Upgrading Older 5 Volt Steamer to PS3

Wire nut

Running with one roller sucks, you may have to come up something to  jury rig the tender roller....

Of course it has to be insulated from the  frame.

I think running with one roller would be an exercise in futility!  What is the exact model of the locomotive?

People can't see picture unless they have photo bucket account.  Where did the red wire from 7 pin go to?  Small switchers did have that configuration.  Is this a sloped tender?  Good luck getting a PS-32 in that tender. G

How many amps would an S scale PS3 board set handle? could it be used in these small steamers?

I'd consider maybe a 3V board in there, they're smaller than the PS32 setup.  There's got to be a wire from both pickups, nobody does a locomotive with one pickup!

Charly posted:

Hey all...

...  the thing is, the tender and engine have one pickup each. 

I guess I am reading this wrong? I think she just doesn't see how the two are connected?

I read it as the tender already has a pick-up.

Unless this is a 2 rail model???

I think with G seeing the picture, and I at least, can not see it, I can't help at all. Obviously G can handle this one.

I don't understand why people persist in using Photobucket now, it's useless for forum postings.  Since you can easily upload directly to this forum, it seems pointless to post pictures that nobody can see!

Photo bucket was a signature, not the engine, sorry guys, haven't figured out how to get rid of it.  This is a PRR Mogul or Consolidation, and I'm at the store so I don't have the stock number.  Tender is not sloped, so no problem fitting the board in.  The board appears to be expecting two pickups on the engine none on the tender because the pickup leads are in the tender tether.  I'm looking at snipping the hot and splicing in the pickup.  Also there is a ground from the board and I'm guessing I can just ground that to tender frame, eh?

Thanks.

I haven't seen this engine. I do know that some have the wiring special to meet the 3/2 compatibility. So if you change the wiring for 3 rail use only, you would be fine. I might suggest taking out the 3/2 switch then. If this applies!

If it's a 5V model, I can't imagine it having the 2/3 Rail switch, that didn't come along until well into the 3V era.

Since there will be a tether between the engine and the tender, you'll have power in both places, just connect them together.  Unless I'm missing something really basic, this is a non-issue.

With the PS32 board, you'll be using all the 5V wiring except for the battery harness.  Replace the speaker, mount the board, and plug the plugs in on the PS32 board. If you have room for the board, this is a dirt-simple upgrade.

I typically remove the charging jack and battery harness to avoid any possibility of confusion later by the owner.

The board does not expect anything but connectors plugged in.  Is this a total upgrade with a PS-3 Steam kit where you have changed harnesses?  If so you might loose some engine functions depending on model.  You also need to make sure you change the engine harness to match, or at least verify wiring including diodes for PV.

As John stated, the normal fix is just replacing board with a PS-32 or PS-2 3V with 5V connectors, plus the speaker.  Instead of splicing into the harness red, why not add another red wire to the 7 pin for the tender pickup directly.  More reliability/redundancy.  G

I have several engines with only two pickups (one each in tender and engine) and it does work ok in most situations except perhaps some turnouts or double cross overs.  My issue with Proto2/3 upgrades is that the smph is usually different than factory installed engines.  I run multiple trains simultaneously on each loop and I have to remember that at 10 smph, my Kline Hudson needs to run at 16 smph, my Kline Tank runs at 8 smph.  My Kline F3's (AA) runs at 33 smh when it is set at 14 smph.  If you do not care about this issue (does not apply to how you run your trains) go for the upgrade.

You can frequently add a pickup to either the locomotive or the tender, and of course I common the pickups so that they're all active.

As far as the difference in scale MPH speed of upgrades, you need to consider a custom tach tape for that issue.  Here's a direct link to a document by Hikel O Gauge describing custom tach tape generation.  Attached to that post are also a set of PDF files with various count tach tapes that should work for most situations.