Atlas 2-6-0 and 4-4-0

[atsf3751]

I want to make museum trains using these tiny engines. Any gotchas to be aware of before starting the conversion? I would think the very small decoders from TCS or Digitrax would fit in the tender and all I would have to do is bring the orange and gray leads to the motor, to do that all I should have to remove is the cab. There appear to be several places to attach the red and black leads. I have not taken anything apart yet (I have separated the engine and tender) but I figure there is no room to redo the headlight.

I have already confirmed the engines run in DC.

[robert3985]

If your engines are going to be running for long periods of time in a roundy-round operating manner, which most museum train displays do...with trains that don't get switched or uncoupled, then it may be worth it to totally disconnect the motors from your tiny engines and run a bigger, more reliable and robust power unit as a disguised boxcar or passenger car behind your engine, and let that push your engine along.

This is what the modelers who built the display layout for the Utah State Railroad Museum in Ogden did with their 4-4-0's in HO scale, and it was a wise decision.  Ya never know what sort of relationship you're gonna have with the ever-changing museum directors and having an ultra-reliable and robust power unit behind the much more fragile steam engine is a very good idea in the long run.

Something to think about....

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[atsf3751]

I may have to go that route just because. When I opened up the tender for the 2-6-0 I saw there was no room for a decoder without removing almost all the weight which would make the tender too light. I also found that the 2-6-0 and the 4-4-0 have different drive mechanisms.

The 2-6-0 has a motor in the cab and the 4-4-0 has the motor in the tender, so making them dummy engines does seem the most viable option. The next step is to get the cab and boiler off both engines to remove the drive train.

[Mark W]

I'll have to get back to you with more details (bed time and all), but it's definitely possible, and actually one of the easiest 'hard wired' decoder installs I've ever done (ignoring the headlight).

Re-motoring the Mogul with gear reduction.



There's the Atlas 4-4-0







Topped with a coal load to conceal the decoder. 




The gear reduction will make these little ones run incredible at slow speeds. 
[Edit: Something is up with Youtube embedding again, or maybe it's just this video.  Here's the direct link.]  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88lU0fHEnVM

[atsf3751]

I will try the 4-4-0 first, looks the easiest since everything is already in the tender.