Atlas RS-1 Wiring

Maybe to turn the smoke unit on and off?

Pete

Three switches, and an adjustable pot. (1.) Run/Pgm (Run, Program switch TMCC),  (2.) Smk/NoSmk (Smoke, No smoke),  (3.) Snd/No Snd ( Sound, No Sound).  With out finding the instructions, most likely the adjustable pot was a sound volume control.  Eventually, the sound control, was done, with the handheld remote.

Rare Atlas Models this vintage:   O-scale: There was two rail AC, with TMCC. There may also have been, two rail DC with TMCC.  Neither was a big market hit.  There were parts to adapt TMCC to two rail.   TMCC, as a proprietary system, did not have the flexibility of DCC, IMO, Mike CT.

Edit/Add:  These models also had one of the first tach-strip speed control systems.  Most of this technology, at the time was TAS (Train America Studios, Youngstown, Ohio, Mike Reagan).  20 Years later the world is moving on.   

I have a C&O version of this model that was also DC. That switch is for the smoke unit which Atlas somehow crammed in that narrow, low shell.

Thanks for the responses! I have never run across a straight DC engine that had a smoke unit. I guess the shell is coming off today to investigate further.

As a follow up, has anyone ever converted one of these to DCC? Will be able to tell more when I get the shell off, but wondering if this was “DCC ready” or if one should rip out all the wiring and wire to a decoder from scratch.

The O Scale Resource had an article on installing a DCC Soundtraxx decoder in an Atlas RS-1.  Of course, you can use any sound decoder you wish as there are a number of brands that have Alco RS1 sound.

https://magazine.oscaleresource.com/books/qxln/#p=20

As for your "DCC Ready" question, even if it is "DCC Ready" then that only means that it was designed to be DCC Ready for the DCC Decoder that Atlas supported at the time this loco was manufactured (probably close to 20 years ago), which is an old out dated QSI Sound decoder.  There have been so many advances in speed control and sound since that DCC Ready decoder was made, that today, "DCC Ready" Plug-n-Play for O Scale probably includes a total of two O Scale locomotives; the Atlas Dash 8-40CW and the Atlas U23B (since they were both built recently and their DCC plug supports the latest ESU Loksound Size L (Large Scale) DDC V4 and V5 Sound decoders.  Other than that, you need to tear down all the electronics and start from scratch on pretty much every other O scale loco.  However, it is not really that hard and usually takes a few hours to get a sound decoder up and running.  If the lighting uses LEDs, then you will need to add some resistors inline with each of the LEDs.  And this is all covered in the link above.

Scott

@lionel1946 posted:

Thanks for the responses! I have never run across a straight DC engine that had a smoke unit. I guess the shell is coming off today to investigate further.

As a follow up, has anyone ever converted one of these to DCC? Will be able to tell more when I get the shell off, but wondering if this was “DCC ready” or if one should rip out all the wiring and wire to a decoder from scratch.

I recently installed an ESU LokSound L in my RS-1. The headlights are LED's so you'll need resistors as mentioned above.

This is a tricky locomotive to take apart. First, there is the issue with the brake chains becoming detached once the locomotive is turned over. I taped them to the truck sideframes to keep them from moving too much where they could come loose. Second, the shell comes apart in 3 sections, long hood, short hood and cab. Removing the smoke unit was a chore since it's packed inside with little room to spare. Once the shell was removed and the guts were exposed the rest was pretty easy. Reassembly is less involved than disassembly since there is no smoke unit with which to contend.

Most of my Atlas DC locomotives that were converted to DCC using LokSound L's & XL's came with smoke units. The GP35's do not, however. I have a bunch of Lionel smoke units sitting around from other models like Dash 8-40B's, GP60's and SD35's.