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Hi guys I finally pulled the trigger and purchased my first Proto engine up until this point I’ve only purchased Newer dcs engines. MTH 20-3029-1 Southern pacific GS4 And it’s beautiful doesn’t even look like it’s been removed out of the box I got it for a great deal and I’m entertaining the thought of upgrading it to Proto 2.0 what are your thoughts. I’ve never done an upgrade or have attempted to do something so extensive before and I’m open to options and suggestions.

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Looks like any of the shops I called are holding onto the kit for in-house installs or there sold out. I’m not afraid to take on jobs as long as the instructions are clear and it’s basically either car removal or parts swapping I’m in good shape even soldering I don’t have an issue with but I’m curious to see if it’s even worth upgrading. These kids don’t seem to be really out there readily available anymore and maybe it just pays to buy a newer engine I’m not sure am I sacrificing detail by sticking with an older engine I don’t know I’m on the fence

I've done basically what you want already to a PS2 5V GS6 I got that was missing all the wiring/boards. It's basically the same as installing the kit in a PS1 locomotive. I take the extra time to build a harness with all LED lights so I can run everything off the headlamp circuit. It's not particularly hard (at least for me) just time consuming:

MTH Premier Western Pacific GS64 to Southern Pacific GS6 | O Gauge Railroading On Line Forum (ogaugerr.com)

Your Daylight has a large overhang on the cab effecting harness connection.  So you will have some mods to do.  Certain engines are harder then other and some require mechanical besides electrical work.  Some engine benefit from using different parts not included in the kit, like speaker size, coupler length, harness etc...  Advantage a tech has when doing this. G

Thanks for the input, first thing is first locating a kit. After I kind of see it laid out in front of me I can make a determination if it’s something I really want to tackle. I live in Northern New Jersey and there’s not a lot of train shops perhaps near me that I could just bring the engine to to do the upgrade because by all means if the money was right I would just have it done but we’ll see thanks again for everyone’s input

@GGG posted:

Your Daylight has a large overhang on the cab effecting harness connection.  So you will have some mods to do.  Certain engines are harder then other and some require mechanical besides electrical work.  Some engine benefit from using different parts not included in the kit, like speaker size, coupler length, harness etc...  Advantage a tech has when doing this. G

Yup. There is a larger cab overhang on the PS1 version than the PS2 version I converted. When they went to PS2 the locomotive frame was moved closer to the end of the cab to accommodate the 90 degree PS2 tether. I picked up a Premier PS1 GS4 that had been converted to PS2 3V with the upgrade kit a couple years ago. Whoever did it used the 90 degree tether from the upgrade kit. It fit but the tether had to be jammed in the socket. I ended up replacing it with a flat tether and all is well.

Last edited by Lou1985

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