Spendy PS2 upgrade kits

Thats why you have to be careful on your pricing of locomotives

True.  With the cost of MTH and Lionel always on the upward trend, companies like Atlas and 3rd Rail look better all the time.  The latest offering from 3rd Rail, for instance, the E-7 diesel, is as fine a product as any offered by the Big Guys.

Personal opinion only, 3rd Rail steamers are by far the best on the market.

Upgrading the ABA and Turbine set is still hundreds less expensive than the new ones.

You could just pull the motors on the trailing unit, won't need a slave board then.  :-)  G

I agree with GGG above. Ask yourself if you really need those motors to pull.

Up my going-to-be close to 4% grade, I'd say "probably!"

Well then, you have answered your own question. It is pricey.

Might be worth considering the new one and put this one on the block without upgrading it.

"Although less than the combined cost of a Master and a Slave upgrade kit alone"

what do estiamte is the "combined cost" + install because that is where I find myself.  I have two diesel upgrade kits at $149 each, but recently found out that the slave unit is needed on the particular diesels I planned to upgrade.  UP veranda turbine and DD40AX

edmunda,

You don't need a slave kit for the DD40AX. It only has 2 motors.

Hey I have a PS2 Alco ABA on the for sale forum, everything perfect, then you have everything.

Clem K

After spending way too much time attempting to upgrade the narrow body DDA40X just to have it short when trying the conventional test I took the rest of the kits and the ABA, Gas Turbine, and Coal Turbine to the MTH tech and had him upgrade them.  Saved me months of effort (judging by the DDA effort) and lots of frustration, but ended up costing.  Had to get another Diesel master kit so he could upgrade the Coal Turbine as two locomotives to run as a pair.

Picking them up this week and they will be done done done.

I have no intent to try myself.  If you are willing to provide the cost charged by the MTH tech to perform the various upgrades (DD40AX and Coal Turbine), that would help me make some decisions about which units I plan to upgrade.  I have a few diesel upgrade kits.  I have a good feel for the cost to perform the upgrade for the DD40AX, but not for a unit such as a Coal Turbine, Veranda Turbine, or Gas Turbine, that requires a diesel upgrade kit and a slave unit.  Feel free to send me an e-mail offline if you prefer.

Glad I'm not paying a tech $100+ on top of that to do the upgrades!

After spending way too much time attempting to upgrade the narrow body DDA40X just to have it short when trying the conventional test I took the rest of the kits and the ABA, Gas Turbine, and Coal Turbine to the MTH tech and had him upgrade them.

So the MTH Tech is doing them for free??

No one does anything "for free" these days.

Nope, I had to bite the bullet which was better than dumping another 3-4 months of time and frustration into it.

The Coal Turbine required to master kits the way the upgrade was done, so it was an additonal $168 on top of the rest.  The labor was about $275 on the turbines combined, around $100 on the DDA to re-do my mess, and another $125 on the ABA F-3 set.

Sill less expensive then buying one new coal turbine ...

The final amounts were:

Labor on fixing the DDA40X install I started (he basically started over) - $100

Labor on ABA upgrade - $125

Labor on Gas Turbine upgrade - $125

Labor on Coal Turbine upgrade - $175

Additional Master kit for Coal Turbine - $189.95

16 tires - $12.80

I provided the other upgrade kits.

MTH tech ended up putting a diesel upgrade kit in the B unit as well as the A unit on the coal turbine rather than trying to use the slave kit and rig up tethers. They run in a lash-up now.

Not cheap, but still less than purchasing two new locomotives.  Now I have four converted to Proto2 for the price of two new, is one way of looking at it I guess.

The ones I converted were new in the box, only the coal turbine and the DDA had perhaps 1 hour each running time on them.