atlas sw9 kadee and loksound questions

Dan,  Welcome to O scale.  I personally can't advise on your questions but I'm sure there are others that will.  I'm curious, why will you be using Loksound?  Again, Welcome!

Well, this is a new one on me. I must admit that I have NEVER HEARD of Atlas offering a 2-Rail SCALE model with TMCC AND "electro-couplers". I'll just bet you have a 3-Rail model.

here is a couple pics for ya guys. i know this loco was run about 2003. i am glad i found it. good painter i am not.

You will want to get an amp draw on that motor. The LokSound Select HO decoders are rated for 1.1 amp steady state. The O scale motors I have tested have pulled about half and amp outside of the loco, inside of the loco and under towing load will be different as well. While the LokSound Select may be able to handle it you will most likely be close to the top end rating of the decoder which is not the best idea to operate in. You may want to try the LokSound XL for the higher current rating but those are 3 times the price but well worth it since the LokSound sound sets sound amazing. If you don't mind being off on the sound set consider an MRC O/G decoder with the SD45/MP15 sound set this has a 4 amp rating, it doesn't have the correct sound set but they sound pretty good, not great but pretty good, and they can be had for around $70. Otherwise the QSI Titan has a 2 amp motor rating and can be had for about $130 retail. Sound decoders can be fickle little devices and overloading one will ruing it in many ways.

D408SR's have a 4 amp steady state rating with a 12 amp peak, that should run almost any loco out there

i could go tsunami as well. i see someone is modifying them with heatsinks. i see kadee 802 are popular perhaps i need to order some up for the loco.i am going to carefully remove the tmcc stuff and sell it dirt cheap as i cant test it. eventually i would like to make a lance mindheim east rail copy just based on a different locale.

Locksound is a superior quality sound, as most manufactures are now using Locksound over Tsunami. I have both and will no longer be using tusnami.

Stephen

I have put an HO Tsunami in an Atlas O 2R MP15DC (similar horizontal drive to the SW9) and it has run just fine shuffling cars about.

I have an SW9 and I am going to add sound to that; probably a Tsunami. I also have two twin-engine "China" drives (GP15 and Alco C424) that I am considering for a LokSound intallation. I am going to to wire the motors in series as Dan Dawdy has done. He has had no problem using HO Tsunamis in his Atlas RS1 re-wired like that. I am going to give it a try with the Loksound HO Select Direct. I am going to meter the overall engine current draw after I rewire and see what the limit is before any decoder installation.

Personally, I think the LokSound, especially the horns, are better than Tsunami and I have always liked the Tsunamis.

Of all the decoders i have installed I find the LokSound far superior to all the rest especially with steam sounds. The Tsunami chuff sounds far to synthesized but I did have and issue with the horn on the SD40 sound set being too quiet. I have not done any O scale installations as I am a 3 rail guy but I have done lots of HO and N scale and the LokSounds are far nicer in all respects that I have seen. I just don't know about the motor current draw through those HO scale decoders.

Some years ago I rebuilt an Atlas TMCC SW1200 into a DCC model with Kadee couplers. The solenoid-operated lobster-claw couplers are body mounted and come off easily. You will need to make fairly thick styrene shims to achieve a proper Kadee mounting height. Rework of the end platforms can improve appearance.

In my model I installed an NCE ATLO decoder I modified by removing the long connecting pins that would normally plug into an Atlas "dog bone" circuit board. Next to it I installed an old and no longer made Soundtraxx DSX sound-only decoder.

Some photos of the conversion can be found at:

Link to SW1200 photo gallery

I can upload a few more photos of the conversion to that gallery if they would prove helpful. I did not take photos of the DCC install. To help keep everything tidy I reused some of the TMCC standoffs that held circuit boards above the motor, and attached a styrene platform. The existing TMCC speaker in the fuel tank was reused, but sound improved by sealing as much of the air gaps as possible between the motor and frame with modeling clay.

Hope this helps.

thanks all. bob, your layout is so awesome , i hope to see more of it in magazines. so i just have to remove the old coupler and make a styrene shim for the kadee box eh? . man i wish it was a bit more like ho scale just drop in, but this will help build some o scale knowledge.i think i am gonna throw a loksound in it. i wont ever pull alot of cars at once.  regards, dan. p.s. if you could add more pics of your work bob it would be ever most appreciated, if its not too much trouble. thanks for the help.

Some additional photos of three rail models.   The lobster claw 3-rail couplers, much larger than the one shown, were articulate.  Actually a two piece coupler that attached to the truck.  This allowed for an O36 bend rating.  To do this two piece coupler the pilot coupler hole was made much larger.  A two rail pilot is quite a bit different from the three rail pilot.
Note the two piece electro-coupler attached to  the truck and the large gap in the pilot to account for coupler swing.

Atlas also had an interest electo-coupler cover piece that kind-of filled the large hole in the pilot.

Atlas also had model specific handrail sets.  Note that the SW's, I modeled, had MU sets with pass through chains, and the fold-down step plate.  I believe the pilots were also keyed to either an MU model or single operational model.  I ordered (2) undecorated models and had to replace both pilots and handrails with the correct pieces for what I wished to model, MU pilots. Atlas was really good about supplying the correct parts.
The Atlas mother board that uses Lionel control and sound parts is a modular plug-in board.  It was fabricated to fit the SW model. The two electro-couplers plug-in to corresponding receptacles and are triggered with a handheld remote.
If you are removing the mother board, couplers, and (3) Lionel parts (3 Rail) completely, I would be interested in purchasing them.  Current offering of the SW9 have a different/new electronics that don't match the (9) SW's that I have.  A spare mother board and the (3) Lionel boards should be a sell-able item.    Mike CT