Newly arrived Atlas Dash 8-40BW

[wmcbride]

Atlas Dash 8-40BWs (Dash 8-40Bs) are showing up online.

Does anyone know if the silver versions will take a replacement decoder board or will they retain the board for addition of the proprietary E24 decoder plug like the recent Atlas SD9s?

[spookshow]

I have one in the mail.

-Mark

[wmcbride]

I have one in the mail.

-Mark

Thanks, Mark.

I figured you would be on it.

[mdltrn]

Did anyone else order silver versions of this locomotive with plans to install a DCC decoder without the sound?

[samusi01]

Yes. Picked up one from the local N scale pusher this afternoon.



At 66mm long, it appears to me that I will be installing an ESU 54650 LokPilot in there.

[mdltrn]

Yes. Picked up one from the local N scale pusher this afternoon.



At 66mm long, it appears to me that I will be installing an ESU 54650 LokPilot in there.

Really appreciate you sharing this. It looks like the ESU 54650 is out of stock at most places. Wondering if the Digitrax DN166I3 would work in its place.

[Rivet Miscounter]

Got my Dash 8-40B's (Gold) today.    My concern has nothing to do with the decoder directly, but rather the ability to swap shells. (need to place an older shell onto a newer mech)

There is a significant change in the light pipe area in the cab.   While the old shell fits onto the new chassis, I suspect there would be an undesirable negative change to the look of the headlight.  The reverse issue of placing the new shell on the old mech is complicated by the large LED on the original board.   I don't care too much about that, as it is probably solved with a decoder or worst case by replacing the LED.   But I do want to find out if I can swap the light pipe solutions between the two so that I can have the new version in my older shell.  Here's pics to explain... old version on left, new on the right. (the mech's are actually oriented with the front facing down, whereas the shells are the front facing the top)

EDIT: There's also a black light shield included in the old version that wraps around the LED inside the cab area.  It had to be removed for the new shell to fit on the old mech (which still didn't due to the LED) and also didn't appear to really fit on the new mech to work with the old shell, although I didn't mess with it too much.





I realize this is somewhat hijacking the thread so I will gladly split this out if the o.p. wants.  But if anyone knows how to transplant these assemblies without destroying parts, I would be interested. 

[samusi01]

One thing to note with the BNSF B40-8W's (and probably others that have this configuration, i.e., wide cab and ditch lights) is that the lights pipes are set up very much like a ScaleTrains locomotive in that one may have continually illuminated number boards, individual ditch light control, and nose headlights separate from the ditch lights and number boards. The ESU 58721 LokSound board allows for individual control of all these lights; I'm not sure how capable the others are going to be at doing this.

[spookshow]

Unless Atlas has added track cleaning as a new feature, there appear to be clearance issues with the fuel tank on these new models -



-Mark

[peteski]

Unless Atlas has added track cleaning as a new feature, there appear to be clearance issues with the fuel tank on these new models -

Can't be the locomotive. It has to be poorly laid track's fault;  that terrible Kato Unitrak! 
Joking of course.  The tank molding has the year 2001 molded on it, so it doesn't seem like a new design.  With the number of models you have reviewed I feel silly asking, but did you check if the tank is fully seated onto the chassis? Trucks seated too deep in the chassis?

Others here have that model and didn't report similar  problem. Strange  . . .

[spookshow]

I didn't actually notice the problem until some folks on nscale.net reported that theirs were bottoming out. That's when I flipped mine over and saw the skid marks.

I see that the speaker protrudes slightly below the bottom of the chassis, and I'm wondering if that's preventing the fuel tank from going on all the way?

-Mark

[peteski]

I see that the speaker protrudes slightly below the bottom of the chassis, and I'm wondering if that's preventing the fuel tank from going on all the way?

Sure, I suppose that could be the problem.  Is this  the first time sound (speaker) option was used in that chassis?  Maybe the speaker is not properly installed at the factory, or they switched speaker vendors/models,  and the new speaker is slightly taller?

[spookshow]

The Atlas Dash 8-40B, Dash 8-40BW and Dash 8-32BHW mechanisms were completely redesigned to support DCC Sound and this is the first production run of said redesign.

I'm going to pull the speaker out and run it around for a while, see if it still cleans the track.

-Mark

[skytop35]

It looks like the ESU 54650 is out of stock at most places.

I tried to order some of the ESU 54650's direct from ESU for the hobby shop I work at earlier this week and was told directly by ESU that it was discontinued with no replacement at this time.

[Point353]

It looks like the ESU 54650 is out of stock at most places.

One left: https://www.trainworld.com/esu-54650-lokpilot-direct-micro-oem-nmra-dcc-decoder-drop-in-for-post-2016-irc-locos-esu-54650.html