Atlas red box GP40's

[routerock]

I have a question, i have a few Atlas GP40 in the red and black boxes, (pre silver or gold release) do i have to do anything special to them to convert to Digitrax DCC? Thank you.

[Gino Damen]

Hi,

DCC isn't brand specific. Regarding your question I do have Atlas engines, but no redboxes. The change is great that you have to replace the board.

On the website of TCS DCC you can find a lot of conversions of engines. The link below is from an older GP38. This one came with the Lens DCC decoder and is upgraded with an Atlas style decoder. Non sound versions are the A6X from TCS but NCE makes the DASR and Digitrax also sells a decoder in this board style.

tcsdcc.com/installation/ho-scale/1130

But to be sure you need to open the engine, take a picture of the inside and post it here so you can get more specific advice.

[bnsf971]

The red box Atlas engines I had all had 8 pin dcc plugs. If yours has those, simply unplug the jumper and plug in the 8 pin equipped decoder of your choice.

[nsc39d8]

I never had a red box GP but had several red box U23B's. They all had the 8 pin boards. I would select a decoder that had just the functions of what you want, like headlights only.

[routerock]

Great thanks for the information, I haven't opened them up yet and I was hoping to find out what I'm dealing with.