I've been looking for a deal on a PRR P5A engine for quite some time. My favorite is the boxcab, but finding one at a reasonable price that's not crumbling from zink pest is almost impossible. The 3rd Rail boxcabs rarely enter into my price range, and then they still don't operate in anything other than conventional. So I figured I'd expand my search a bit and include the P5A Modified engines.
Came across a deal on the big auction site on a 3rd Rail P5A Modified, but as it wasn't a "must have", I bided my time. It was being offered by one of the big train resellers, and after a while, if there are no purchasers, they usually drop the price. They did. A few times. Definitely dropped into the range I was looking to spend. The only question was, should I get that one, or spend more and get an MTH one with Proto 2? I knew the 3rd Rail ones, while looking great didn't have any sort of control system, and I wasn't sure if they had sound. Adding both would cost more than the difference in price.
However, the listing mentioned that electro-couplers had been added. Now, electro-couplers generally don't just work by themselves, there has to be some sort of control system to operate them. I looked again at the pictures of it. Hmm..., are those tach stripes on the flywheel? So now I'm thinking that some previous owner has performed some sort of upgrade, and that made the price (combining 3rd Rail's wonderfully detailed body with some sort of modern control system) too good to pass up. Plus, if I got it from their website, I had almost $50 off in credits from previous purchases.
Finally showed up today. The listing had mentioned that one of the pantographs was bent. Less than 5 minutes after unboxing it, it wasn't bent anymore.
Turning it over and examining it, it looked like I could see a blue battery inside it, as well as tach tape on the flywheel, and there was a volume pot and 2 pin port for a charger. 3V PS2? Sure looked like it.
Put it on the test track, fired up the DCS remote, went to add an MTH engine, and sure enough, it showed up! All sounds worked fine, directional lighting, moved forward and reverse, couplers both fired, the whole nine yards. PS2 upgraded indeed!
The only question is what sort of inspection do they give engines at that large train reseller that nobody noticed that? I've notified them several times about inaccurate listings, and they just don't seem to care. Sure, they'll give a buyer a refund, but wouldn't it be better to ship the items they listed as listed? Oh well, I've got a heck of a deal (at about half the price the cheapest MTH P5A Modified was going for on the big auction site), took advantage of their 4th of July reward points multiplier, and now have another $50 or so credit towards my next purchase...
