Williams A-B-B-A 3 dummies and 1 power Unit

That's a lot of weight.  You could add another power unit, but if you have the newer Williams/Bachmann units without the direction lock, synchronizing them is an absolute pain in the rear.

For me, I got the most power with the power unit shoving as the 4th unit, but the 3 dummoes were so heavy, adding more than a handful of cars caused slipping even on a flat run,

I'd power one of the B units, and set it up to run in the same direction as the powered A unit.

I have an ABA set of E7s that are all powered and a PA, PB, PA set with both of the A units powered. It is well worth the expense and effort to power those dummies if you want to run long trains, especially if you have steep grades on your layout. I don't have problems with synchronization for the most part. They get out of synch every now and again, but when that happens I power them down for about a minute and they all start up going the same way. I learned that the best way to keep them in synch is to slow them down to a stop and make sure they come to a complete stop before I advance the throttle lever.

As a couple of others have mentioned, power up one of the dummy units or you may end up with a defective powered unit. Or have just one dummy with one powered unit to keep the weight down on your powered unit.

 

Lee Fritz

I run A-B-A with the first A unit and the B unit powered. I pull 8 full length MTH passenger cars. The biggest reason I powered the dummy unit was the traction tires on the A unit were beginning to stretch and crack under the load. I got the dummy power kit at York for only 99.00.

Rob

Thanks for the responses. I may look into powering a B unit

I bought a damaged F7 power unit cheap in e bay and reversed the wires and mounted the frame to a dummy Pennsy F7A and now they easily pull a 14 car MTH Railking passenger train.

If you do get a 2nd powered unit and it is not running in the correct direction (such as a 2nd powered A unit) you can just swap the plugs on the board, where the motor wires plug into the board.

 

I have a ABA set of PA's pulling 8 Williams lighted cars was having some wheel slip with the one powered A unit added some extra weight to the powered A and now it is pulling fine!  

Powered unit last. But your still pushing a lot of dead weight.

Until the motors burn up. You might want to monitor the motor heat while running.

I run an ABA with both A's powered.  Added the diaphragms from Weaver and then ran a wire connecting the center pick-ups.  Improved the looks and keeps the reverse units in scync.

Who sells the remotor or power units for E-7's?

Depending on the wheel arrangement check out the sales at Pat's and Trainworld you might find something some for $85 to a $99 locos that you could gut the power on and sell the dummy.

 

If you look at the part #'s in the Willams catalogue/website then punch the #'s into Trainworld ;

http://www.trainworldonline.co...er-Upgrade-Kit-00243

 

I did find some trucks only for $18 each and have an unused engine to gut and use the power from , just droping in the motor to the geared trucks.