What's the difference in Atlas Traniman, Master, Silver, Gold?


E

edsimmons

New Member
I'm sure this question has been asked before and I found some info but it still didn't answer my questions.

What the difference between the following Atlas locomotive series

Trainman

Master (Black Box)

Silver Series

Gold Series

This is what I got so far please LMK if my assumptions are wrong.

Trainman-No DCC no DCC ready, Body detail low & generic in regards to actual locomotive line.

Master Series (Black Box)-Same as Trainman but with DCC on board (If that is true what decoder dose it have?)

Silver Series-No DCC but DCC ready with 8 pin plug, Body detain better than the 2 above.

Gold Series-DCC and sound on board, Body detain same as Silver

My main question is which ones come w DCC or DCC ready and the level of body detain and the drive system, Do they all use the same drive system (motor, shafts, gears etc.)?
 
To add to the confusion, atlas now has the trainman PLUS series which apparently just has more detail than the regular trainman line :rolleyes:
 
From waht I've seen the main difference seems to be in the level of body detail (Trainman = almost indestructible, Master Gold series = details fly under a hard sneeze). The drives appear to all be the same.
 
I'll try to answer as best as I can, from "bottom" to "top":

Trainman - low cost, entry-level series. The locos have the excellent Atlas drive mechanism (smooth & quiet), but the shells don't have grabirons or other add-on details. However, they do have spots where you can drill holes and install them yourself if you want.

Master - higher priced, with fully detailed shells. Same top-quality Atlas drive mechanism.

(I not 100% sure about "Silver" and "Gold", but I suspect they're two levels of the Master series...:confused: )

Silver - a Master series locomotive that is ready to accept a plug-n-play aftermarket decoder, or run in straight DC mode.

Gold - top-of-the-line; a Master series loco that comes with a QSI sound decoder & speaker already installed.
 
Here's a chronology of Atlas locomotives.

Atlas-Roco, Atlas-Kato (Also known as Atlas Yellow Box) - Atlas used tool the locomotives, but had other manufacturers, Kato and Roco actually produce their locomotives and then they get shipped to the USA where it's sold in a yellow Atlas box. Details are all molded on, but it was "state of the art" of its time. Engines are DCC ready in the sense that the motors are already isolated from the frame, but do not have a plug. Atlas-Roco engines say ATLAS AUSTRIA on the bottom, and Atlas-Kato engines will say ATLAS-JAPAN or in some cases ATLAS-CHINA on the bottom.

Atlas Red Box - Same tooling as Atlas Master Series Silver. Great details, great drive, DCC ready with 8-pin plug.

Atlas Master Series - Atlas decided to jump into the DCC market and offer the same Red Box locomotives with a Lenz dual-mode decoder on board. The user could pop open a hatch on the locomotive, and move a jumper to select DC or DCC. Later versions had a 4-function Lenz dual mode decoder on board for the consumer to add lighting functions.

Atlas Master Series Silver - Atlas realized that people did not want the Lenz decoders and some people were having problems with them (the Lenz decoders didn't like to speed match/curve with other manufacturers) so they went back to DCC ready with a plug. Master Series Silver locomotives are identical to the Red Box locomotives.

Atlas Master Series Gold - Atlas decided to have on-board DC/DCC sound and contracted with QSI to put sound in their models. New locomotives that would be offered with sound had their chassis tooled to fit two speakers, and ones without sound (in the Master Series Silver) would have a removable weight where the speaker housing would be so that if the consumer wanted to add sound later on, they could do so easily.

Atlas Trainman - Atlas wanted to create an "economy line" to sell trainsets and such and for people just getting into the hobby. Atlas Trainman has the same drive and chassis as the Master Series, being DCC ready and have an 8-pin plug. The chassis is identical and if you have a Master Series shell, it will fit on a Trainman chassis with no problems or modifications.

Atlas Classic Series - Atlas saw that there was still a demand for the older Atlas-Roco and Atlas-Kato engines. They still owned the tooling so they re-tooled them to have scale width handrails, and an Atlas drive. The shell is unchanged except for the fact that the paint jobs are crisper.

Atlas Trainman Plus - There are currently no (released) locomotives in this line. The first locomotive to be in this line is the NRE 3GS21B. The Trainman Plus line is similar to Trainman but will have grab irons other details installed. They will be DCC ready with an 8-pin plug.
 
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So if you took a trainman DASH 8 ($30 used on e-bay) then bought a DASH 8 Body shell for Atlas's web site ($35) you would have a Silver Series locomotive of $65...Sweet.

Ed
 
I was looking at the Atlas site for the shells you mentioned and I can't tell if the shell they sell for $35 is a silver line shell. I would hat to buy a shell for $35 and end up with the same shell as the one purchased on eBay :eek:
 
The Dash 8 you see on ebay is not a Trainman, it's a Trainline by Walthers. Like the Trainman, they had decent chassis and drives, but their shells are garbage.

Atlas has only made the geeps in trainman. When they realized that people were swapping the shells, they decided to try not to release the same locos in trainman and master series.

Also, they don't sell decorated geep shells to prevent people from doing that swap for a lower price.
 
So, if Atlas has caught on to what people are doing with the shell swaping game are the shells sold on the Atlas site are the Trainman line and not the silver line?

Dave
 
diburning said:
Atlas Red Box - Same tooling as Atlas Master Series Silver. Great details, great drive, DCC ready with 8-pin plug.
Click to expand...

Almost. :rolleyes:
OR
A tale of 2 S-2s,
I've got 2 of thse gems. 1 is a yellow box, 1 red. 1 says Atlas Austria on the bottom, 1 says Atlas China on the bottom, but other than that, they are identical! They even ran perfectly together on DC, and when I went to install DCC,there was NO DCC plug in the China unit.
No bother, NCE ATLS4 decoders fit just fine!
 
edsimmons said:
So if you took a trainman DASH 8 ($30 used on e-bay) then bought a DASH 8 Body shell for Atlas's web site ($35) you would have a Silver Series locomotive of $65...Sweet.

Ed
Click to expand...

Atlas doesnt make a trainman Dash 8. Only a GP38-2, RS32/36, and recently announced GP39-2
 
kbkchooch said:
Almost. :rolleyes:
OR
A tale of 2 S-2s,
I've got 2 of thse gems. 1 is a yellow box, 1 red. 1 says Atlas Austria on the bottom, 1 says Atlas China on the bottom, but other than that, they are identical! They even ran perfectly together on DC, and when I went to install DCC,there was NO DCC plug in the China unit.
No bother, NCE ATLS4 decoders fit just fine!
Click to expand...

Hmm, are you sure it was the original box? I've owned two Atlas S-2s as well with one being a Roco and the other a Kato and both of them came in Atlas yellow boxes.

The Kato one is actually better. If you look at the top of the loco where the grills are, the kato one has actual molded grills while the Roco one has a flat molded piece of plastic that looks like grills.
 
diburning said:
Hmm, are you sure it was the original box? I've owned two Atlas S-2s as well with one being a Roco and the other a Kato and both of them came in Atlas yellow boxes.

The Kato one is actually better. If you look at the top of the loco where the grills are, the kato one has actual molded grills while the Roco one has a flat molded piece of plastic that looks like grills.
Click to expand...

It was in a sealed box, what can I say.
 
Actually, when they switched to a chinese factory, I think thats when they started using the red boxes. Thats why the S-2 says Atlas China and not Atlas Japan (meaning that Roco and Kato probably stopped making them). They may have released them as a red box.
 
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