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I ask this for a future project I plan to set in motion soon.

 

Knowing that today's Legacy steam engines can swap tenders relatively easily, I would like to change the tender on one of the Legacy steamers, say the Legacy Berkshire tender Lionel did in 2009-2010, to have the same small IR sensor that is being used on the current Legacy steam engines.

 

I look on Lionel's website that the new Legacy steamers' sensors are 2-wire while the earlier ones are usually 3.

 

<< 3 Wire

 

<< 2 Wire

 

Has anyone tried to do this too? If so, please explain how it could be done. I know that engines and tenders and tenders with different drawbar couplings/ sensors don't work well with each other.

Last edited by Mikado 4501
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Is the top picture a drawbar from a Legacy tender or Odyssey? Generally the Legacy tenders have the sensor on top of the drawbar and Odyssey have theirs on the bottom in a square housing. In my experience if the sensor of the replacement tender is on the same side as the original tender it should work regardless if the sensor is 2 or 3 wire. But you can't just swap sensors if one is 2 wire and the other 3 wire. Those sensors are connected to different circuitry in the tender.

 

Pete

Pete, the above drawbar is from Lionel's Legacy Berkshire from 2009-2010, but it has the bottom same square housing as the Odyssey TMCC steam engines.

 

The idea is to match the tender with a Lionel Legacy steam engine with the sensor on top.

 

Since changing IR's can't work, is there a way to rearrange the placement of the IR so they will be in contact with each other?

 

Unless the best idea is to wait for Lionel's BTO Berkshires and hope a stand alone tender pops on the market one day?...

The sensor in the square housing is the same size as the ones simply wrapped in shrink tubing. You should be able to remove the housing and place the sensor, sans housing, on top of the drawbar. Hold it in place with electrical tape to verify it will work before making it more permanent with shrink tube.

 

Pete

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