# K-Line Porter TMCC Conversion Project



## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Well, I have started a project to convert a K-Line Porter to TMCC. I'll start with the little tender, as the porter is currently in pieces in a box waiting on tether wiring to come in.

I found this little Lionel tender, just the right size for the Porter and set about making it suitable for the task. First off, the plastic wheels were pitched, who puts plastic wheels on O-gauge stuff!









Next, I added a center rail pickup and wheel wipers to expand the connection area for power over switches. Many of the little powered units like the Porter have problems going over switches.









I added a Kadee coupler on the front as the Porter already has those, and I left the standard coupler on the back so I can pull whatever standard cars I like. And finally, I added weight so the little thing wouldn't flop of the track with a couple of cars behind it.

















More to come...  I'm kinda' waiting on the mini-tether and connectors from Miniatronics now so I can start wiring the locomotive and tender.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Well, the deed is done! I have a TMCC controlled K-Line Porter.  It was somewhat of a tussle at times, but it's in the can. I'm happy to report that adding the extra pickups was probably a good idea, it doesn't miss a beat, even running dead slow over the switches.

Here's an addition, the chuff switch in the lower right side. This controls the fan driven smoke unit fan to generate the chuffs.









The normal tether was too large for the task, so I used two 4 pin Miniatronics connector kits. They're really tiny and worked out well, I needed a total of 7 wires to the locomotive.









Here's the ERR Mini Commander 2 installed in the tender. You can see the tethers going through the floor, and the wires for the pickups and the chuff switch coming up. In the upper right hand corner is the connections to the configuration jumper, this is used to change the TMCC address of the locomotive. The large black component in the heat-shrink is a 3A PTC resettable fuse. This is in case of a derailment crossing the pickups, the fine wire used would go up in smoke if it's not current limited.









The "finished" tender, looks pretty much like it started, except those wires hanging out and the Kadee coupler.









The rear of the locomotive with the two tethers. Note that one is male and one is female, this prevents connecting the wrong ones together and cooking things. I didn't take pictures inside the locomotive, it was just wiring to the various components, all the control and electronics are in the tender.









Here's the finished unit on the rails complete for the first time, ready for it's maiden voyage. 









Started it up, nice headlight, and smoke coming on strong. The tender looks just the right size for the project.









After a few seconds, you can see that the smoke unit is up to the task of running you out of the room! 









There you have it, the TMCC conversion of the K-Line Porter locomotive.


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## eljefe (Jun 11, 2011)

Very nice little loco. Is this going to be pulling some of your 60+ ore cars?


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

It's likely to have varied tasks.  I'm glad to finally get it on the rails, it's been living in the closet with no electronics for some time now.


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## eljefe (Jun 11, 2011)

The reason I ask is I'm not sure what a little steamer like this would be used for.

Seems like something you'd see at a factory or a mine, probably only pulling a few cars at a time.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Yep, typically they'd be pulling one or two coal, ore, or log cars I would imagine. They might be used in an industrial setting for moving stuff around within the plant property. This is not a mainline locomotive, I think they topped out at around 15 MPH max speed.


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