Status of Atlas GP7 Gold Series?

[thomasjmdavis]

Isn't the GP-18 frame the forerunner of the GP-20 frame (also originally Life Like)?  Anyway, one would think that sooner or later, Atlas will make a DDC/sound low nosed GP-7/9/18/20 (one or more) based on the Life Like/Walthers tooling they acquired.  Of course, that is not helpful in the near term need for a sound equipped chassis for a CF7 or kitbashed low nosed geeps, if indeed the DCC/sound GP-20 did not work out as planned.

[mecgp7]

I believe they did.

[dem34]

Isn't the GP-18 frame the forerunner of the GP-20 frame (also originally Life Like)?  Anyway, one would think that sooner or later, Atlas will make a DDC/sound low nosed GP-7/9/18/20 (one or more) based on the Life Like/Walthers tooling they acquired.  Of course, that is not helpful in the near term need for a sound equipped chassis for a CF7 or kitbashed low nosed geeps, if indeed the DCC/sound GP-20 did not work out as planned.

From rumor. GP20 was assigned to the same outfit that did the ALP45. Every couple months they present a Chassis that does not meet the basic requirements of Atlas which is then promptly sent back. Direct result is Atlas only does Rolling stock with them now, why a few Atlas offerings randomly have Knock off MTL couplers instead of Accumates.

[bigdawgks]

Can it be assumed that older Atlas GP shells will fit on the new frames? I would assume so but not sure if anyone has tried it.

[randgust]

See page 1, I tried it with my assortment of old shells and there was no problem.

[Southern1970]

Side view.  If you see those 'notches' that's where the front cab window fits, so I have what appears to be 18 scale inches or .1125 in front of the STOCK TOP(not DC daughterboard on bottom) to clear my CF7 cab windshield.   That's the dimension I need to verify if anybody has a DCC version yet.



link:  http://www.randgust.com/ATL24027.jpg

My GP7 finally arrived.  This is how far the loksound nano sticks out past the light board (cutting the shrink wrap from a 58923 nano is best taken slowly).

Sorry for metric rule (not many imperial rulers left here in Australia)

[randgust]

Yeah, yikes, at least for me.

Now, for everybody, check something else.

Doing more shakedown runs on mine, and it was hesitating slightly going over turnouts; specifically Atlas 6's.    Ran it creeping and it actually stuck and sat there.

OK, what's sticking?  I looked really carefully and there's a molding 'defect' ? on the truck sideframe casting.   It's like a brake shoe, only it's not., on the front right side of the truck sideframe, interior to the wheel toward the bolster, sticking down.    It's just a little black plastic nub, it catches on the switch.   It's easily trimmed off, but darn, it's on both sideframes.  So, it is just me?

Also the position of the 'headlight' short nose LED on the circuit board is well, less than satisfactory.  It's so far down, and back, that with decent light blocking in the cab it all but dissapears. Personally, I really like a brilliant LED headlight with the tiny ones on leads rather than some kind of a fiber optic tube.   I'm used to cab roof mounting of a new LED in a brass bube and hard-wiring it to the boards or frame, but the SMT LED on this is microscopic, the resistors are underneath, I think, and I'm not sure not that daughterboard is held on there to find solder pads.    I think for mine, I'll leave it, but if I was doing a custom build on this frame I don't think people would be real happy with how dull the headlight is in the cab roof.   It's a brilliant LED and all but glows the entire body, just somewhat misdirected.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I'm having a hard time finding these in stock at any of my regular haunts. Anyone see em?

[randgust]

So last night I put the couplers on my shell to discover there was no way the chassis would fit, had to grind more off the noses to clear the coupler boxes.   So I field-stripped the trucks, and to do that, I unscrewed the DC board, unplugged trucks and motor,  and removed it.    Left me with a raw frame.  Frame fits now after a bit more grinding, but got me thinking.

You know, there's a lot of empty space in there.   I'm not totally convinced you couldn't relocate a smaller crossways speaker to the cab and use the big speaker spot to hold a wired sound decoder.   Yove got wires coming up from the motor and the trucks, so everything could be rewired, all kinds of space for wire junction above the frame to the shell if the decoder fits where the speaker was.   Not a fan of the existing headlights either.  Nothing could be much easier than taking that DC board out, much easier than removing it out of a split frame.

Just thinking out loud here.   I'm no expert, just learning, but I'm still trying to figure out a way to do this.

[Jbub]

I'm having a hard time finding these in stock at any of my regular haunts. Anyone see em?

All I see is the Silver Series. Trainworld shows the Gold Series as a pre-order item.

[Curtis Kyger]

'Just got my request for payment from Hogtrains for the Gold GP7's; so they must be ready to ship now!

[Kentuckian]

In the house! Thanks Atlas! I’ll leave the review to others.

[bigdawgks]

So I picked up a Silver series GP9 at the Springfield show and I've discovered it's got a bad connection for the motor. The motor runs ok (and it's super quiet) but I traced the fault to the little 2 pin connector to the main board. Unfortunately it's probably a lot of effort to attempt to fix without knowing the exact connector model (besides it's so small I can't see myself being able to replace it), so I'll probably just contact Atlas to get a new motor. I know it's not the board itself because I was able to plug one of the truck connectors in place of the motor and read volts across it.

[chessie system fan]

I like that bell on the C&O short hood.  That's new!

[bbussey]

My four NH units arrived a couple of days ago.  Very pleased, the best-decorated NH GP9s that they've released to date.  In hindsight four is too many so I decided to take two and repower a pair of CV/GTW green and gold bodyshells.

The New Haven units come with an extra long fuel tank. While that may not be a new feature for the model, this is the first New Haven release to feature it.