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Post by fishbelly on Aug 31, 2023 10:52:20 GMT -8
Just curious. Why are the majority of Atlas O-Scale Diesel locomotives listed as unpowered?
Also, where do you find the conversion kits to make a 3-rail into a two rail? Are there even conversion kits to do this?
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Post by jonklein611 on Aug 31, 2023 10:55:05 GMT -8
Just curious. Why are the majority of Atlas O-Scale Diesel locomotives listed as unpowered? Also, where do you find the conversion kits to make a 3-rail into a two rail? Are there even conversion kits to do this? Two / Three rail conversions would require different wheelsets, a new pickup and potentially board / electronics changes. Also O tends to follow the old logic of not powering extra units (dummy units), as running multiple locos on one transformer can be challenging, especially with syncing reversing e units. shop.atlasrr.com/c-1344-0227.aspx |
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Post by SOMECALLMETIM on Aug 31, 2023 11:02:25 GMT -8
Are you looking at what is currently in stock at Atlas or elsewhere? I usually look at the Atlas product archives as it's much easier to use/navigate. The unpowered ones might not sell as well and could be why they are still on the website. archive.atlasrr.com/o-mloco-archive.htmlThere are a few places to get two/three rail conversions - Off the top of my head NWSL, P&D, and Right-O-Way would be my go to. Jay at Right-O-Way would be the most knowledgeable on the topic. Some, like Jay's Atlas SW-series wheel sets, are drop in replacements while others might require replacing the whole truck. P&D sells brass EMD truck replacements. |
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Post by hudsonyard on Aug 31, 2023 14:13:53 GMT -8
there is a pretty robust amount of resources and a very informative community of O scalers who have done many 3 to 2 rail conversions, lots and lots of lionel/MTH cars can be made into a respectable scale model once the toy elements are removed.
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Post by fishbelly on Aug 31, 2023 14:55:08 GMT -8
there is a pretty robust amount of resources and a very informative community of O scalers who have done many 3 to 2 rail conversions, lots and lots of lionel/MTH cars can be made into a respectable scale model once the toy elements are removed. Possibly being new to O-Scale. There is a WHOLE new learning curve. I know how to build the model, but I have no idea of what is available to do it. It might be fun or it might be a total waste of time.  I am going to gather some information before I make any purchases or decisions to dive in. I have seen some Lionel cars turned into very nicely detailed models. It would not be a big adventure for me. Very small. Maybe two locomotives and a dozen or so freight cars for a small switching layout in my hobby room. About 38 linear feet of shelf layout. 17' x 9' x 12' ranging from 12" to 16" (maybe 18" in one spot) wide U-shaped layout. I do not know. Just an idea right now. |
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Post by hudsonyard on Aug 31, 2023 18:33:30 GMT -8
there is a pretty robust amount of resources and a very informative community of O scalers who have done many 3 to 2 rail conversions, lots and lots of lionel/MTH cars can be made into a respectable scale model once the toy elements are removed. Possibly being new to O-Scale. There is a WHOLE new learning curve. I know how to build the model, but I have no idea of what is available to do it. It might be fun or it might be a total waste of time. I am going to gather some information before I make any purchases or decisions to dive in. I have seen some Lionel cars turned into very nicely detailed models. It would not be a big adventure for me. Very small. Maybe two locomotives and a dozen or so freight cars for a small switching layout in my hobby room. About 38 linear feet of shelf layout. 17' x 9' x 12' ranging from 12" to 16" (maybe 18" in one spot) wide U-shaped layout. I do not know. Just an idea right now.
with your skills, and that kind of scope of potential project i would take a hard look at proto48, couple good FB groups centered around it. I always keep my eye on O scale, my dream layout with unlimited resources and time would be a P48 lehigh and hudson river.
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Post by SOMECALLMETIM on Sept 1, 2023 6:08:46 GMT -8
Brian, I made the leap to P:48 last year due to a misunderstanding with my LHS. Long story short I only asked about a price on an O scale Atlas Mopac GP7 back in 2018 and instead the LHS ordered it for me. I received an email saying it was instock and I thought for a bit and then I paid for it and basically haven't looked back. There are some great, helpful people doing some extraordinary things in P:48 and O scale. 3D printing is big along with straight scratchbuilding with styrene. I felt too overwhelmed with my goals in HO scale. Too many things I'd have to build from scratch or have 3D printed.My decision to switch to P:48 is basically scope. I have set on modeling one town with a variety of business with only seven switches in a compact area. Instead of modeling 1979 like in HO scale, I switched to January 1960 so I can have passenger traffic also. It helps I have a quality aerial image from the exact time period that almost shows everything I need to build for the layout. I feel it's easier and less daunting to only have to model a narrow scope. I plan to have three locomotives (GP7, RS-3, FPA-2) and a roster of about 20-25 freight cars, two passenger cars, and two caboose for my P:48 roster. HO would be 20 locomotives, 250ish freight cars, and four to six caboose. I can put the detail level I want to in to fewer, larger piece of equipment. Freight cars are a challenge. With the decline - or less interest in O scale, there are much less new products as compared to HO scale. New products are generally resin, reruns of past plastic models, or brass like the Tangent tank car. Trying to find specific cars can be a challenge. For example, I needed several 40' rivet box cars with 10'6" inside height. I could go brass at about $400 a pop or pick up a plastic model ($20 each) that was produced in the early 1980s that is still the best (only) quality plastic model of that car. Another example is the Lionel PS-1 is still the best PS-1 available and it still needs modifications. It's definitely a research and ask what's available and then go to swap meets or maybe eBay to find the cars. I won't be able to get away from kitbashing to modify cars to P:48 and I'll have to scratchbuild my caboose and the majority of my Mopac freight cars and all of my passenger car fleet. Lucky for me I learned that the Museum of Transportation has the line drawings of a large number of Mopac freight cars and caboose so it makes it a little easier. I love the heft of 1:48 scale models. It gives the impression of weight and scale that I enjoy. I still have all of my HO scale equipment and need to finally pull the trigger and decide to sell it all to free up room and funds to purchase the P:48 trucks and other parts I need. there is a pretty robust amount of resources and a very informative community of O scalers who have done many 3 to 2 rail conversions, lots and lots of lionel/MTH cars can be made into a respectable scale model once the toy elements are removed. Possibly being new to O-Scale. There is a WHOLE new learning curve. I know how to build the model, but I have no idea of what is available to do it. It might be fun or it might be a total waste of time. I am going to gather some information before I make any purchases or decisions to dive in. I have seen some Lionel cars turned into very nicely detailed models. It would not be a big adventure for me. Very small. Maybe two locomotives and a dozen or so freight cars for a small switching layout in my hobby room. About 38 linear feet of shelf layout. 17' x 9' x 12' ranging from 12" to 16" (maybe 18" in one spot) wide U-shaped layout. I do not know. Just an idea right now. |
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Post by fishbelly on Sept 1, 2023 7:39:57 GMT -8
Somecallmetim,
Your comments are along the same line I am thinking. Just not ready to pull the trigger yet. Almost, but hesitant.
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Post by bnsf971 on Sept 17, 2023 3:08:05 GMT -8
Back in the 1960s-1970s, Atlas made a bunch of unpowered O locomotives, and there were powering kits available for them. It's been so long ago, I've forgotten what all they were, but I do remember one of them being an O scale version of the Rivarossi 0-8-0 switcher.
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Post by Baikal on Sept 17, 2023 4:46:34 GMT -8
Easier dead rail (battery powered locos) in O scale is attractive.
If I were building a new small switching layout with just a few locos, I'd seriously consider dead rail & wireless control. |
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Post by wagnersteve on Oct 5, 2023 9:59:52 GMT -8
10/5/2023, starting about 1:46 p.m.
Fishbelly (et al.), For a while I had about a dozen O scale 2-rail cars, nearly all Atlas O, plus three locos, only one of them powered. Nearly all were decorated for the D&H. I displayed many of them at the railroad hobby shop where I worked part time for years. I had no room to run them at home and they took up a lot of room. I got rid of nearly all of them, giving some away to people I knew would like them and selling others at very reasonable prices.
I kept four special favorites, all D&H: a 40' USRA single sheathed boxcar with 1950's lettering, an extended vision caboose, a bright red single bay Airside covered hopper and a black 42'6" GSC pulpwood car. The detailing on these, as well as their paint and decoration, is excellent. The pulpwood car has a feature that unfortunately neither Atlas nor any other supplier has made in HO or N scale polystyrene: the extensions to the ends that the D&H added to its cars, increasing their capacity, after acquiring them used from the C&O. The D&H ultimately sold some of the cars it had modified to the MEC and, as I recall, the SCL.
Anyone interested in modeling the D&H in O scale would do well to look up Matt Forsyth's website on that subject, which also has very good information on D&H boxcars of the steam and transition eras, with photos.
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Post by fishbelly on Oct 10, 2023 16:48:38 GMT -8
I made my first capitol O-Scale purchase. An Atlas NYC GP35, a set of P&D trucks and some spare Atlas parts.
Tonight a friend ask if I had an HO motor setup already with speakers and decoder. I did and he asked if I could put a GP28 sound file on it. I did. I had a Tang Band 4 Ohm speaker and thought for fun I would hook it up and see how it sounded. OH my goodness. From this moment on I am sold on O-Scale. The sound coming out of that speaker was pure EMD gold. It was so deep. All the sounds were incredible. Simply exactly what HO scale is missing. This sound was so close to the real thing that I could feel it through my table top. I can only imagine how it will sound once all properly setup. WOW!
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Post by big train james on Oct 11, 2023 16:31:02 GMT -8
Hi Brian,
It's a shame you didn't have this (re)awakening prior to this year's St. Louis RPM meet. We could have carved out a few minutes to sit down and talk O scale in depth.
Regarding the Tang Band speakers, which speaker module are you using? I presume it's the 1925S? The 1925S should fit in most any O scale shell without modification. You can go up to the 1931S or 1815S if you want to improve the bass response, but you will need to modify the speaker module enclosure to get it to fit in most O scale shells. Certainly the plastic ones anyway, brass locos usually have fairly thin walls. Atlas shells are armor plate thick.
Anyway, it's fairly simple to machine the enclosure to thin the walls. They have quite a bit of meat in them, so you can take quite a bit out without breaching the housing. You can also mill off the tabs on the ends to further reduce the footprint. You can do the work on a Sherline, because that's how mine were done. If you want to give it a try, let me know and I will get you the specs that we used here for cutter and speed, and for how much material we removed. Plus there are a few other tips on methodology that might save some heartache.
By the way, the 1931S and 1815S are essentially the same size modules, with the same capabilities regarding range. However, the 1931S has a convex driver, while the 1815S has a concave driver. The 1815S is a good choice for applications where speaker excursion might encounter interference with the shell or some other internal part. The trade-off though is that the 1815S has a shallow protrusion on the back side of the enclosure opposite the driver, whereas the 1931S is flush. So the choice is probably strictly a matter of how much space is available, in what configuration.
Photos soon, once I load them up and get them posted.
Jim
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Post by big train james on Oct 11, 2023 17:13:42 GMT -8
1815S  1931S  1925S, 1931S, 1815S  Back sides, 1815S in front, 1931S behind.  |
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Post by fishbelly on Oct 12, 2023 2:55:03 GMT -8
I have the 1931S.
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Post by fishbelly on Oct 12, 2023 17:06:10 GMT -8
Jim,
It was something I had to ease into. I do not want to fully commit to it until I can at least get one model done. If the model turns out the way I plan, then I will sink more into it. At this time though it is ONE model. No more. I am enjoying it a bit though, but I am on the fence with P48. Do not really know if I want to go that route. I guess OW5 is the other route and although the track gauge is wider than P48, I do not think it will really bother me that much. If I build a shelf layout. OW5 will be fine with me there too. I do not want to spend the rest of my life learning how to hand lay track and build turnouts. Besides with the amount of room I have, One turnout might be to much. I just want to enjoy building the model and not buying a bunch of stuff I will never use. I have already done that in HO. Although if I could sell all my HO stuff at once. Then my attitude toward O would change a bit.
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