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hello everyone , this is probably a simple question so excuse me for my lack of smarts here , I'm running a small layout with a few lionchief plus engines that is fast expanding , mth rail king has a lot of engines I'm interested in as they fit the need of what I'm doing I would like to get mth dcs equipped , so my question is if I get the dcs remote and track interface unit and wire it into my layout what rail king engines are out of the box dcs ready , as in how can I distinguish them from conventional rail king engines when looking to buy , and are older engines upgrade able , can I get dcs chips for older conventional engines and convert them to run on my layout ? I know about ps1 2 and 3 now are those just sound boards on conventional engines or are all ps equipped engines dcs ready , any help filling in the blanks here would be awesome thanks all!!

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Trains after 2000 with a -1 at the end of the product number are PS-2 and after about 2010 PS-3.  So any PS-2 or 3 is DCS capable.  It is a complete board set that does everything, not a chip.

It an engine states it is ProtoSound and or has a QSI marking, that is a conventional engine.  Other conventional system is LocoSound, but that product has a -0 at the end of the product number.

I would look for RK engines from 2005 and newer.  These would be PS-2 3V boards or the latest PS-3.  Try to avoid the first generation PS-2 board which is a 5V board (uses the 9V batter).  They were 2000 to about 2004.   G

Railking locomotives are a great buy.  New they are not very costly.  The guys gave you excellent advice.  Don't get caught up in buying a PS-1 Railking and converting it to PS-2 or PS-3.  It can be done but not a good move cost wise.

One great thing about Railking is that the locomotives use the same boards as the higher end Premier locomotives.  Good luck.

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