Marmight

Ah! So now we know what it is. Thanks for posting this, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it yesterday…

Hi Everyone, Quite often, when I get tired of watching the rubbish on TV, and it’s too hot to visit the loft, I log on to Google Earth and follow what looks like abandoned tracks. My Daughter is currently living near Boston, so this area is of particular interest for when I manage to get over there for a visit. Last night I followed what looks like abandoned trackage through Medfield MA. and came across this: https://earth.app.goo.gl/MQFjp9 It’s just by the intersection of Dover Road and West Street, close to the Medfield Waste Water plant. The engine shows up on Google Maps as well. It has its windows boarded up and I’m not sure of its type or road who owned it. Originally I thought it might be Seaboard or part of the Family Lines Group, but I’m not an expert. Is there anyone living close by who can take a look at it? Cheers Martin

Many moons ago I posted a thread regarding this subject and the non standard wiring colours and plugs Atlas used. Well here is an update which might stop people from ripping out the Atlas PCB and starting from scratch when converting to DCC. I’ve just bought another Atlas GP15/1 under the Trainman series. Going back through this thread, there was a lot of confusion over the non standard wiring colours used in the larger 8 pin JST Plug. Well, I’ve managed to get hold of a document from Atlas that gives the correct colours in respect to a NMRA plug. Firstly, let me say that I use the 21 pin socket board from illuminated models. At £3.50, this is an ideal board for 21 pin decoders with fairly large solder tabs to cover all you might need. Those in the US will probably use a Decoder Buddy. Ok, quite a few people on this forum stated that they ripped out the Atlas PCB’s and started from scratch. Well, I suppose that’s one way of doing it, but as Atlas have gone to the trouble of fitting a DCC ready board, I wonder if it’s the best method to use… So, firstly and carefully remove the body of the locomotive. You should see a long PCB with another smaller one on top of it. To the front of the PCB, there is a 4 pin white JST socket. This matches the 4 pin plug that Atlas supply. Carefully remove the top PCB by waggling it from side to side and pulling. This is a blanking plug for most of the functions. This PCB plugs into a long 8 pin JST socket, the plug of which is supplied with the locomotive by Atlas. Now it’s the colour wiring that comes from the plug that is very questionable. Even the Atlas paperwork that I have gives different colours to NMRA standards. The four wires from the 4 pin JST are standard NMRA colours… Orange…Right motor Red…Right rail power pickup Black…Left rail power pickup Grey…Left motor contact. The 8 pin JST is listed by Atlas as follows. Pin 1…yellow, front marker light -ve Pin 2…white/blue, Function 6 Pin 3…white/ green, Function 5 Pin 4…yellow, rear headlight -ve Pin 5…white, front headlight -ve Pin 6…blue, common +ve Pin 7…white/yellow, Function 4 Pin 8…white, rear marker light -ve The wiring supplied with the locomotive is different from this, but pin 1 will always be yellow and pin 8 will always be white. The plug only fits one way so as long as you keep these colour references, the wiring will be as follows… Pin 1…yellow as above Pin 2…ORANGE, function 6 Pin 3… GREEN, function 5 Pin 4…yellow as above Pin 5…white, as above Pin 6…blue, as above Pin 7… BLACK, Ground Pin 8…WHITE, as above For most applications, the orange and green wires are not used, but this all depends on your decoder mapping and functions. Both the white wires are joined together as are the yellow. On the illuminated models 21 pin DCC board, these are soldered to front light and rear light respectively, ie, both white wires to rear headlight, both yellow wires to front headlight. Blue wire to common positive and black wire to ground or negative. By using the existing Atlas PCB in the way, the correct lights show when changing direction. IE front headlight on with rear marker light and vice versa. I hope this is useful and may stop the existing Atlas PCB from being ripped out…after all, this is what controls the directional lighting. Cheers Martin As a footnote, Atlas state that their 2 motor models can draw up to 6 amps when stalled. The decoder I’ve put in this engine is a 1amp Tsunami sound decoder, and up to now is working perfectly well pulling 8 heavy cars on my layout…it’s up to you !

An update…. I’ve just bought another Atlas GP15/1 under the Trainman series. Going back through this thread, there was a lot of confusion over the non standard wiring colours used in the larger 8 pin JST Plug. Well, I’ve managed to get hold of a document from Atlas that gives the correct colours in respect to a NMRA plug. Firstly, let me say that I use the 21 pin socket board from illuminated models. At £3.50, this is an ideal board for 21 pin decoders with fairly large solder tabs to cover all you might need. Ok, quite a few people on this forum stated that they ripped out the Atlas PCB’s and started from scratch. Well, I suppose that’s one way of doing it, but as Atlas have gone to the trouble of fitting a DCC ready board, I wonder if it’s the best method to use… So, firstly and carefully remove the body of the locomotive. You should see a long PCB with another smaller one on top of it. To the front of the PCB, there is a 4 pin white JST socket. This matches the 4 pin plug that Atlas supply. Carefully remove the top PCB by waggling it from side to side and pulling. This is a blanking plug for most of the functions. This PCB plugs into a long 8 pin JST socket, the plug of which is supplied with the locomotive by Atlas. Now it’s the colour wiring that comes from the plug that is very questionable. Even the Atlas paperwork that I have gives different colours to NMRA standards. The four wires from the 4 pin JST are standard NMRA colours… Orange…Right motor Red…Right rail power pickup Black…Left rail power pickup Grey…Left motor contact. The 8 pin JST is listed by Atlas as follows. Pin 1…yellow, front marker light -ve Pin 2…white/blue, Function 6 Pin 3…white/ green, Function 5 Pin 4…yellow, rear headlight -ve Pin 5…white, front headlight -ve Pin 6…blue, common +ve Pin 7…white/yellow, Function 4 Pin 8…white, rear marker light -ve The wiring supplied with the locomotive is different from this, but pin 1 will always be yellow and pin 8 will always be white. The plug only fits one way so as long as you keep these colour references, the wiring will be as follows… Pin 1…yellow as above Pin 2…ORANGE, function 6 Pin 3… GREEN, function 5 Pin 4…yellow as above Pin 5…white, as above Pin 6…blue, as above Pin 7… BLACK, Ground Pin 8…WHITE, as above For most applications, the orange and green wires are not used, but this all depends on your decoder mapping and functions. Both the white wires are joined together as are the yellow. On the illuminated models 21 pin DCC board, these are soldered to front light and rear light respectively, ie, both white wires to rear headlight, both yellow wires to front headlight. Blue wire to common positive and black wire to ground or negative. By using the existing Atlas PCB in the way, the correct lights show when changing direction. IE front headlight on with rear marker light and vice versa. I hope this is useful and may stop the existing Atlas PCB from being ripped out…after all, this is what controls the directional lighting. Cheers Martin As a footnote, Atlas state that their 2 motor models can draw up to 6 amps when stalled. The decoder I’ve put in this engine is a 1amp Tsunami sound decoder, and up to now is working perfectly well pulling 8 heavy cars on my layout…it’s up to you !

Found it… it’s a Zimo Large-Scale Decoder MX69, Large-Scale Sound Decoder MX690. seems a bit of an overkill to me. Any ideas if an ESU standard 21 pin will do? http://www.zimo.at/web2010/documents/MX69MX690E.pdf Cheers Martin

Hi Nick, yes, it is a large heat sink. I’ll have to check LGB decoders. Many thanks for your input. Cheers Martin

My Brother has sent down his O gauge Atlas UP SD 40 to have DCC sound decoder fitted. It currently has a non sound decoder fitted, one I have never seen the likes of before. There doesn’t seem to be any major problem with fitting a new decoder as the wiring seems to be pretty straight forward. The ribbon cable controls the lights on the model. As this is a China twin motor model! Im wondering what size of decoder members suggest I fit. Will an ESU Loksound V5 21 pin be sufficient, or is the loco destined to have an L or XL one inserted. Your thoughts as always would be most appreciated. Cheers Martin

Sorry Fred, I should have said… Cheers Martin

I have downloaded the instruction manual for the particular model, and there is a small switch under the front trucks marked dcs/DCC. if the truck is turned to the right, just under the now exposed moulding there is the slider switch.

Hi Tony, I’ve done a bit of digging and found that later MTH locos with Protosound 3 and DCS have a DCC Decoder installed and available via a small switch under the front trucks. They’re programmable using DCC CV values and will accept short or long addresses with a bit of adjustment. All the DCS functions appear to work from most DCC controllers. The DCC command list is a bit different from a lot of others and uses F3 for the prime mover start up procedure. F1 is still the bell and F2 the horn. Engine with Protosound 2 are NOT DCC compatible and will require a complete rewrite and installation of a suitable decoder. Cheers Martin

Hi, yes it’s helpful. I’ve also found out that MTH locos with Proto sound 3 and DCS have a DCC decoder installed. There is a tiny switch on later models under the front trucks of the engine. They are fully programmable using DCC CV commands and use short or long addresses. Cheers Martin

Can anyone please tell me if a MTH 2 rail engine with protosound 3 can be operated on DCC? The engine has ‘scale’ wheels and looks to be a factory conversion, but the info on the box doesn’t mention DCC, only DCS P3. Cheers Martin

Can anyone please tell me if a MTH 2 rail engine with protosound 3 can be operated on DCC? The engine has ‘scale’ wheels and looks to be a factory conversion, but the info on the box doesn’t mention DCC, only DCS P3. Cheers Martin

On trial at Lake Shore Harbor is this 1927 ALCo built 2-8-0 oil fired steamer. The current Heritage steamer is an ex Union Pacific 0-6-0 engine, again oil fired. This usually pulls the Heritage train from Midland to Lake Shore on the first Sunday of the month. The decision to extend the route to Troy along the Mohawk valley line means that something with a lot more range was needed. The model is a converted Rivarossi IHB 0-8-0, which has had the addition of front pony wheels. It’s been fitted with a ESU 21 pin sound decoder, which correctly gives that wonderful 3 cylinder sound. There is a bit of fine tuning still to do, and decals have yet to be added…but it’s getting there. The railway is 2 rail DCC sound O gauge.

I thought that might be the case.. Many thanks for the reply. cheers Martin

Thanks Jason, I was thinking who would be first, you or ‘arry Dodd! I know that PS 3 Premier fitted models from 2011 and K-Line up to 2014 had a switch to change from DCS to DCC. After that there was a jump wire and plug. If you cut the loop to the plug, it would make it DCC only. I’ve no idea about the PS 2 though. He’s asking £220 + post, so if it can be converted fairly easily. It is worth it. If I have to remove all the interior and fit a new decoder, then I don’t think it is… I shall enquire on the ogr, and see what comes up. cheers Martin

I’ve been offered this locomotive, which has been converted to 2 rail. The owner tells me that he runs 2 rail DC and the onboard DCS and smoke units run very well on that. I know there are switches in the nose of the body for polarity/ 2-3 rail etc, and I’ve seen some MTH locomotives with a switch to convert to DCC. He can’t find any other switches on the engine. The box says it’s running Proto-sound 2.0 Can it be converted to DCC without too much trouble, and if so, how? Cheers Martin

Thank you for subscribing, it means a lot. The layout survives very well in the loft, the floor is very well insulated, which makes it a bit chilly in the winter, and hot in the summer. Winter sessions are limited to ‘warmer’ winter days and summer sessions, well even with the skylight open it does get very warm up there. There is also a constant air flow through the eaves and trapdoor, but even then it’s a T-shirt and shorts job. Trackwork doesn’t seem to mind the high temperature and a quick wipe over in the winter removes any condensation that might have occurred. All bar a couple of engines have large stay alive’s fitted, and these engines seem to clean the track as they run over it. I will be taking some more videos of the other side of the layout where the flour mill resides along with its resident SW9 switcher. More to follow. Oh, there is a 2-8-0 steamer as well lurking at the back of the works awaiting attention… Cheers Martin

Now running on the layout. The drive gears on one truck are very iffy, they can be moved along the axle quite easily, so NWSL have got themselves another order… A video of it can be seen here

The speaker will fit on the board at the back of the decoder. Like this…there is enough room for it and I can always move the PCB around so it fits under the cooler fan pod if required. In the end, the white plate was not needed. The left hand post that held the PCB was cut off and the decoder placed on an angle against the rear of the motor. The speaker was moved slightly to the left and black tacked in place. This ensured that the body could be refitted without it pushing down heavily on the decoder and speaker. By doing it this way there is ample room to fit it all in. What isn’t shown is the large stay alive which is fitted to the top of the front truck mounts, again fitting this here is well within the internal body area.

Started to fit the DCC set up this evening. I’ve made a plasticard base, the same size as the lighting PCB and fitted a 21 pin PCB board with solder tabs for the wiring. Soldered in the track pickups and motor feeds, fitted a spare 21 pin blanking plate of a Dapol 08 for testing, and everything works as it should. Test wire the lighting next and then when Christmas comes, fit the 21 pin decoder to the already in place board, connect the speaker and stay alive then put it all back together again. More pics will follow. cheers Martin

Thanks Jason.

I shall take some pics of the installation…I’ll be using an ESU 21 pin v5, which will fit where the current PCB is for the lights. Should go in ok. Mega bass speaker and ESU stay alive. Cheers Martin

Ok, managed to get it off. As you say, the four screws hold the chassis and body together at the ends. By inserting a thin flat screwdriver in underneath the top step, you can gently prise the ends out. It is very tight. I managed to get a long bladed screwdriver down in between the chassis frame and body and gently prise them apart, with a horrid snapping sound! Nothing broken though, so I did the same on the other side and with more snapping sounds, the body came away. I suspect that whoever owned this loco in the past has applied a small amount of glue down the join of the body and chassis. There is no damage to either, but minute traces of glue residue on the edge of the body…now I have to wait for Christmas morning before I get the decoder, which will be a present for me. Cheers Martin

I’ve got to build a garage for grandsprog IV this afternoon, plus a couple of other mundane tasks SWAMBO has lined up for me, so I’ll take a good look later. From what I can see, it’s very tight around the coupler boxes, so some gentle easing is in order.