Hello Everyone-- I am thinking about buying a Marklin UP PA pair. Has anyone had any experience with the two A units, which are wired and tethered together? Thanks, Steve Williams
overall, I was not impressed, major minuses, they are permantly teathered together, can not be operated seperately. UP's SOP was to operate most often as A-B units or A-B-A, not A-A. Even though they are diecast, they are lacking in detail, and lastly and the really big one is that they only have one powered truck per loco, only six of the total twelve axles are powered. Get a pair of Protos, you will be happier.
While I am not familiar specifically with the Marklins, I do have some additional comments relative to the subject. I run E6, F7 & F3 lashups. I can find pictures of AB, ABA, ABBAB and AA. It seems that as long as the first one was an A is all that was important. For me, I agree with another about AB vs AA, although my F3s are AA while my two sets of F7 are AB. What ever floats your boat, I say. As for lashed together, I am WAY in favor of that. All but one of my pairs is connected with a draw bar for two reasons, distance between the units can be MUCH closer with the draw bar and the draw bar NEVER has a coupler failure, ever. Doug Geiger, GMR #8 not only uses draw bars but he also uses only one decoder with both units powered and he has wires running between them. He did it for reliability and performance purposes. One other thing, I never use 'dummy' units. My 25 car trains on my 2 Raton pass grade needs all the power it can find. Most of my units are not only a b powered, but area sound equipped as well. My E-6 lash up is with two P2K A units, with one of them wearing a B unit shell. Took some minor surgery with a sprue cutter to make it work, but it is a sweet lash. Just my 2 cents, Joe
