Atlas Repairman

Contact Billy S at Atlas O. He knows his TMCC!

Like Marc said   Bill Serratelli at Atlas is great   908-687-9590

Sounds like a radio board went bad.  Anyone that dose TMCC install should be able to help you, or those that repair modern Lionel products.

This could be as simple as the RUN/PGM switch or the wiring to it, I've seen that several times.  If the only symptom is you can't change the TMCC ID, that's a likely scenario.  In any case, if it's not that, it's most likely the R2LC, a drop-in part.

 

The hardest part with some Atlas locomotives is getting the shell off and back on!

 

gunrunnerjohn,

 

I know what you mean about getting the shell off.  If I can remove it w/o breaking railings and other delicate parts it would be easy to check the wires on the run/pgn switch and easy to fix.  

 

If that is not the problem, are you a source for the R2LC part or do I order that from Atlas?

 

Or could I just send the unit to you for the repair w/o me running the risk of damaging the shell?

 

I have checked with a good friend and frequent poster on this forum and he could not recommend anybody locally that he would trust to work on an Atlas engine.

 

Thanks for your input.

Before taking it apart, you could try switching the switch back and forth quickly a number of times. Sometimes that will clean the contacts. It's easy to do and carries no risk.

I like Roy's fix first, if all else fails, I can certainly fix it. 

 

A simple test.  If you turn the PGM/RUN switch to PGM, can you still operate it normally?  That will certainly narrow it down, though your description of not being able to set the ID seems to strongly suggest either the switch/wiring or the R2LC.

RoyBoy and John.

 

I will try switching the prg/run toggle back-and-forth fast 10-12 times to see if that cleans the contacts.  If that fails I will pack it up and send it off to GRJ.  I will not be able to get back to you guys for 2 weeks.  The engine in question is at the club and our next run session isn't until August 15th.

 

Thanks to both for your suggestions and offers.  

Good luck, hopefully a little switch exercise will wake it up.

 

Once you take one apart they are pretty common and it isn't that hard.  Will give you access to the boards and switches pretty easily.

 

It is when you have to disturb the wire bundle you have to be careful, because it is tight.   G

I find that with some Atlas models, getting the shell off and back on is the challenge.  The actual electronics is pretty similar for any TMCC model.  I suspect this one may use the TAS package, depending on the vintage.

 

GunRunnerJohn, A friend I talked with the other day said the exact same thing.  This locomotive was made between 2003-2005.  Does that help?

Yep, most likely TAS in that vintage.  The repair suggestions are pretty much the same, TAS used the Lionel R2LC and sound boards, they just provided the motor driver.  They also had several smoke unit designs, but I don't think that one will have smoke.

 

I think Atlas installed cruise and smoke around late 2004/early 2005.

 

I have extra radio boards, Railsounds 4.0 boards and a few good cruise boards leftover from ERR upgrades.

 

If you have a couple hundred bucks and you really like the engine I'd dump the TAS boards for the ERR. Hopefully, the switch trick will remedy your issue.

 

This loco has cruise and smoke on/off switches under the front of the engine.

I would guess that it has the TAS EOB, that's what similar vintage locomotives have.  If it's only the fact that it won't accept new programming, and it still runs using the old TMCC ID, it should be an easy fix.  Worst case in that scenario is a new R2LC if the input pin is toasted.  However, it's usually just the switch or wiring for this issue.

 

When I changed out the led's on my gp60 it was a bear of a job- very tight tolerance's. The railings were scary to remove from the cab as they made a loud "Pop" sound when they came out. In the end the repair was easy but the mirrors and their holding rings broke on both sides even with all the padding. I've yet to figure out how to remove the broken posts from the shell.

The only way I know is to use a pin vice and a tiny drill, then move up to the proper size to just remove the remnants of the post.

I think the most frustrating thing wasn't so much removing the shell, provided I remembered to pull out the railings from the cab first, but rather sliding the shell back on so none of the wires would want to ride up and show through the cab windows. Lots of times everything went back together OK only to find a wire wrapped around the engineer. It kind of looked like a  seatbelt.

I've opened a number of engines where I ended up putting in some cable ties to keep the wires where I wanted them before I could get it back together.

 

Where could I get a pin vice?

You can find a pin vise at a hobby shop, a large Ace Hardware, or a well-stocked tool shop. Do NOT get the ones sold by Micro-Mark. Most of their tools are good, but their pin vises don't grip the bits well and they slip. 

I have repaired atlas of that vintage with smoke and Lionel components.  VCO mother board and the rest modular, but it was not cruise.  If Cruise it would be TAS.  Which is still modular just that the mother board is the cruise motor driver too.   G

I try to keep at least one TAS EOB MB around for repairs.  I think I'm abour 75% fixing the EOB boards, one I had appeared to have a bad uP, nothing I could do to replace that.  The motor drivers are a common failure, and I've had two that had blown traces from obvious wiring shorts.

 

George, FWIW, I just worked on an Atlas with the TAS SAW non-cruise board, so they obviously used those as well.

 

This is the Pin Vice I have, it comes apart and stores the different sized collets  internally.

 

 

Absolutely.  All different variations.  It was interesting when I opened a Weaver and found Lionel modular until I got to the motor drive section.  It was K-line Cruise.  G

OK, you got me.  I've never seen the K-Line cruise on one!