Has anyone done it? If so what motors did you use? I know other makers have done it, just thinking?
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Hi, Lionel made a powered B with sort of that #; 6-14517.
Thanks, I'll look that # up.
If that is an original postwar 2343 you probably want to match it up with the same type of motors; ie horizontal growlers. Otherwise they won’t run well together. Finding a donor PW 2343 is pretty easy but swapping those motors and trucks over to the B unit chassis might be a challenge. And then there is the issue of co-ordinating the two so that they run together. You would likely want a tether cord between them.
Rod
Thanks.
No problem.
You never did confirm what era of 2343 you are dealing with, but I took a look at my 1950-51 A-B-A set which happens to be handy on my display shelves. Both powered and non-powered A units have two crescent-shaped openings in the frame plate, to accomodate the gear end and the armature end of the horizontal motors. There is one opening each in front and back of the truck mount swivel pin; both ends of the frame. Not surprisingly the B unit does not have these.
So you would have to use the donor A unit frame holes as a pattern to cut the needed holes in the B unit frame. Another option would be to use the donor A unit frame in the B unit, which looks like it would need the rounded front frame apron trimmed back about 1/2" or so to fit. Looks like it would work otherwise. You would want to swap over the complete motor-truck assemblies from the donor A unit.
To power the B unit motors you would need a 4 wire tether harness between the A-B units; 2 wires for the armature and 2 for the field winding connections. No big deal. Moving the E unit over to the B unit could be done of course. But keeping separate E-units in sync is always a challenge! One is always dropping out so you have to do the whole re-syncing all over again. I remember those days well. 
Rod
Unless you are trying to have a powered ABA like K-Line did early on(six motors) why not just double up two powered 2343 units. Tie both to a single reversing unit and Bob's your uncle.
Mr Stewart, and Mr. DeBrooke, I think I'll leave well enough alone. Why do I get these crazy ideas ?
IMO it’s not that crazy of an idea; I have had (and acted on) even crazier ones! Haha. It is doable.
Back quite a few year ago I did something similar with a pair of Frisco U36B engines; #8571 powered and 8572 dummy, 1975 era engines, very basic. The powered unit had only one “Pull-less” (!) motor and the pair was useless with any more than perhaps 4 cars in tow.
I bought a complete power truck from Lionel parts and stuck that in the dummy along with a QSI ACRU. I also built a 4 wire tether so as to run them together and it was a huge improvement. The ACRU in the dummy was on a switch so I could also separate them and run either as a single engine. It worked pretty well and pulling power for the pair was greatly improved.
Rod
I have a dummy 'A' unit that has been converted to a power unit, and run them one locked forward, the other reverse, works well. Just 'looked' at the 'B' unit and thought it would be cool to have an 2343 from the 50's be powered?
I have a Fundimensions single motor Canadian Pacific F3 (8365). Put a powered chassis on the dummy A (8366) to get a two motored unit.
