Atlas N scale gp40 with factory dcc


VTRailway

VTRailway

Active Member
I bought an Atlas GP 40 DCC euiped without sound about ten years ago. It ran perfectly when new. The layout was taken apart and all rolling stock boxed up. Fast forward to this year. Got some track laid. Broke out the atlas from storage. Found it to run but not well. Cleaned the track. Same result but mildly better. Thing jerks along like its not getting power. Cleaned the whhel sets and contacts. Again, a little better but not like when new. Used a contact enhacement on the pick ups. Better again but stll stallimg ocasionsly. Remove the body for inspection and discover it runs like new. Put the body on and back to crap. After messing with it a lot i narrowed it down to a poor contact between the frame and solder pads of the dcc board. The body shell disturbs the connection i assume by moving the board slightly. Im thinking of soldering small gauge wires to the frame or pickups and attaching these directly to the board for a permanent repair. Any other thoughts? Ive also tried to gently bend the frame where the decoder makes its power connection to the frame but im concerned ill break the casting off and have bigger problems.
 
VTRailway said:
I bought an Atlas GP 40 DCC euiped without sound about ten years ago. It ran perfectly when new. The layout was taken apart and all rolling stock boxed up. Fast forward to this year. Got some track laid. Broke out the atlas from storage. Found it to run but not well. Cleaned the track. Same result but mildly better. Thing jerks along like its not getting power. Cleaned the whhel sets and contacts. Again, a little better but not like when new. Used a contact enhacement on the pick ups. Better again but stll stallimg ocasionsly. Remove the body for inspection and discover it runs like new. Put the body on and back to crap. After messing with it a lot i narrowed it down to a poor contact between the frame and solder pads of the dcc board. The body shell disturbs the connection i assume by moving the board slightly. Im thinking of soldering small gauge wires to the frame or pickups and attaching these directly to the board for a permanent repair. Any other thoughts? Ive also tried to gently bend the frame where the decoder makes its power connection to the frame but im concerned ill break the casting off and have bigger problems.
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I think soldering some wires would be an easy and sensible solution to the problem.
 
So laid another 5’ of track this morning and then wired it. When i was gonna tackle the loco the wife came home and we went for a ride in a 1970 911 ive been restoring for a customer. After the 65 mile shakedown ride i had an impromptu fishing invite on a friends 21’ fishing boat. Couldn't say no to this as the weather was gorgeous. Kinda rare this year in Vermont. Came home after an awesome day on the water to shoot a couple games of pool. At 9pm i finally got back to the loco. Took it apart and added a smidge of solder to the pickup pads. This seemed like a great idea. Bending a cast frame didn't seem plausible though i did try a bit before getting nervous. Reassembled and set it on the rails. Track shuts down due to a short caused by this loco. Took it apart again and saw no concerns. All plastic spacers installed, no stray electrical connections. Assembled and low n behold, it still shorts. After a great day i walked away but not before running my reliable as can be kato switcher I bought used for 15 dollars over the roughly 23’ of track I've completed in the past couple months.
 
Look at the motor wires that come up from the brushes. They have a curve at the "top". They can shift and touch the frame (it happened to me). Best solution is to hard wire from the tab on the brush cap to the pad on the decoder.
 
I found the more contacts hitting the frame last night. I put a piece of capcon tape over the frame but havent tried it yet as it was late. I like the idea of hard wiring the motor to the decoder. The contact strips leave something to be desired at this point in the way of reliable connections.
 
VTRailway said:
I found the more contacts hitting the frame last night. I put a piece of capcon tape over the frame but havent tried it yet as it was late. I like the idea of hard wiring the motor to the decoder. The contact strips leave something to be desired at this point in the way of reliable connections.
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All my older locomotives (pre dcc ready) are hard wired, the Bachmann split chassis's were the worst to do.
 
VTRailway said:
I found the more contacts hitting the frame last night. I put a piece of capcon tape over the frame but havent tried it yet as it was late. I like the idea of hard wiring the motor to the decoder. The contact strips leave something to be desired at this point in the way of reliable connections.
Click to expand...
Get some 30ga fine insulator wire. Most hobby shops should have this stuff. Then you can open the frame to expose the motor brush caps, cut off most of the bronze foil, and attach the wires to the ends. Run up along the frame to the top, leave about 1 cm extra, tin the ends and attach to the power solder pads on the decoder. Works like a charm.
 
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