (like most HO and N) is that Lionel reversing is done with an e-unit and scale reversing by reversing the polarity of the voltage. But all it takes to convert a traditional lionlel locomotive to scale-type reversing is to replace the e-unit by a bridge rectifier. Then it can be run with any DCC that would run an HO train.

The NMRA groups HO, S, and O into one electrical standard. However, it might be better to consider O as "large scale", which uses a higher track voltage.

[Anonymous]

You can get high current DCC equipment for converting Lionel type trains (aka O scale three rail AC). This includes high current decoders for installation in the locomotives as well as booster/commad bases. There is a limit to the amount of current that can be run through a true DCC unit (by definition) and locomotives need to be modified to isolate the motor from the chassis ground.

http://www.digitrax.com/prd_mobdec_dg583s.php