7mm Richards P48 US Thread

[simond]

The problem ones have all been smaller HO scale locos which don't weigh very much. They can be OK when the brass wheels have just been cleaned but the running quickly deteriorates. Swapping the wheels to nickel silver fixes the problem without any other change. The mass of the Heljan locos probably changes things, as would the higher voltage of DCC. I have some Dapol steam locos to convert to S7 but haven't wanted to risk the same problem happening so they are still in their boxes.

Fraser, it’s curious that you suggest NS as a solution, as there was a recent article in the MERG magazine, suggesting NS rail is the source of pick-up problems. I’m not able to post the reference now but will try to find it.

I do concur that weight, or lack of it, is likely to have a major influence.

atb
Simon

 

[daifly]

Does anyone know how to embed a pdf file in a post so that it displays ?

Hi Richard
I simply exported the .pdf as a .png (easily done on a MacBook) and this is the result:


Dave
(.png edited to lose the white surround)

 

[richard carr]

Thanks Dave

I will have to give that a try.

Richard

 

[richard carr]

The Atlas PRR SD35 is one of the locos I picked up at the Chicago March Meet. It is plain DC, so it needs a sound decoder and speakers adding. NWSL do replacement P48 wheels, these do literally just drop in and replace the 2 rail wheel sets.



The new wheel sets are in place, the bogie sides though need to be narrowed.

Once you take the body off this is what you find






So the first thing to do is bin the board, the rest is just like fitting a decoder to a Heljan loco. I choose a Loksound L V5, you can buy blank ones and then load on an SD35 sound file from the ESU website, if you have a Lok Programmer. The decoder has 2 separate amplifiers so I have fitted one speaker in the roof and one in the fuel tank, both are Tang Bang.

The rear head lights didn't work so they were replaced with a 12 volt LED (readily available on amazon), the front headlights are LEDs that need a resistor.

The other thing that needed an improvement are the couplers, the front Atlas one was broken but the coupling box is all wrong. I have managed to fit Protocraft couplers using one of their coupler boxes, again it isn't perfect but it is a significant improvement over the Atlas one.





Here are are all the coupler bits left bottom is an Atlas coupler box, above it is the snap in top for the box, the centre piece is what the coupler box is screwed to and in turn screws into the pilot. And then the 3 coupler options.

And here is what it looks like fitted to the loco



And this is what it was like refitting the Atlas coupler box with Kadee coupler







Richard

 

[Jordan]

I ditch the awful Atlas crew as a matter of course. I'd sooner have an 'empty' cab than those guys in there!!
Having said that, I did retain one in my RS3, mainly to emphasise which end is considered 'forwards' on it.

 

[Overseer]

The other thing that needed an improvement are the couplers, the front Atlas one was broken but the coupling box is all wrong. I have managed to fit Protocraft couplers using one of their coupler boxes, again it isn't perfect but it is a significant improvement over the Atlas one.

Probably worth cutting off the large surround to the large hole and scratch building a scale striker (front of the 'coupler box') to match the simple fabricated steel form of the original, and fill all the space around it. The opening in the loco coupler boxes is wider than the standard boxcar fitting, although not as wide as Kadee provide.

 

[richard carr]

Here's a little video clip

Richard

 

[richard carr]

Fraser

Yes it would be worthwhile doing that, but I would have to guess at the dimensions, I could certainly draw one and 3D print it, another job to add to the list.

Richard

 

[richard carr]

The EJ&E GP38-2 was the next loco for some attention. It just did not want to run well at slow speed using the MTH PS3 system it came with. Then you realise that is just doesn't sound right, and researching on the web, the view appears to be that MTH have used the sound of GP40 with it's turbo charged power unit when the GP38 uses a Roots blower . So I decided to bite the bullet and install a Loksound L V5 sound decoder.

This is what you find once you take the body off



Wow that's a lot of wiring







Removing it is the easy bit.

There are a lot of lights the head lights at each end, ditch lights at each end number board lights, a rotary beacon and cab lights.
All of these are low voltage LEDs, but fortunately they are all 3mm in size and you can easily buy 12 volt versions on Amazon for a few pounds.




The PS3 board is out, I just need to fit the decoder.



There is plenty of room for the decoder but there are a lot of redundant wires,



The LEDs for the ditch lights and the orange one for the rotary beacon.



Here it is all back together.

I still couldn't get it to run well at slow speeds, the motors did not want to run together, so after spending several hours trying all sorts of combinations I decided to bin the lead motor and just use the rear one. That solved the problem.
The funny thing is that I also have it's sister loco number 703 and that runs really well at slow speed with it's PS3 system (it sounds completely wrong of course), so I'm still guessing at what the problem was.

If you want to get the ditch lights to work I found that you need to use a separate function output for each light, you can then adjust the flashing time and offset one at each end to flash when the other one doesn't. You can also assign a grade crossing approach to one of the function keys so that you can run with them on and then press in my case F5 to make them flash

Richard

 

[Tim Humphreys ex Mudhen]

Richard,

The running issue may to do with whether you have connected the motors to the chip in parallel or series. Might be worth changing the set up to see if there is any difference.

Tim

 

[Big Train James]

I may be able to provide a drawing of the coupler pocket. If not, I can go measure one. Let me check some things.

 

[richard carr]

Richard,

The running issue may to do with whether you have connected the motors to the chip in parallel or series. Might be worth changing the set up to see if there is any difference.

Tim

Tim

I run all my diesels with twin motors in parallel, but this one you could see motor working and turning when motor 2 just wouldn't move, then a bit more power and it starts too, but you just get really jerky running from this. I have a couple of Heljan locos that perform in a similar way and probably have the same issue.

Richard

 

[richard carr]

I may be able to provide a drawing of the coupler pocket. If not, I can go measure one. Let me check some things.

Thanks Jim, it will give me something to do on holiday !

Richard

 

[richard carr]

Robin has been busy printing the bolsters for the protocraft trucks. So here is the first one fitted to an Atlas Trinity 5161 cu ft hopper .







It looks a lot better but its still hard to see really.

There are a few things wrong, the ride height is about 1.5mm too high, and some of the tolerances I used for the fit are too tight, but those are all things that can easily be fixed. Another little job for when I'm on holiday next week.


Richard

 

[richard carr]

Version of 2 of the bolsters have now been printed by Robin.










These are better than the first version but they do need a fair bit of cleaning up.

But once you have cleaned them up and fitted them, they look quite good.



This is what the atlas original looks like so a big improvement.






Richard

 

[richard carr]

The next thing on the work bench is another atlas SD35, this time in SP red nose livery.



Wow no spare room in there at all, all that needs to come out. This loco is 2 rail TMCC, in theory it could run on 2 rail DC but no DCC, it dates from about 2000, maybe 2001. I'm going to remove the lead motor and just use the rear one, that should hopefully make it run a lot smoother.

To convert it to P48 all you need to do is replace the wheels with NWSL ones, easier said than done as you have to remove the bogies from the body to get at the wheels.



But once you have done its a 3 minute job per bogie, you do need to change the centre axle first then the outer axles.



It's all apart now and ready to be replaced with a loksound decoder, there is a speaker in the fuel tank and there are lighting boards for the head lights and tail lights so long as you don't mind them both working together. A bit of a mess though will I remember how to put it back to gether.

Richard

 

[richard carr]

And the final thing tonight, is the coupler box, this is now progressing well after the last US trip where I got to measure and photograph a GP35 coupler box thanks to Jim.

 

[richard carr]

As some of you might have seen, I managed to pick up an Atlas GP15 in UP livery at Stafford, here it is with an atlas GP35.

The GP15 was a 2 rail DC version, so adding DCC was relatively easy as you can retain the existing electronics board and use the supplied adapter to connect to your decoder.




This is board with the lights etc all unplugged



I have now fitted the 2 adaptor plugs one for the motor and pickups with red/black and orange/grey wires and the multi coulred variety to the left of it.
You also get a nice diagram that tells what each pin is ! Maybe Heljan could do this with their diesels.
Then it is just case of soldering those wires to your decoder.
Add a couple of speakers and you are done.

 

[richard carr]

To me the other big change that you can make to these models is the width of the bogie frames. They are all designed for the cookie cutter wheels of 3 rail and are a bit too wide. Narrowing them though can be quite a challenge. The GP15 turns out to be one of the easier ones to do.





The GP15 side frames screw on the bogie centre from underneath so you can easily remove them without having to take the whole bogie off.
You can them extend the the holes the retaining screws pass through either in a milling machine, or filling, I used a 3mm cutter in a Sherline Mill.
You then need to shorten the supports on the frames and on the bogies I used a diamond cutting disc in a mini drill (not the one in the photo) to make some notches in the side frames and then cut off the rest of the metal with some track cutters and tidied it up with a file.




For the bogie centres you need to shorten the side frame supports with the cutting wheel. I used some kitchen roll to help keep the gears clear of swarf.



So this is an after shot



This is the before but actually on a GP35 that is waiting to have it's frame narrowed.




And here are the 2 locos together.



I think it is worth the effort.

 

[Scale7JB]

Thats a good looking pair!

JB.