Regarding a used MTH steam engine from the year 2000 (with no boxes available), how can I tell whether the engine is equipped with Loco-Sound or Proto-Sound 2.0? The engine was originally made available in both versions.
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One thing that immediately comes to mind is the stickers on the under side of the engine, if they are there. They are small black stickers that will either read "PS2 Passenger/Freight" or "Loco Sound...."
Unfortunately, no sticker on it.
Unfortunately, no sticker on it.
It would be on the bottom of the tender.
The other option is to open the tender and look for a battery. Only PS2 engines have a battery, Locosound engines do not.
I pulled out my locosound 2-8-0 -I HAVE to sell this thing
- It has a manual coupler on the tender. PS2 would have remote control coupler.
- if you power it up, and let it sit, do the little men inside the train start talking? loscosound trains don't come with little guys that talk.
Ask the seller?
If you have DCS, put it on the track and turn on the DCS power in Command mode. If it jets down the rails then it's Locosound (conventional), if it clicks (watchdog signal) it's PS2.
Locosound has horn/bell/whistle, cruise control, diesel rumble, steam chuff, and directional lighting (diesel).
My Locosound RS3 sounds OK, but my Locosound 2-8-0 sounds like a box-o-rocks.
A Locosound engine wouldn't have a battery charging jack either.
A sure fired method is as Bob pointed out if you have DCS.
Also the tether connection for PS-2 will have ten pins and most probably Locosound has say only four.
The lack of a charging port is not a sure indicator since this was not added to PS-2 engines for a year or two.
Ron