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I have a large 3-rail layout set up with three (3) MTH TIU's plus four (4) Remotes; whereby, I run Proto-Sound 2.0 engines only.   I am wanting to know if the early Proto-Sound and/or Proto-Sound 1.0 engines would operate to my satisfaction, or will I be totally disappointed?  I periodically see a used MTH PS or PS 1.0 engine for sale that I would like to add to my layout.  I was once told, years ago, that I should stay away from PS and PS 1.0 engines once I have run PS 2.0 engines.

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@SIRT posted:

PS1 - Stay away, different, outdated design. Gut them out, they make better dummies.

SIRT,

Thanks for your opinion but your warning is excessively dire.  Why?

And for what specific reasons should we avoid them?  It's very important to explain why, especially to newbies.  Precisely why.

Otherwise all we get is that you personally don't like them.

There are many, many, many of us who run PS1 without problems.  Because they are fancy conventionally-controlled locomotives the learning curve is steeper than we'd like to see, but there is nothing fundamentally wrong with them.

My "dummies" run fine; quite well actually.

Mike

ps 2 engines are good running engines as long as you change the 8.4 volt batteries especially if it still has the 20 year old white battery in it. the only down fall is they only run in conventical environment ! you can also convert them to ps 3 with the steam or diesel kits and then run DCS with your remote !

Alan

@Alan Mancus posted:

ps 2 engines are good running engines as long as you change the 8.4 volt batteries especially if it still has the 20 year old white battery in it. the only down fall is they only run in conventical environment ! you can also convert them to ps 3 with the steam or diesel kits and then run DCS with your remote !

Alan

Alan...  Did you mean PS 1.0 at the start of your reply??  PS 2 engines do not only run conventionally.

I have more than a dozen PS 1.0 engines...all equipped with BCR's replacing the batteries.  Yes, they only run conventionally.  But they all are still running very well, indeed, with all functions, lights, and sounds as per their original specs.

I did have one PS 1.0 F3 set converted to PS-2 by one of this forum's very best conversion specialists.  As purchased (secondary market) it had PS-1 issues, but was cosmetically perfect...IMHO, of course.  As we negotiated his services, the specialist commented that...in his own humble opinion...PS 1.0 generation engines were some of MTH's best...cosmetically.  They were the first group of moldings...body shells, steam boiler/cab castings...from the original tooling.  He felt they were more 'crisp' in their detail features.   I agree...which is another reason why my PS 1.0 herd of horsepower is going nowhere but on my rails.

I have quite a few PS 2 & -3 engines, too.  I only run them conventionally.  They run fine, too.

One final perspective: Maybe it's due to my own age (a gritty septuagenarian) and the sensitivities thereof, but I'm rather fond of older generations of things that continue to operate well.  Hey!...That's one of the storied pleasures of this hobby...especially among the Pre- and Post-War enthusiasts!!  And when the older versions even look better than some of the new generation issues...something the mirror doesn't confirm to myself in the morning!!!...I have even more appreciation of their survival!

PS 1.0's only good as/for "Dummies"??  I don't think so.

Signed...

One Gritty Geezer enjoying his PS 1.0 engines...to the MAX.

TEHO, of course.

Last edited by dkdkrd
@dkdkrd posted:


One final perspective: Maybe it's due to my own age (a gritty septuagenarian) and the sensitivities thereof, but I'm rather fond of older generations of things that continue to operate well.  Hey!...That's one of the storied pleasures of this hobby...especially among the Pre- and Post-War enthusiasts!!

PS 1.0's only good as/for "Dummies"??  I don't think so.

Signed...

One Gritty Geezer enjoying his PS 1.0 engines...to the MAX.

TEHO, of course.

Very well said.

Mike

@dkdkrd posted:

Alan...  Did you mean PS 1.0 at the start of your reply??  PS 2 engines do not only run conventionally.

Actually, PS/2 and PS/3 locomotives run just fine in a conventional environment, I know many people running them that way.

However, based on the context of this thread, I hope he really did mean PS/1, otherwise it makes no sense.

Now to the OP's question...

If you have some loops controlled by the variable channels of the TIU's, you can run the PS/1 locomotives on your layout with no further modifications.  The DCS remote even offers a convenient PS/1 startup sequence that automagically fires up the PS/1 locomotive.

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