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ABA PS 2.0 Upgrade Questions

CincinnatiWesternCincinnatiWesternOGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER

There is an MTH premier ABA set that I would really love to add to our railway, only trouble is the new layout is being wired for DCS only operations and the set was only offered in the late 90's in PS 1.0.

 

How much trouble am I looking at to upgrade it to a PS 2.0 engine set?

Is this just a single upgrade kit retaining one of the A units as a slave to the other, or does this involve upgrading both A units to full status?

 

Someone has offered me the set NIB, I love the idea of adding it, but am fearful of this becoming a nightmare of expensive parts which result in an engine which is either extremely expensive (hundreds in multiple upgrade kits) or never works properly. 

 

Thank you, DCS upgrade gurus who are willing to help me to understand the ever evolving mystery which is DCS.

 

Best,

Jason

 

 

 

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SH Southwest HiawathaOGR Forum Member

Kerrigan

 

How did you get those? It was my understanding that MTH did not market slave kits. I did an AB upgrade once by cannibalizing a Proto-2 set, but I never heard of the factory selling the slave boards as part of a kit. 

Originally Posted by Kerrigan:

I purchased a couple master/slave Proto2 upgrade kits from MTH.  They worked well upgrading a GN ABA set from Proto to Proto2.  Also for upgrading a Gas Turbine.

 

 

 

TexasSPTexasSPOGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER
Originally Posted by Kerrigan:

I purchased a couple master/slave Proto2 upgrade kits from MTH.  They worked well upgrading a GN ABA set from Proto to Proto2.  Also for upgrading a Gas Turbine.

 

 

 I've got a gas turbine I need to upgrade myself.  Can you shed any light on this process as to how intensive it was?

Train DoctorTrain DoctorOGR Forum Member

If one has an A-B-A set with two powered A units, do you really need 2 powered units on your layout? One powered A unit with two motors should be sufficient for all but those pulling prototypical sized trains. It would be fairly economical to upgrade one A unit and convert the other A unit to a nonpowered unit. Since Proto 3.0 seems to be the MTH wave of the future, you could start saving now for the eventual issue of 3.0 controlled F units. On our club layout we run Protosounds locos using the transformer to control them with no problem or harm coming to the DCS components. 

KerriganKerriganOGR Forum Member

Probably a year ago, or maybe more, I ordered upgrade kits for a coal turbine, a gas turbine, two ABA sets, and a master upgrade for a diesel.  At that time MTH would occasionally make up sets for these upgrades upon request.

 

Received them all after a wait.

 

Did one, kept one back, and used the rest with a MTH Tech doing the upgrades.

KerriganKerriganOGR Forum Member
Grades.  Bought an Atlas NP ABBA freight set with all units powers + sound.  For freights on the to-be-built 3+% grade going to the upper level.
 
Originally Posted by Hot Water:
Originally Posted by Train Doctor:

If one has an A-B-A set with two powered A units, do you really need 2 powered units on your layout? One powered A unit with two motors should be sufficient for all but those pulling prototypical sized trains. 

NOT if one has ANY grades, and/or one pulls 40+ freight trains!

 

SH Southwest HiawathaOGR Forum Member

Interesting, thanks for posting. First time I ever heard MTH was selling upgrade kits with slave boards. For a long time, they wouldn't. A year ago is about the time I was building a PS/2 AA set of Milwaukee Road DL109's by cannibalizing an AB set from a different road. Same outcome, different path. Wonder if they are still taking orders for those types of kits. I no longer have any need, the DL109's were my last PS/1 set, but I think there are still a lot of people around who would like to have a kit of that kind. 

Originally Posted by Kerrigan:

Probably a year ago, or maybe more, I ordered upgrade kits for a coal turbine, a gas turbine, two ABA sets, and a master upgrade for a diesel.  At that time MTH would occasionally make up sets for these upgrades upon request.

 

Received them all after a wait.

 

Did one, kept one back, and used the rest with a MTH Tech doing the upgrades.

 

pennsydavepennsydaveOGR Forum Member DIGITAL SUBSCRIBER

Jason,  Unless you are getting the PS-1 set extremely cheap; I would pass and invest that $300(2 upgrade kits) plus what you were going to spend for the PS-1 set in a new PS-3 ABA set.  The newer sets have better details, more features etc.  Also you can usually find them at some type of discount. Are you going to York? That's a good place to get a deal but you have to look.  If you are not doing the upgrade yourself then add another $250 or so.  

 

If you really want the engines, Dave Minarik has a good idea.  Two upgrade kits and run them as a lash up.  Then you can also run them individually if you want to.  

 

Lots of decisions in the train world!  Best of luck.

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