RCS battery R/C into LGB Mikado.

Garden Railroading
1

Recently a very good RCS customer here in Australia asked me to convert an LGB Mikado to battery R/C.

Part of the specs were that he wanted to retain the excellent LGB sound and the way that it worked such as the two toots of the whistle for forwards and three for reverse. Plus he wanted to have the RCS sound trigger functions also work the regular reed switch triggers.

It actually took two attempts to get the installation right.
The first time it all went together just fine with all the equipment in the boiler and the batteries in the tender.
Problem was the range at about 20’ was not very good.
To solve the range problem I had my customer return the loco for modification. I removed the RF-RX part and antenna from the boiler where the LGB sound was causing RF Interference and relocated them to the tender shell. This solved the problem and the range is now over 100’.
Some of the pics were taken during the first version so do not show the modifications to RCS components in the boiler.

This was the very first time I had seen an LGB Mikado so the the hardest part of the conversion was figuring out how to get the loco apart. With a little help from Dave Goodson I soon had that problem solved.

The first part of this “How I did it” are a series of pics with arrows pointing out which screws need to be removed.
I recommend placing the loco upside down in the top of the foam packing. This will help protect the loco from any damage during handling.

Pic #1 is self explanatory.

Pic #2 (a & b) likewise. Sorry they are bit out of focus.

Once the motor block assembly has been removed refer to pic #3.
[img]http://www.rcs-rc.com/pics/LGB-Mikado/03

2

Tony, I am in the process of converting an LGB Mikado without decoder to the RCS 5 system. I want to use the LGB sound system. I have it completely apart, and have installed all the equipment in the Tender. I am trying to figure out which wires are for the bell, whistle, chuff, and front and year lights. My salesman had me wire in a relay-u for the lights. I have wired directly to the red/black wires that were originally track power. I believe the 3 wires on one side of the 5 wire cable are the ones I want to tap in to. Do I need to wire the front headlight directly to the SW-5 board, or will it work without doing that? I am concerned that I will blow out the electronics, so want to be sure before I add the power. Your help would be most appreciated. Thanks, Red

3

If I recall, having done several, the 5-wire plug in right rear, wires 2 and 4.

A quick test is power up, usually have to have wheels turning as sound won’t work without a chuff input, test light to ground, probe the pins and see.

TOC

4

Hi Red. With Don Sweet being away I know Dave has sorted the problem for you. However his advice bears repeating here. You can power the LGB sound direct from the traction batteries, fused of course, and power the rear light on its own direct from the RCS lighting outputs provided the bulb has been replaced with a 15 volt type. You will not have the 2 toots for forwards and three toots for reverse. If they are still needed the wiring can get complicated.