General 2 Rail Questions

 The only thing in a kit form that I know of to help, is from NWSL. Their wheel sets are for converting certain brands and certain engines. You still have to make your own power pick-ups. Most of the time you have to get creative on mounting some couplers to work with 2 rail. I'm not familiar with your exact engines.

 Some of the newest Lionel's have an easier time removing the stock wheel sets I've heard. Not many do it ,or at least will share their attempts. Somewhere in my basement I have a Lionel diesel with modern trucks that I should convert to show others.

 I mainly run MTH engines and they are simple to convert. The wiring is already there on most and the wheel sets come out with a few screws.

Yes, you have to install a switch to choose either system or manually swap out the wires.

Don't forget that any 3 rail rolling stock must be converted also as the wheels would cause a dead short.

Start slowly and buy a 2-rail locomotive.  Put in a loop of track.  Ease in to it.  Don't convert everything at once.

Thanks guys for some info to helps figure all of this out.

Bob2, I plan to pick up the MTH NS 8520 in 2 rail and get a loop of Atlas 2 Rail track. 

I have mostly Lionel and MTH rolling stock and a bit of Weaver to be converted eventually.

Engineer-Joe, do the MTH locos come with the 2RS wheels installed or are they just wired for them along with 3RS? Also do the scale wheel locos come with Lobster Claw couplers equipped?

The DTDP switch is a good way to do that conversion of control systems.    Also, I think getting a center off version would add a small addition of safe-guard.

I recommend that you get a Kadee coupler height gauge.    Use it to set coupler heights on your cars and locos.    You mount a coupler on one side and the other side gauges the height of the underside of the car from the rail.     You could go your own way, but since you are starting, you might as well use a common standard and then most of the new stuff you might buy will fit right in.

bob2 posted:

Start slowly and buy a 2-rail locomotive.  Put in a loop of track.  Ease in to it.  Don't convert everything at once.

This is very sound advice. I made a mistake when I first got interested in 2 rail that I regret to this day.

"Engineer-Joe, do the MTH locos come with the 2RS wheels installed or are they just wired for them along with 3RS? Also do the scale wheel locos come with Lobster Claw couplers equipped?"

You have to get the locomotive with a "-2" on the end of the part number. The "-2" indicates that the locomotive (in the case of a diesel) will have 2 rail wheel sets, fixed pilot, and full length handrails. It won't come with a lobster claw or any coupler but it will have the Kadee mounting pad and you just mount the Kadee or Kadee compatible coupler with 2 screws on each coupler.

One thing to note is MTH did make "-2" locomotives with PS2. These do not have a DCC decoder installed. Only PS3 are DCC compatible. Joe is correct. As far as I know you cannot run DCC and Legacy in the same block. Good luck and have fun.

Last year I picked up a MTH "-2" Trainmaster in Reading livery. It was never run and for $175 I couldn't resist. I just wish it had PS3 as I run DCC. Someday I will have to upgrade it but new these locomotives were going for over $400.

That's good advice by PRRJim. I also like having a center off position mainly because I like to have the ability to turn power off to a block or loop.