Skip to main content

I brought thiss engine in February and it has been a lemon ever since.  The sounds were acting strange, no rev-up.  Smoke quit working, changed out the element from 10 Ohm to a 27 Ohm.  Had numerous emails with Bill at Atlas;  but to no avail.  I sent the engine to him before York, and after York he worked on it.  Well about a week ago it just stopped, found out the truck to motor mounting screw had fallen out.  Never did find it,  So I take it apart to mount a new screw,  endied up drilling and tapping the hole for a 6:32 screw.  So Thursday I am running it and the smoke went out, had a awful stench to it.  Atlas had put back the 10-Ohm element.  THe top of the smoke unit is ccooked and all the wicking was toast..Put it back together and now the sounds don't come on at all.  I think I have a lemon here and they sould just replace its.  I have just sent it to Bill at MTTP in Ohio and see what he can do with it.  I have never had so much trouble with a new engine before and it doesn't say much for the product.....

 

Marty

Original Post
I know where you're coming from because at one time I had 6 Atlas SD40s and 3 of them were the worst-running engines I've ever had. One would randomly slow down. Out of the box it ran great but a month or two later I started experiencing issues with it.

The next locomotive hesitated and jerked and the lights flickered. The Railsounds would cut out frequently when this occurred.

The 3rd SD40 was the absolute worst. Not only would it slow down on its own but occasionally come to a complete stop and the horn would sound continuously until it was reset. I sent this one back to Atlas twice and it still displayed the same behavior.

The other 3 ran OK but I had 2 upgraded to the ERR Cruise Commander by Boxcar Bill of Modern Toy Train Parts. I would've done these conversions myself as they are pretty straightforward but the lighting was a little too complex so I left it up to the best in the business.

The 2 SD40s that were upgraded are HUGE improvements in both performance and sound over the original TAS boards. I liked the results so much that I'm having a 3rd engine done.

The other locomotives have been scrapped but I'm keeping the extra can motors and miscellaneous detail parts for the 3 that now have the ERR Cruise Commander and Railsounds 5.0 Commander.

My experience with the EOB boards hasn't been all that great and that is why I'll never buy another pre-2010 Atlas locomotive again. The TAS boards proved to be unreliable.

Add Reply

Post
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×