All the FA's also used the Athearn clone truck.
The voltage sucking light board was fine if you were running DC at 18 volts.
Not so much if you are running 13-14 volts.
Sheldon
ATLANTIC CENTRALUnder LifeLike production, there were primarily two different circuit board designs, which used different approaches to the constant lighting circuit, changing the starting voltage of the locos.
Sheldon,We stand aagreed on that since that also came up in the "Gear ratio of the month" discussion but,a question was asked why two engines bought at the same time refuse to MU together. One wag quip that could have been cause by one unit was made on Friday and the other on Monday. He meant that has a joke but,come to think of it now,it could have been two different weekly production runs.
As far as DCC one had to replace the light board with a DCC board before the nine pin plug was used..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
BRAKIE ATLANTIC CENTRAL Under LifeLike production, there were primarily two different circuit board designs, which used different approaches to the constant lighting circuit, changing the starting voltage of the locos. Sheldon,We stand aagreed on that since that also came up in the "Gear ratio of the month" discussion but,a question was asked why two engines bought at the same time refuse to MU together. One wag quip that could have been cause by one unit was made on Friday and the other on Monday. He meant that has a joke but,come to think of it now,it could have been two different weekly production runs. As far as DCC one had to replace the light board with a DCC board before the nine pin plug was used..
ATLANTIC CENTRAL Under LifeLike production, there were primarily two different circuit board designs, which used different approaches to the constant lighting circuit, changing the starting voltage of the locos.
Larry, my best explanation for two identical locos not running together would be quality control of the motors themselves. Something that might be easily fixed on a LifeLike Proto with a simple motor teardown and tune up.
My observation with the LL Proto locomotives, like the vintage GP20 the OP has, was that there was a higher degree of inconsistency between two locos that should otherwise be the same. One could be slower than the other, one could be noisier than the other. When they were great, they were the best in many ways, but it was not always easy to get a great one.
I do slow switching manuvers, so the inconsistencies were more apparent than if I Mu'ed and ran them at 40 mph, IMO.
- Douglas
Doughless BRAKIE ATLANTIC CENTRAL Under LifeLike production, there were primarily two different circuit board designs, which used different approaches to the constant lighting circuit, changing the starting voltage of the locos. Sheldon,We stand aagreed on that since that also came up in the "Gear ratio of the month" discussion but,a question was asked why two engines bought at the same time refuse to MU together. One wag quip that could have been cause by one unit was made on Friday and the other on Monday. He meant that has a joke but,come to think of it now,it could have been two different weekly production runs. As far as DCC one had to replace the light board with a DCC board before the nine pin plug was used.. My observation with the LL Proto locomotives, like the vintage GP20 the OP has, was that there was a higher degree of inconsistency between two locos that should otherwise be the same. One could be slower than the other, one could be noisier than the other. When they were great, they were the best in many ways, but it was not always easy to get a great one. I do slow switching manuvers, so the inconsistencies were more apparent than if I Mu'ed and ran them at 40 mph, IMO.
I have about 60 of them, and I have found that all the same tune up tricks for Athearn locos work to get consistent performance from the LifeLike locos.
My modeling is a good mix of big time mainline operation and switching, but admittedly, the same GP7 that is lashed up with three others for the mainline is not likely to be switching on the industrial belt line.
Modeling the 50's, most of my switching is done with matching pairs of ALCO S1's, or EMD SW's, also older LifeLike.
Anyway, I'm happy with my old Proto2000 stuff, and happy about the prices I paid, typically less than $50 each.
For that I can do a little tuning up....
ATLANTIC CENTRAL Doughless BRAKIE ATLANTIC CENTRAL Under LifeLike production, there were primarily two different circuit board designs, which used different approaches to the constant lighting circuit, changing the starting voltage of the locos. Sheldon,We stand aagreed on that since that also came up in the "Gear ratio of the month" discussion but,a question was asked why two engines bought at the same time refuse to MU together. One wag quip that could have been cause by one unit was made on Friday and the other on Monday. He meant that has a joke but,come to think of it now,it could have been two different weekly production runs. As far as DCC one had to replace the light board with a DCC board before the nine pin plug was used.. My observation with the LL Proto locomotives, like the vintage GP20 the OP has, was that there was a higher degree of inconsistency between two locos that should otherwise be the same. One could be slower than the other, one could be noisier than the other. When they were great, they were the best in many ways, but it was not always easy to get a great one. I do slow switching manuvers, so the inconsistencies were more apparent than if I Mu'ed and ran them at 40 mph, IMO. I have about 60 of them, and I have found that all the same tune up tricks for Athearn locos work to get consistent performance from the LifeLike locos. My modeling is a good mix of big time mainline operation and switching, but admittedly, the same GP7 that is lashed up with three others for the mainline is not likely to be switching on the industrial belt line. Modeling the 50's, most of my switching is done with matching pairs of ALCO S1's, or EMD SW's, also older LifeLike. Anyway, I'm happy with my old Proto2000 stuff, and happy about the prices I paid, typically less than $50 each. For that I can do a little tuning up.... Sheldon
I understand. I've stripped them down looking for an errant noise, that I never could find. Never found a burr on anything. Never could locate the source of the grind. Spent hours chasing them unsuccessfully. I figured that I probably wasn't doing something right so I just packed it up and moved on.
I just got to the point that when I bought one, if it made noise or ran rougher than others even after doing a simple thing like removing the hardened grease and replaced the cracked gears, I just sold it on ebay. Took a couple of hours to determine if it was a keeper or a goner. Kind of a crap shoot back in the day.
But I ended up with a very quiet and very smooth fleet.
Now its the same deal with sound decoders. Trying to find a product that has no weaknesses. Still an issue after all of these years of advancing technology.
Buying locos then reselling the lemons (by my definition) is simply a cost of the hobby for me.
DoughlessI do slow switching manuvers, so the inconsistencies were more apparent than if I Mu'ed and ran them at 40 mph, IMO.
Doughless, On my ISLs slow switching is the rule so,I'm not overly concern about those two GP38-2s not MU'ing together.
If I was DCC should fix that problem by matching start and mid volt along with consisting and speed step.
The NYC GP20s I mention was for my "Westinghouse train" consisting of 22 Athearn 40' highcube appliance boxcars I had.. I ended up using 2 P2K C&O GP30s #3030 and 3038 if they was available-we pooled engines and cars for our weekly operations.
BRAKIE Doughless I do slow switching manuvers, so the inconsistencies were more apparent than if I Mu'ed and ran them at 40 mph, IMO. Doughless, On my ISLs slow switching is the rule so,I'm not overly concern about those two GP38-2s not MU'ing together. If I was DCC should fix that problem by matching start and mid volt along with consisting and speed step. The NYC GP20s I mention was for my "Westinghouse train" consisting of 22 Athearn 40' highcube appliance boxcars I had.. I ended up using 2 P2K C&O GP30s #3030 and 3038 if they was available-we pooled engines and cars for our weekly operations.
Doughless I do slow switching manuvers, so the inconsistencies were more apparent than if I Mu'ed and ran them at 40 mph, IMO.
Larry. The LL GP38-2s I had were excellent runners. Meaning they ran very slowly. Bought some for $25 from TrainWorld back in the day when they cleared out old LL locos. I sold them for other reasons.
I also own a LL GP20, GP7, and three GP18s (big blue box vintage) that are extremely smooth at very slow speed and very quiet at higher speed. Other GP20s, 7s, and 9s were not as good.
I never had much luck with the GP30s in terms of higher speed noise. Same drivetrain as the others, but could never solve their running issues. Maybe the slightly longer wheelbase using the same drive created issues that were unsolvable?