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What is this?

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  • Member since
    September 2006
  • From: NE Phoenix AZ
  • 593 posts
What is this?
Posted by duckdogger on Thursday, August 13, 2009 5:41 PM

 This is the frame from a P2K E-unit I purchased via Hoyardsale.  It was new and unopened.  This is a different board than all the older E-units I have from P2K.  Is this DC or DCC.  Nothing on the box gives me a clue.

Was going to do a test run and didn't want to fry it via my DC.

Thanks for your insight.">

 

Trains. Cooking. Cycling. So many choices but so little time.
  • Member since
    January 2009
  • From: Maryland
  • 12,897 posts
Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Thursday, August 13, 2009 5:50 PM

That is a DC lighting board. I have not had my E units apart in a long time to remember what they look like, but that little plug is a decoder bypass jumper and there is no decoder.

So it is definately a DC unit.

What did the box say? was the box blue? I'm sure its DC.

Sheldon

    

  • Member since
    September 2006
  • From: NE Phoenix AZ
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Posted by duckdogger on Thursday, August 13, 2009 6:00 PM

 Thanks Sheldon.  Yes - blue box.

Paul

Trains. Cooking. Cycling. So many choices but so little time.
  • Member since
    July 2003
  • From: Sierra Vista, Arizona
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Posted by cacole on Thursday, August 13, 2009 9:17 PM

 That's the DC constant lighting board and mars light controller, if the loco has a mars light.  There's a NMRA dummy DCC plug on the back of the board that can be removed to plug in a decoder.

  • Member since
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  • From: Reading, PA
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Posted by rrinker on Thursday, August 13, 2009 10:22 PM

Given the number of wires I see going up front, it does have a Mars light. My advice is to disconnect the wires from the stock board and connect them to the approriate decoder wires directly. And replace the silly 2 filament Mars light bulb with a 1.5V bulb and appropriate resistor - pretty much any decoder's mars light effect will blow away the P2K one. Repalce the normal headlight with a golden white LED and a 1K resistor.

Forget if I took any pictures of the one I did, but to return it to stock would mean simply cutting the wires and reconnecting them to the circuit board.

                                      --Randy


Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's

 

Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.

  • Member since
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  • From: NE Phoenix AZ
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Posted by duckdogger on Thursday, August 13, 2009 10:29 PM

 Thank you, all.

Trains. Cooking. Cycling. So many choices but so little time.
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  • From: East Haddam, CT
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Posted by CTValleyRR on Friday, August 14, 2009 9:21 PM

Paul,

 Looks like the same guts as the Proto 2K PA Limited Ed.

That's a DC model, probably with an 8 pin socket under that big black lump at the front.

Here's a link to the TCS Site with some pix:

http://www.tcsdcc.com/Customer_Content/Installation_Pictures/HO_Scale/Life_Like/Proto_2000_Alco_PA/Proto_2000_Alco_PA.html

Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford

"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford

  • Member since
    September 2006
  • From: NE Phoenix AZ
  • 593 posts
Posted by duckdogger on Monday, August 17, 2009 6:18 PM

 CTValley  - thanks for the link.

Paul

Trains. Cooking. Cycling. So many choices but so little time.

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