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O Scale MTH Diesel Loco battery conversion question Locos and rolling stock
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Regular poster 131 posts toyzforme Regular poster 131 posts
toyzforme

Hey everyone I was thinking about doing an outdoor O scale layout and run it off battery power only.  So I bought a new MTH Diesel loco (SD60 to be exact) with the Proto 3.0 sound.  It is a gorgeous loco but what I thought was going to be a pretty easy conversion has me questioning a few things.  Has anyone done this conversion on a similar type loco with the Proto 3.0 sound on it?  I was thinking of using the CVP products but they said they haven't done this on the new locos yet and I would be the guinea pig LOL.  

Being as the decoder has the ability to do both DCC and DCS I could switch it to DCC and it might work with CVP products.  The only issue is that in the direction for the loco it stated you had to push F3 to switch between directions and that might not work with CVP.  Switching the wires to convert track power is pretty straight forward.  Just don't want to purchase the CVP system only to find out it won't work.  I hope I made sense 
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Neil Erickson NeilEr Moderator 5,784 posts
Neil Erickson NeilEr

An alternative

Consider getting a receiver from Tam Valley (through Dead Rail) which forms an interface between the decoder and the CVP throttle.  It should work fine in DCC with this and give you the control expected. 

Neil Erickson, Hawai’i 

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toyzforme Regular poster 131 posts
toyzforme

Didn't know that Tam Valley

Didn't know that Tam Valley and CVP would still be able to communicate with each other.  Interesting.

Does anybody make a wireless DC system.  I ran the loco at my local club in DC with a Lionel transformer and just with that I was able to blow the horn and use the bell.  This would be acceptable if there was a system out there.  Still researching but I am sure I will get the answer soon or later. LOL
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toyzforme Regular poster 131 posts
toyzforme

Project Completed

Well I bit the bullet and bought the CVP Airwire system.  It was actually very easy to do.  All I had to do was disconnect the wires that went to each truck for track power.  This loco has 2 motors so I just had to take the CVP receiver and connect the battery to it, and then run the wires from the output to the wires that I previously disconnected.  Turned everything on and pressed F3 and the loco started right up.  I have all the functions for sound, lights, and motor control through a wireless transmitter now.  It was actually very easy.  I give MTH credit for building a loco that has DCS and DCC capability.  Having the DCC ability made this conversion to Dead Rail quite easy.

So for anyone that might want to know if you can convert a O scale MTH loco with the new Proto 3.0 sound to use battery, I say yes it can be done. 
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