UP GRADING MTH ENGINES TO PROTOSOUND 02 OR 03

There may still be an upgrade kit or two for diesels in the for-sale forum here.  They're all for PS/2, no PS/3 kits yet.  MTH has been out of them for some time, they're talking fall for them.

Another option is to search ebay and pick up a cheapie railking ruggered rails engine and gut it for the parts to upgrade your engine. If you do go this route try to snag the 3v board model vs the older 5v boards, and get steamer so you'll have the smoke unit as well.

5 volt uses the barrel style recharge jack.

3 volt uses the white 2 pin plug style recharge jack.

If not sure sure by the listed photos run the MTH product number on their site and open the direction manual to see which board the unit has.

Mike

Clarke, apart from the issue of finding the upgrade kuts, any loco with a DC motor and a flywheel can be upgraded to PS2, if it contains adequate space.

Thank you for all the information guys, really appreciate it.   Clarke

If you decide to do the upgrade yourself, pick a nice quiet Sunday when the house is going to be empty, and allow 6-8 hours. Trust me on this.

Rod

And who is that someone?

No offense, but for $400, you're well on your way to buying a new PS2/PS3 locomotive, that's pretty steep for the upgrade!

Someone is 3 different people who do these kind of upgrade sir Lee.

400$ for a premier big boy with PS2/3 NIB?  If a train fan have it, just email me, I'm in for sure.

Some engine are special, I recognize it sir John.

Well, I'd assume you'd sell the existing one and buy the PS2 equipped locomotive.  Since I didn't have a model number to reference, I probably made an assumption that the difference between the conventional and the PS2 one would be around the same.

Also be aware some of the Proto engines don't take well to the current upgrade kits due to very close clearances in the body shell and other "exceptions". 

For example, the DDA40X I'm currently upgrading is stretching the imagination on how to make everything fit and work.

I'm going to have to raise the Proto2 board with some washers and longer screws, and then make a relief in the walkway from the bottom for the screwhead for the heatsink, putting the screw in from the top instead of the bottom.  It won't fit within the recess of the frame; the heatsink bottom sits on the body shelf.

It appears it will still leave a slight gap between the body and the frame.  It won't fit any other way I can figure out.

Another problem with this locomotive is it's so long many of the wires are too short; the battery charging  port for instance and can't be lengthened without impacting the charging circuit.  Smoke unit wires are too short to use the existing switches as instructions direct without lengthening them.

The headlights are another example; they require two bulbs each (four total) and the kit only comes with two.  I used two ditch light bulbs left over from the GG1 conversion for one set (hope the board can handle it).

The marker lights need to be held in with silicone or GOOP ) they are slightly smaller than the Proto ones.)

Hopefully MTH will resolve these types of problems with the Proto3 upgrade kit so when they sell you one for a specific locomotive all the parts will fit and work without going through all these gyrations.

One up side to it all; if you can upgrade one of these the rest of the diesels will be easier to do (not going to try any GEEPs or other narrow body locomotives with Proto2.)

I figured out that by turning the heatsink toward the front of the board assembly it will just fit with a little filing of the front screw mount on the board.  I decided to just use the bulbs that came in the upgrade kit as this is my first "big" upgrade.  Did add the second bulb as described.

I have recommended that for a first upgrade one use a wide-body diesel.  My first was an DS40-2 and it was tight.  Having to cut frames to fit speaker cores or build platforms for the board are other issues I've encountered.

I started with a Premier GG1 due to the room and lack of a smoke unit.  Wish I had purchased a Molex tool to remove the extra unused wires and not taken out the spring pad system.

The worst I ever did was a RailKing GG1.  Hard to squeeze board between motors & I had to build a platform to elevate it.  And when done, it was and is a lousy performing loco.  Tends to lose traction and when the tachstrip motors loses it, train stops as PS2 cuts power to motors so other motor can't pull it through.  I think it's a combination of short distance between power trucks and possibly some torque effect tending to lift weight off the traction-tired truck.

Sure it is, because you really don't know how many folks will want to upgrade a specific model.  Plus, the upgrade kits were for older PS-1 no longer made.  Frankly, it was done to appease customers with PS-1, it has become it's own cottage industry.

MTH wants to sell new trains, not low price kits so you can refurbish trains.

Would be like a car dealer under cutting their new car sales by offering to reburbish your car for 1/4 of the cost.  G

I swear off Shays!  Try routing that harness!  G

In my case upgrade kits didn't cause them to lose sales.  Their availability meant that everything (except ancient Lionel w/ open frame motors) I already had became PS2 and therefore DCS became my exclusive system & MTH my sole source for new locos.  I'd never have disposed of the old stuff to replace it with MTH.

Guys, I have done over 100 and still can not understand why people want to put money out doing Railking locomotives.  I have done Lionel (many), Weaver, K-Line,  Atlas, Williams and 3RD Rail.  I have one guy who has me take out his 5V boards and install 3V with 5V connectors.  I have another who loves to do his Williams engines.  Many guys get hung up on the heatsink.  If what comes in the kit does not fit, make your own.  Not a big problem. 

I have done several Williams GG-1 locomotives.  That is a cheap way to get a scale G with PS-2.

GGG gave solid advice.  Good advice on the LED markers. 

 Ayone who is thinking of having someone do an upgrade should let the person doing the upgrade be the first person to open the kit box.  Do not look at and play with the parts.

I am not looking for any work from this post as I am very busy with other things.  Doing upgrades has allowed me to build a large PS-1 board stock and recently PS-2 5V boards.  The 5V boards are for my own supply as I still have 52 locomotives with 5V boards. I am seeing many newer train guys running PS-1 locomotives.   I try to buy larger PS-1 locomotives with bad boards as well as larger Lionel locomotives that need help.  This translates to York spending cash.

I hear the Cab Forward is tough to upgrade due to the lack of mounting points for the harness plug under the rear deck, etc.

Marty, I agree upgrading an cheaper R-K is not financially reasonable.  But the cost of a kit thru the MTH Club plus no labor cost when do-it-yourself, it's probably about what a new MTH loco would cost less what a used loco could sell for.  But there is also (1) something to do [a need when retired] and (2) satisfaction.  Upgrading is probably financially justified if you have an expensive R-K, like an articulated.

I would humbly say that I managed a few upgrades on my own.. rather basic.

I purchased some PS2 Geeps Premier and simply swapped bodies. The prices have fallen far enough to compete with a upgrade from PS1 to ps2 versus simply grabbing a similar engine with PS2 off the bay.

In my case 1999 catalog premier geeps and chassis mated up essentially perfect with PS2 rail king chassis with two exception. The posts for the lights inside the chassis had to be removed and the other was the end rail with the middle chain would need some shimming to sit properly because the RK chassis floor is not as... good as the premier one.

After the change is made, selling off the guts and motors/trucks etc for whatever price you can get for them reduces the cost of going PS2 (With 3 volts as a bonus) even more.

I do have a ABA set being repaired this month and will soon find out what it took to get it done.

Look for Body shells to slowly increase in price when people realize that RK chassis and Premier in some cases are essentially the same.

It would be very helpful if there was somewhere one could look for the "alternative parts" numbers, so we'd know what to order from Midge to make something fit.

Does anyone know of such a source available to the non-service station person?

I don't think there is, even tech have trouble if the documents are not posted.  Supposedly, when the new web site is full implement, better documentation for parts should be available.

Do a random search on engines from the service link.  I look for engines that have parts diagrams listed and then look at their sheets.  G