DCC American Flyer original motor

That's the right way to go for reverser-free DC.  Adding a decoder should be fine if the decoder survives, although that 4 amp decoder should be good enough

Brendan

What is the coil?  And is there polarity to any part of it that you need to worry about?  And would this also work in adding DCC to old Lionel AC motored locomotives?

The coil is the copper colored wire wrapped a lot of times near the motor. In an American flyer locomotive, there are two wires coming from the coil, in that case, use the wiring diagram above. 

This same idea will work in Postwar Lionel as well. Postwar Lionel trains have two different configurations differentiated by the number of wires coming from the coil. If there are two wires coming from the coil, use the previous diagram for American Flyer locomotives. If there are three wires coming from the coil, use the diagram found here: http://www.digitrax.com/tsd/KB...s-and-lionel-type-e/. 

Polarity is important in both scenarios. The best way I have found is, unfortunately, trial and error. If the forward and reverse are not correct after the decoder is hooked up, switch the two wires coming from the diodes to the coil, that will switch the polarity.

Another benefit to using DCC is that if you want to add DCC to many modern Lionel and MTH O and S scale locomotives, it's as easy as buying a decoder and an adapter plug. Then just remove and replace the original electronics with the DCC decoder.

Bnoggle posted:

Another benefit to using DCC is that if you want to add DCC to many modern Lionel and MTH O and S scale locomotives, it's as easy as buying a decoder and an adapter plug. Then just remove and replace the original electronics with the DCC decoder.

I'm sure I'll have lots of questions later on if I chose to go down this way.

As for modern, I know how easy they are as I've already installed a LokSound L in a modern Lionel locomotive and plan to do the same with many of the MTH PS-1 equipped engines I have.  I've just been wondering what I can do with the one AF S gauge loco I have and the couple older Lionel O gauge locomotives I have with AC motors in them.  I even have a really old Mark steamer I'd love to upgrade to command if it was possible, but I'm not holding my breath.

A question l have is about the base unit on the layout. Several years back l thought of using DCC, but having quite a few AC motored Gilbert locomotives, there wasn't a base that could supply enough amps to run more than one engine at a time. Are there now more powerful base units, at that time l think five amps was about the largest available.

Ray

My base unit is about 2A. It can run one engine by itself at a decent speed, and at a realistic (slower) speed with 5-8 cars behind it. I use a booster, Digitrax DB210, which is rated up to 8A to get enough power for multiple locomotives. I think they make more powerful boosters, but I haven’t really researched it too much as 8 amps seems to be plenty to run 2-3 trains on my layout. 

Yes, 

That is good, if that were available some years ago l might well have gone with DCC instead of the Legacy system. Good to hear that there's more available now 😊👍

Ray