Atlas GP7/9 issue

[boisecity]

I recently took delivery of two of the new Atlas N scale GP7s with ESU sound.  They run very well and had good sound, but I had one place on my layout where they both stopped when running at slow to medium speed. This was on a crossover which straddles a road and is surrounded by asphalt.
My first thought was to check the gauge, both locos' wheels needed slight adjustments but that didn't fix the problem. So I next checked the trackwork but couldn't find anything wrong.
So then I turned my attention to the wheels and trucks and found the following piece of flash (?) on three of the four trucks.  Slicing off these pieces fixed the problem.
JF

[Rasputen]

Good detective work!

[eja]

Why do continue to give manufactures a free pass on their mistakes on expensive products ?

[spookshow]

Mine has the same little nub on one of its trucks, although it doesn't appear to be causing any problems for me. Removed anyway.

-Mark

[randgust]

Mine had it too and hung up mysteriously a couple places.  Easily fixed and trimmed.   

They are probably using the same dies since the beginning of time on the EMD truck sideframes you know.  That looks like die wear issue to me.

[u18b]

I agree.  Probably the same die from when they broke off from Kato around 1990.   
Untold thousands of trucks produced.

It may be a small chip in the die.

[Cory Rothlisberger]

Why do continue to give manufactures a free pass on their mistakes on expensive products ?

Yea, it's a damn shame that we live in a world where mass produced products are not 100% defect free... 

[robert3985]

Yea, it's a damn shame that we live in a world where mass produced products are not 100% defect free... 

No production run of anything is 100% defect free...and never was, and never will be.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[packers#1]

Why do continue to give manufactures a free pass on their mistakes on expensive products ?

For me, as someone with a career as a quality engineer in manufacturing plants, it’s the size of the companies and, yes, the price point. If we wanted QC, or even QA, to check things like this every company would need to hire a quality engineer and demand more from their assembly plants with tolerance etc. From this thread this sounds like more or an assembly issue than a tolerance stack-up problem, which would fall into their contract plant. From what I’ve read about those situations in China, the plants they contract with don’t have the same situations like my company’s plants over there in that they don’t have an entire quality system. I also doubt they’re ISO9001 manufacturing so they probably don’t have the same procedure structure. Given the quantities of models produced, I’d expect a DCC/sound loco to be around $750+ or more per to have all that.

[rail_nut]

Could it be poorly or untrimmed sprue?

[peteski]

Yea, it's a damn shame that we live in a world where mass produced products are not 100% defect free... 

LOL!  Good to see you lurking here Cory!  Hope life is treating you well.

[peteski]

Could it be poorly or untrimmed sprue?

No, the plastic injection gates are elsewhere on that part.  This does look like slightly damaged mold.  I suppose whoever assembles the trucks could be tasked with trimming off that protrusion, but it appears that they do not do it, or didn't catch it.

[u18b]

Since this issue is just being noticed, I would not assume Atlas even knows about this.

In fact, I checked a truck from a recent Atlas release in my roster and it did NOT have that nub shown in the photos.

So it would appear this is something fairly new.

Therefore, rather than simply being critical, I let Atlas know.  They often read  this board, but maybe they have not.

Let's give them a chance to see how they handle this in the future.

And once again, thanks to @boisecity for catching this.

[randgust]

For the record, I documented this nub on Jan 24, but I didn't get the cool photo Boise did. 

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=57156.msg788631#msg788631

I've had dozens of Atlas GP's through my shops on the CF7 program, this is a new phenomenon; no prior run had this.

In fairness, it's just annoying, and it's position is such that you'd never catch it just testing it on a workbench or straight track.    Mine hung briefly in just one direction, on the trailing side of a turnout, catching on the diverging rail at the frog, only at creeping speed.

[spookshow]

I ran mine around in circles for a week (backwards and forwards) and didn't notice any problems, so your layout pretty much has to work overtime to manifest some sort of issue with this one.

-Mark