Constant speed control & Volume adjustment

I put Cruise in a Polar express but it was TMCC/Cruise.  Not LC.

LC+ has cruise and these are single composite boards.  So until Lionel makes PE with LC+ I think the answer is no.   G

George is correct, the plain LC stuff doesn't have cruise, and most also have puffer smoke units.  The LC+ stuff is a much more feature rich product offering.

Thanks guys for the info. The Grandson is still a little young and by the time he's ready maybe an LC+ Polar Express will be available.

Ironman1,

   Send her up to gunrunner john and let him put ERR in her!

PCRR/Dave

That's what I was originally wondering. Is that a possible option with a Lionchief locomotive?

I have the PE locomotive that I put the Cruise Commander Lite and the ERR RailSounds Commander into.  I also added a Super-Chuffer and a fan driven smoke unit. 

You also can look around for a TMCC Junior Berk and just swap shells.  You get a TMCC/RS 4.0 engine.

That is what I did, and then I added Cruise M.  

Plus you will have spare parts for the PE or sell the Donor engine as a conventional.  G

Hi John,

I'm assuming your PE locomotive is an original not the Lionchief with the Tom Hanks all aboard and other announcements, correct?

Joe

you are correct, in truth I got the stripped shell and tender with no electronics.  Since the locomotive had the larger and more reliable motor, I figured it was an interesting upgrade.

ironman1,

   Swapping the shell from the TMCC Junior Berk is another option, but then you have a JB without any upgrading at all.  You could always relegate that stripped Jr Berk as a play toy for your son.  The ERR stuff is really cool however, and Guns does fantastic upgrade work.  

PCRR/Dave

Hi John,

Were you looking to sell your PE locomotive?

Joe

Nope, not looking to sell.

ok

Dave, You put the PE electronics into the JB and have a conventional train. 

Here are the pictures of the conversion I did.  This is just the engine, but the tender conversion also allowed me to have the electromagnetic coupler on the tender.

In my case, the TMCC Junior Berk had the original Type one motor with is smaller.  So I swapped the electronics from the JB into the PE Chassis.  I had to tap two screw holes to match up the board mounting.  I then replaced the standard TMCC DCDR with the Cruise Motor driver.

So my Polar Express is all Lionel TMCC, RS 4.0 with Lionel Cruise and electro magnetic coupler.  The PRR Berk got the conventional reverse unit and air whistle.

Pictures are also good reference for the difference between type 1 and type 2 JB chassis.  Besides motor, the weight system is different too. 

In the first picture I show the transfer of the antenna connector.  The PE berk has insulated handrails so it was a piece of cake transferring after I remove the boiler front to get access.   Also in the last picture you see that I tranfered the smaller weight of the TMCC Berk over to the PE berk to allow the Motor driver board to fit.  I did have to grind out some lead, to make room for the larger Type 2 motor.

In the end for someone with less modeling skills, the could really just swap shells and only have to move the antenna wire and be done.   G

Thanks guys for the suggestions. I just got an itch to buy something but I'm probably going to see if Lionel eventually comes out with a Lionchief plus. It may never happen but I've been sold on the constant speed control since my first MTH 2.0 loco. To sit back and not have to adjust the throttle is the way to go for me. Same with the volume adjustment.

If Lionel doesn't plan to upgrade than I'll probably be in the market for an original Polar Express with the upgrades John made to his.

Joe

You do know you can edit your own messages, right?

Didn't think about it, thanks John!