More On Atlas FP7 DCC Conversions

One thing I've discovered about vintage locos without DCC sockets is that there are often no single ways to convert, and none of them is quite perfect. My first couple of FP7 conversions on the 1990s Roco version involved cutting the traces on the PC board and soldering the truck and headlight leads from the chassis to locations on the board, and then soldering the colored leads from the decoder to the corresponding locations.

Below is an example of a Digitrax DH126 installation using that mathod.

One complication of this method is that the motor contacts from the PC board go via a sprung brass finger to the top motor brush and a screw to the motor frame. These, I've discovered, aren't necessarily reliable contacts.

So I gave this some thought and decided to try eliminating the PC board itself, while retaining the plastic base below it that clamps to the frame. This will retain the brass headlight tube. The leads for track power from the trucks are long enough that I can splice them in the middle and attach those splices respectively to the left (black) track power lead and the right (red) track power lead from the decoder. In my case, I was almost out of heat shrink tubing due to the lockdown and had to scrounge odd scraps to insulate these connections.

Then I jammed a close-enough brass screw into the hole in the top of the motor frame. The screw provided with the model won't take solder, which is one reason the PC board installation isn't completely reliable. I soldered the orange lead from the decoder to this and the gray lead to the top of the brush in the motor.

Then I replaced the incandescent headlight bulb with a wired 12-volt 3mm LED, which was a good fit in the brass tube that comes in the model. I soldered the LED leads to the white and blue wires from the decoder and used more scraps of heat shrink tubing to insulate the splices. The tube snaps back into the plastic mount that I kept after tossing the PC board. A photo of this install is below:

While this method involves a little less work than cutting the PC board, there's a gotcha, in that it's easy to trap stray wires between the shell and the chassis, which makes the model very noisy, so you have to remove the shell again and be sure the wires are properly tucked in.

The model I converted in this project is pretty beat up, since it's been in the collection more than 30 years. But as a layout model, it's a very smooth and quiet runner. I notice in the photo below the front coupler still needs to be straightened.

I checked eBay and see that Atlas FP7s are pretty easy to find, and most go for well under the $99 retail of the 1990s models. I'd say that if you have one already, it's worth converting, but I wouldn't go out of my way to buy one just to convert it.

Scaletrains N "Operator" BNSF 9-44CW

Scaletrains announced a 50% off retail sale on its N 9-44CW locos, and as far as I can tell, it sold out within 24 hours. I was very lucky to get a BNSF Operator version with DCC but without sound for about the same price as a Kato loco. Here it is on my T-Trak layout:

The Scaletrains "Operator" series is a less-detailed version of their more fully detailed "Rivet Counter" locomotives. As it applies to the 9-44CSs, it uses a single body and cab style, as opposed to multiple road name and number specific versions, and it doesn't have separately applied grab irons. In other words, they're roughly comparable in detail to Kato N locos, which I can't complain about at all. However, they have full separate lighting function control of headlight, ditch lights, and numberboards.

I'm not sure how much of an advantage this is in N. Kato N locos have all the lights lit off a single set of lightbars, with on-off control of all of them via F0 in DCC. As a practical matter, if you see a loco on the road with its headlight on, the ditch lights are also on, but you don't really notice the numberboards in the daytime anyhow. I will say that the headlight and ditch lights on these locos are satisfyingly bright:

The loco number I have, 974, is part of a group of 9-44CWs numbered 960-1123 delivered to BNSF in 1996-7. They were delivered in the H1 scheme on the model. As it happens, I caught the prototype 974 on a railfan outings:

This was in Tehachapi, CA on December 10, 2014.

T-Trak Progress

I did some work over the past week on T-Trak modules. Again, I'm finding the T-Trak concept potentially useful as a home-based project, since modules can easily be rearranged, stored, relocated, and so forth. As a result, while I use standard module dimensions, I don't necessarily follow other track or wiring standards, since they're for me, not for some committee of petty tyrants. It's likely I'll never run my modules at a show.

Here's the current state of the corner module based on the Little Hell Gate approach to New York's Hell Gate Bridge:

The prototype passes over a city park. There will be more parklike vegetation added. The building in the background is a Walthers Parkview Towers. It will have Just Plug lighting installed.

Below is a module where I installed a package of JTT autumn trees, on the left.

I'll gradually add other scenic improvements to all the modules.

More Lockdown Projects

The lockdown seems to give many people an incentive to take up lower-priority or even previously unappealing projects. Here are a couple of mine.

Last year I found an Atlas/Kato yellowbox Gulf, Mobile, and Ohio RS-1 on eBay at a good price. But trying to add Kadee couplers taught me a new lesson: the old Atlas/Kato coupler box recesses in the pilots are just a little bit too small to take the newer Kadee 158 style coupler boxes. In my case, I thought if I just pushed a little bit harder, I could get it in. Instead, my hand slipped, and I wound up tearing off a truck with the worm cover.

The accident also broke a sideframe off the truck. I wasn't entirely sure what parts I might need to get things back together. Over a period of months, I was able to scrounge what I thought would be replacement parts from other Atlas/Kato bits and pieces I found on eBay. Very helpful was a set of broken AAR power trucks and a set of worm retainer covers. In the process, I found that the Atlas/Kato RS-1 uses a different AAR truck design for the gearbox and bolster than other Atlas/Kato Alcos. Who knows, maybe this will come in handy one day!

In any case, with a little creativity, I was able to replace the broken sideframe with one from another broken AAR truck off eBay and get things back together with a new worm retainer. The whole assembly is now wating for a Digitras DH165A0 that should arrive in a couple of days.

Lessons: (1) Do not try to force Kadee 158 coupler boxes into an Atlas/Kato pilot. (2) The Atlas/Kato RS-1 uses a different AAR truck gearbox and bolster from other Atlas/Kato Alcos. But now I have an extra set of like-new Atlas/Kato loco wheels.

Photos suggest the GM&O maroon is more red than on the Atlas/Kato model. Also, it looks like the cab roof and battery box should be black. Correcting this and some weathering should make the maroon shade seem a little better. But it looks like the loco will finally go into service. I like IC, ICG, and GM&O, because my uncle was CEO of ICG/IC.

Another project has been installing DCC in some Walthers Trainline FA-1s. These are very basic locos, but they're layout quality, and I've been thinking that installing DCC and LED headlights should make it possible to operate them in multiple with more sophisticated locos from companies like Atlas. The DCC install is hardwire, but fairly easy:

I used a Digitrax DZ126 decoder because I had it on hand and knew it would be small enough to fit. The procedure is to unsolder the motor leads from the PC board and splice them onto the gray and orange motor leads from the decoder. Then solder the red and black track power leads to the traces on the PC board. I also isolated the traces for the headlight on the PC board from the track input and soldered the blue and white wires to these isolated traces.

When some 12V white LEDs with resistors arrive from eBay in a couple of days, I'll solder one to the headlight traces with the blue and white wires.

While the Walthers motor has one flywheel, it doesn't give it much momentum, and it wouldn't be able to run well with Atlas or similar locos. However, I set CVs 3 and 4, DCC acceleration and deceleration momentum, each to a value of 3, which pretty well mimics the momentum of an Atlas loco. I also set CV 2 to 10, which allows the motor to start slowly at speed step 1. Now I can tune its midrange speed to match locos I might MU it with when it's all back together with its body.

I was able to find these locos for $30 on line in the 1990s.