The Lionel SD45 Great Northern “Hustle Muscle”, which was in the 2016 v2 catalog, was my first Legacy engine that did not have the orange Legacy Module that is used to load the engine info into the Legacy control system. At first, I thought it was a shipping problem, but after some research using the search function on the Forum, I found a thread that confirmed the fact that the Orange Module has been made redundant. Below is the link to the thread which is on the Lionel TMCC and Legacy Forum.
https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...th-the-memory-module
My Legacy system was running an old version of the software, so based on comments from the Forum and watching a video (Episode #61) by Eric Siegel of Eric’s Trains, I decided that I should upgrade the software.
Link to Eric's video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5L4xRpTTpQ
Eric does a great job walking you through your options, including using the LCS Wi-Fi; I elected to use the cable method. Regardless, you will need to have a Black Writable Memory Module, which I bought on Amazon for less than $20, including shipping, from Legacy Station. I also needed a cable that was a USB to Serial Cable adapter. I also downloaded the Lionel Legacy System Utility from Lionel’s web site (Eric’s video walks you through how to use the utility). Here is the link to Lionel’s web site.
https://www.lionelsupport.com/LegacyBaseReturn/
The Legacy System Utility has the ability to key in your engine info and save it to the Legacy Base. Its superfast and you can also back-up your other engine data.
This first picture shows the UBS to serial cable that I purchased on Amazon, for less that $10. The nuts on the serial end does not allow you to plug the cable into the port on the Legacy Base, but I had the cable on the left (I think it came with the Legacy System, but I purchased the system so long ago, I don't remember).
In any event, as you can see in the second picture, it fits perfectly in to the "Serial COMM" end of the Lionel Cable, which also attaches to the Legacy Base.
When you have your base turned on, the cable will display a blue light to show its connected.
Below is a screen print of the Legacy System Utility from my Windows computer. You can see at the very bottom, the term "Base: Connected". This first page has all of the functions available, including making modules for the legacy update and backing up the data on your Legacy Base.
The tab "Engine Data" is where you can look at your engine data and key in data for new engines.
Below, you can see the data for the Great Northern #400, which I gave it an ID # of 40.
This only works if you have the base connected. IT took a little time to get everything up-to-date, but It was worth it for this baby:
I hope this helps!
