Welcome to the forum.
You do not state your usage and tip size requirements.
Old irons had no temp control at all, just an element that just cooked away at whatever wattage rating it was. They could be used successively but only at speed to keep using the heat available and so prevent the tip from becoming excessively hot and oxidising the solder.
Cheap modern stations have the temp sense near the tip and have another couple of wires to feed temp info back to the controller.
Even substitution of modern handpieces can be problematic as the sense circuitry is not universal between brands.
Most PCB work can be done with 50W or less however they won't do chassis soldering or large lugs that were often found in old equipment.
Unless you can cobble some sort of conversion together you may be better off to get another station that better suits your needs.