Atlas GP38 shell on Walthers/LL GP38-2 mechanism?

[spookshow]

I think the SD35, Trainmaster and B23/B30/B36 are the only ones stamped "2000" -







Cheers,
-Mark

[Carolina Northern]

Thanks, Mark. The mystery gets deeper.



Here's the side view. It looks like the second, but someone has changed the trucks.



 

The top shows the light board - not a DCC.

Interesting, but probably not any help for John.

Don

[central.vermont]

Don,

From looking at the photo's I would say you have a frame from the SD35. You did say you got this in a box as a loose chassis so I'm thinking someone needed the six wheel trucks for some other loco and swapped in the four wheel trucks. Also the board you have is the standard NON DCC light board Atlas uses. To further substantiate why an SD35 and not a GE loco is it also seems to have the fast motor from the earlier runs. The GE models with this same chassis had the newer slow speed motors.
Just my observation as to what I see in the pics.

Jon

[spookshow]

Based on the chassis stamps and contours, I think it's almost certainly one of the GE units -





Mine has a decoder, so the lightboards are not the same. Also, it looks like somebody swapped out the original trucks on yours.

Atlas's GE's originally came out with fast motors (in 2001) and were later upgraded to slow motors (in 2005), so that would account for the differences there.

Cheers,
-Mark

[bman]

I've a couple of LL GP38-2 frames that I have put Atlas GP38 or 38-2 shells on.  I filed down the little buttons on the frame a bit.  Actually on one I filed down 1 a bit too much and the shells slides off more easily than I would like.  The reason being just to get the fuel tanks correct for Conrail and P&LE(ex Conrail GP38's) units.   Oddly enough, the LL shells are too narrow for Atlas mechanisms.  But I didn't really put a lot of effort into what would be needed since it wasn't needing to be done. I always seem to have a few extra Atlas GP shells around the man cave.  You can put the Atlas trucks on the LL units.  I heard it could be done so I tried it.  I didn't keep them that way and do not remember why.  Most likely because I am cheap and didn't want to buy parts from Atlas.  After some sleep I will re-swap a couple to see why.

[Iain]

Oy, thanks, that's what I wanted to hear!

BTW, my LL GP18 has Atlas trucks and it both runs slightly better but can also run on code 40.

[MarkJ]

Does anyone have the dimensions for the intermediate sized fuel tank? I can find the capacity online, but not the dimensions. Overall length is the only concern here. I’m assuming the tank included on the Atlas model is the 3,600 gal. capacity.

Based on the comments above, the Lifelike frame will accept Atlas trucks. It’s interesting that the Lifelike shell is reported to be narrower than the Atlas shell. Is this a case were Atlas “oversized” the shell to fit a standard mechanism? I seem to recall reading here in another (old) post that Kato’s SD45s are oversized (in width) to accommodate the chassis and drive. I wonder if that’s the case here.

Thanks, Mark

[bman]

The LL flanges did bump on my Atlas code 55 track in a few places.  Mainly where I superelevated the curves.  I had a couple of SD40-2 Kato mid production trucks in the parts box that I got from who knows where.  I used those wheels in the LL trucks to solve that problem.  The needle points are a little longer than the LL ones so gauging them was a bit of a trail and error since I do not have a standards gauge.  But they run fine and I even like the look of them better.