Has anyone ever tried to put an Electric Railroad board in a tinplate train. Seems as long as it is insulated from the metal chassis it should work just fine. I was thinking of putting a DC Commander in my Charles Wood's CMT loco.
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I assume the ERR board will control the engine and not just add sound. You need to be careful with how many amps your engine draws at full load. I am not familiar with the CMT engine, but older standard gauge engines drew a lot more amps than newer O gauge engines with can motors.
George
This loco has a can motor. It should be fine. I don't need sound in this loco. Think I'll put it in the tender and run a tether cord up into the loco.
You should be fine with the driver board as long as you keep it insulated from the chassis. I am not sure of what you are speaking of as tin plate, standard gauge? The DC Commander should handle almost any can motor, if you know how many amps your motor draws you might even get by with the Cruise Lite I would say the one thing you should be aware of is that you need AC current on the rails, DC on the rails will wipe out the board.
Ray
Sorry Ray. Yes it is standard gauge and yes I do run AC on the layout.
What you need to figure out is how you will run an antenna. Normally a shell is used or hand rails. BUT they must be isolated from Chassis ground. Otherwise there is no difference between this and a die cast engine. You just need the room for the board. G
I put one in a tinplate locomotive, it happened to be an AC motor, but the antenna issue was the same. I ended up removing the stainless steel grab rails and making them of nickel wire so I could solder to them. I also had to insulate them at each end where they went into the tender shell. It's not easy to simply float the shell as there are tabs and the like that you have to deal with. This is the model I converted.
Gentlemen,
Guns did a real nice job on my original 249 Lionel ERR upgrade, although he ended up having to do the job twice, because the delivery agent damaged the original up graded electronics, and busted the frame of the 249 also, by tossing it up on my porch when it was extremely cold outside. I know Guns is not particularly excited to upgrade Tin, it definitely is a challenging task, however it turns out to be great stuff when completed. I especially like the LED Red running lights on the front of the engine and the white back up light, on the end of the coal tender. Unfortunately I will be unable to set up my Christmas O Gauge Train layout this Christmas, because of the time constraints I am experiencing with my Gun Dog Training business, especially this year thru the Christmas season. There just will not be enough time to even begin to construct the O gauge Train layout. I was able to get over to visit Thoms fantastic Tin Plate layout, and pick up some more great Antique Lead figures. Thom's new addition of the Antique Double HellGate Bride is more than just incredible, his layouts are always top shelf Tin Plate, Thom has a great eye for constructing Tin Plate layouts, always a pleasure visiting his home layout.
PCRR/Dave
I have a new pricing structure for upgrading tinplate to TMCC. 
If your loco has a can motor, you will like the operation much better if you put in a Cruise Commander, rather than a DC Commander. The extra cost will be forgotten when you experience how much better the loco runs.
