I just bought an Atlas Silver Series HO scale GP40-2, but I've discovered the electronics are totally different from their earlier GP38 model. I don't think I can use the TCS A6X decoder that I bought for it - looks like it's supposed to take some sort of 8-pin plugNplay type. But I don't know which one, and when I did a search on "GP40-2" on the Litchfield website, all that came up was N scale decoders.
Can anybody tell me which decoder this loco is supposed to take?
-Ken in Maryland (B&O modeler, former CSX modeler)
Ken
You can use any plug in decoder that you can fit in it. A TCS MC2 or MC4 with a short harness depending on how many functions you need. I have many HO locos with N scale decoders and a few HO switchers with Z scale decoders.
Pete
I pray every day I break even, Cause I can really use the money!
I started with nothing and still have most of it left!
Thanks Pete, I'll probably go with the Digitrax DZ125PS - since that will take up the least amount of space.
My advice tends to completely the opposite - use the largest decoder that will fit, unless you have some special need to save space. The smaller N and Z scale decoders cost more than an otherwise identical but larger HO decoder simply because of the size factor. Maybe I'm just cheap.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
rrinkerMy advice tends to completely the opposite - use the largest decoder that will fit, unless you have some special need to save space.
Randy, I'd get one of the regular HO ones if I knew in advance it will fit - so I'm erring on the side of caution. I was hoping somebody who actually did an installation in an Atlas GP40-2 would reply to this thread, then I'd know exactly what works.
What sort of circuit board does it have? Is there an 8-pin socket sitting at one end with a shorting plug in it? Soem of the other similar Atlas ones work well with a DP2X, direct plug decder - there's no wires, the decoder has pins that plug right in to the socket.
Check the install pics at TCS. They don;t list any Atlas Silver Series locos, but look for ones with similar circuit boards. http://www.tcsdcc.com/ Always a good trick - find oen that looks simialr and see what fits in that.
I've put a T-1 in the narrow hood of a Stewart Baldwin VO-1000 switcher - so there is definitely no width issue in the GP40-2 shell.
BTW just because the lightboard has an eight- or nine-pin receptacle doesn't mean you can't remove it and install a lightboard-replacement "drop-in" sound decoder.
wjstix BTW just because the lightboard has an eight- or nine-pin receptacle doesn't mean you can't remove it and install a lightboard-replacement "drop-in" sound decoder.
That too. And also, just because there's a lightboard repalcement decoder doesn't mean you can't cheap out and get a wired one and solder the wires
It does appear from pictures that even th newer Atlas locos with 8 pin sockets have the same form factor to the pc board underneath it all - four terminals at each end, the outer two being track pickups and the inner two the front or rear light, and two tabs on the side for the motor connections.