Well, it's fixed. Runs great. Sorry, no pics. Why? Because what I did was:
I won another Athearn RS-3 on ebay, real cheap (< $20). I gifured even if it had the same problem, I could repaint the shell and get another Atlas chassis to mount it on. It arrived today, so I put it on my test track and gave it a whirl using address 00. It ran great. Lifted the front truck off, it still ran. Lifted the rear truck off, it still ran. So I pulled the TCS decoder from the poor running one, and disconnected the headlight wires. Opened up the new one, pulled the dummy plug and headlight wires, attached the TCS decoder and the wires from the Reading shell and put it back together. This one runs great, creeps along without even a hint of flicker fromt he headlights running at speed step 1.
So my other one was just a dud, but this one runs very well. Not sure which run this new one is from (it's L&N) but it has nice reliable electricla pickup just like my old Blue Box locos. And it's wired exactly the same, one side has a wire to the circuit board, the other side is via the truck bolsters, soit's not liek they snuck an upgrade in there.
Now I just need to get a horn and repaint the parts of the handrail where the yellow chipped off, and I FINALLY have a working Reading RS-1 (class RS-1 was the RS3, class RS-3 was the GP7).
And enough parts to build at least 2 more running ones, once I get paint and decals. So fear not, the Athearn shell on Atlas chassis may still happen.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.