Atlas Conrail GP40

Working through my backlog of projects, I ran across an Atlas GP40 painted for Conrail but with no number. I got this knowing that by the early 1980s, Conrail sold off a number of ex PC GP40s that had come off lease, and they sometimes went to new owners in original Conrail paint. These included both Guilford and the Katy. The result was patch jobs that left the Conrail paint more or less intact. I had my mind made up that at some point I was going to do this in a patch for either one, but I never came to a final decision.

But just lately I discovered that Circus City Decals put out a set for exactly these locos, plus other Katy patch jobs of that period.

This is set 87-06. Here is my Atlas Conrail GP40 with the decals applied:

The loco is still waiting for couplers and a decoder. I see that for final assembly, I still need to work on a slight gap under the cab.

Late Athearn Bluebox

As I've been going through my collection, updating JMRI with all my decoder-equipped locos, and building a to-do list for those as yet not converted to DCC, I've run into several that give an insight into what the hobby was like in the 1980s and 1990s. At this remove, the exact year when Athearn moved from Compton to Long Beach and gave up production of bluebox locomotives escapes me, but I think it was sometime in the late 1990s.

At that time, Athearn was an economy brand and didn't have provision for DCC. The bluebox locos were also semi-kit, and although the Dash 9s were one of the last bluebox offerings, I don't believe they ever produced them with the celcon handrails -- they were all equipped with the steel wire and staples, I believe.

You also needed to drill out the shell and add your own grabs and aftermarket details. I was pretty diligent about doing this at the time. I can see that I got UP 9820 maybe 95% done and then stopped work on it for whatever reason.

The photo above is what modelers had to do before DCC if they wanted to run Atlas and Athearn diesels together. A-Line produced can motor repower kits that included a weight/motor mount that fit in the cavity of the frame where the Athearn motor used to sit, a motor-flywheel assembly that was compatible with the Athearn cardan shaft, and wiring hardware that replaced the steel strips used for contact on the stock bluebox model.

The result was a loco that matched Atlas loco speed and operating performance much more closely and drew less current, allowing bigger consists. I used this technique very successfully on my old layout from the 1980s that formed the core of my current one. However, as I got more Atlas, Athearn RTR, and other higher-end locos over the years, I didn't use those as much.

I have a number of other bluebox locos with this conversion that I may or may not convert to DCC. On the other hand, new decoders cost about $20 for this purpose, and the updated wiring from the old conversion will make adding them somewhat easier. I may even add a PTC antenna array to this one. Here's a shot of 9816 with a red sill stripe, PTC array, and lightning stripe scheme like 9820, although it also has a flag:

UP 9599 is a former SP loco with a UP number patch made from a Microscale set. At the time, I was being sent to the Midwest for work and railfanning ex-SP lines there in my time off work. I was seeing a lot of these.

C&O Locos Added To JMRI

My family moved to the Washington, DC area while I was in high school, when I had enough independence to start serious railfanning. It made a lot of new railroads "home roads" for my modeling interest as well, including the C&O, which had just merged with the B&O, so I saw both roads' power as they began to use their equipment interchangeably. Over the years I've tracked down what C&O power generally from those years that I could find. It's something of a milestone that all but one have had decoders installed and are now in JMRI.

C&O 2314 is an Atlas U23B. Unfortunately, I left the Washington area before the Chessie System paint.

C&O 4821 is an Atlas GP38 from the 2000s with the dual mode decoder. These are a little noisy, but especially now when there's usually background noise from sound locos on the layout, it isn't noticeable. I have enough of the Atlas locos with dual mode decoders that it would be too expensive and too much trouble to replace them if they otherwise work.

C&O 5750 is an Atlas Classic GP7.

C&O 7034 is a Bachmann F7 from the 2010s.

C&O 8203 is an Atlas Silver U30B. With the speaker enclosure, the only DCC only decoder that would fit was a Digitrax DZ126PS

C&O 8570 is one of the latest Walthers Mainline SD50s with sound. An SD50 in Chessie is well after my time as a Washington area railfan, but I guess it's one of those memories I wish I'd had. I hope Walthers one day does an SD50 in Seaboard System.

Amtrak California

Moving through my project to take full advantage of JMRI Decoder Pro's roster and work toward converting my whole collection of locos to DCC, I've come to my models of Amtrak California locos used in the San Joaquin and Capitol Corridor service. First is an Athearn F59PHI from the original 1990s run:

The first run didn't have a DCC socket, so this loco has a hard wired Digitrax DH126 decoder, as well as a factory incandescent headlight. Over the years, I've been able to railfan and ride behind these in their territory up north:

I shot the loco above, the prototype of my Athearn loco, in Emeryville in 1996. The original Athearn paint scheme reflects this. More recently, these locos have been rebuilt and carry a new paint scheme:

Next is an Atlas Amtrak California 8-32BWH. These were part of Amtrak's 1991 order of Amtrak's 8-32BWHs and were delivered in the original Pepsi Can paint scheme. However, although, two locos were owned by Amtrak California from the start, the standard Amtrak paint was confusing, and the California locos were often sent out of state on other Amtrak trains. As a result, the two California locos were repainted in specialized paint, renumbered 2051 and 2052, and are used interchangeably with Amtrak California F59PHIs and SC-44s.

This loco is one that still doesn't have a decoder, but since it's a fairly recent Atlas, it has an 8-pin DCC socket. I look forward to being able to get decent lighting for the head and ditch lights. The photo below is a prototype I shot in Martinez about 2018.

In this case, the loco was running in MU with an Amtrak P42, which up to the arrival of the SC-44s was common both on Amtrak California and the Surfliners but is less so now. The locos were in push mode.

Converting An Atlas Kato RS-1 To DCC And LED Lighting

After quite a number of tries, I think I've worked out a way to convert the old Atlas Kato HO RS-1 to DCC with LED lighting that works best for me. It uses the Digitrax DH165 decoder, which is designed for locos that use the Atlas style plastic motor and light board mounts. The big advantage of the Digitrax version is that the lighting contacts on the board for the F0 and R0 have reduced voltage that allows LEDs to be connected without the need for resistors.

In fact, the LEDs can be soldered directly to the decoder, as shown in the photos below. You just have to note the polarity as indicated in the decoder's documentation.

This is a relatively easy intermediate-level project.

This in itself is a big improvement over the original Atlas Kato locos, which had a single non-directional incandescent bulb that lit both headlights via light bars.

Although the LEDs don't get hot and threaten to melt the plastic shell, I did line the top of the hood with aluminum foil to prevent any light bleedthrough.

I also shortened the stock light bars so the LEDs would shine into them in their new position. You don't need to polish the ends, you can just score the bar at its new length and break it off, and it will light the headlights just fine as shown below.

Although the price of old Atlas Kato locos on eBay has gone up in recent years due to the price increases on new locos from China, these are still good-running layout-quality locos that are less expensive than equivalent new ones from companies like Atlas or Waltheres Mainline.