10-18-2010, 02:09 PM
I learned in the West Coast NG about the GP60M used as a switcher and transfer engine by BNSF. BNSF used the GP60M for transfer runs in the LA area to feed the LAJ. Athearn has a nice looking model of the GP60M but.... it has the "usual old" Athearn RTR motor.
So beautiful but such an ugly noise. Looking around on my shelve I noticed the GP40 looks similar. The same quite short trucks, similar over all length and it is an Atlas FEC engine with a great drive.
It was extremly easy to make the Athearn shell fit on the Atlas drive. Some plastic under the cab and under the hood has to be cut out. No photos or further explanations needed. You will see immediately what needs to be cut. The shell is mounted with the Kadee coupler boxes of the new whisker couplers. Couplers are #156 (long whisker) because the Atlas coupler mounting hole are a little bit to far away from the end of the engine. But no problem. It still fits to hold the shell and couple without problems.
Some flat aluminium paint (Tamaya XF-16) on the trucks and lower part of the visible body and a silver spray from the can for the tank completed the finish.
The engine runs great!!
Ok, what is missing? The lamps are not working right now. Atlas uses SMD LED and Athearn the usual bulbs. I did also run the bulbs with a 1kOhm resistor on my DCC decoders in the CF-7 engines but how does that match the Atlas LED current? Do you have experience how to attach Athearn bulbs to Atlas LED circuits? In worse case I would rewire the bulbs with resistors to the white/yellow and blue wire of the decoder bypassing all Atlas logic.
![[Image: Img_0380.jpg?t=1287431573]](http://i966.photobucket.com/albums/ae149/faraway52/Misc-1/Img_0380.jpg?t=1287431573)
So beautiful but such an ugly noise. Looking around on my shelve I noticed the GP40 looks similar. The same quite short trucks, similar over all length and it is an Atlas FEC engine with a great drive.
It was extremly easy to make the Athearn shell fit on the Atlas drive. Some plastic under the cab and under the hood has to be cut out. No photos or further explanations needed. You will see immediately what needs to be cut. The shell is mounted with the Kadee coupler boxes of the new whisker couplers. Couplers are #156 (long whisker) because the Atlas coupler mounting hole are a little bit to far away from the end of the engine. But no problem. It still fits to hold the shell and couple without problems.
Some flat aluminium paint (Tamaya XF-16) on the trucks and lower part of the visible body and a silver spray from the can for the tank completed the finish.
The engine runs great!!
Ok, what is missing? The lamps are not working right now. Atlas uses SMD LED and Athearn the usual bulbs. I did also run the bulbs with a 1kOhm resistor on my DCC decoders in the CF-7 engines but how does that match the Atlas LED current? Do you have experience how to attach Athearn bulbs to Atlas LED circuits? In worse case I would rewire the bulbs with resistors to the white/yellow and blue wire of the decoder bypassing all Atlas logic.
Reinhard