New Atlas VO-1000s

[sandypsj]

I see the new DCC/Sound (and ready) VO-1000s are making their way into consumer hands. Has anyone tried one out? Do you know if the new mechanisms will accommodate a shell from a previous run?

[jwaldo]

I sure hope they do, if mostly because I'm holding out hope Wheels of Time will do another run of their FM H-12-44 shells that are made to fit the old version. I should have gotten a few when I had the chance.

[WP Lives]

Another person here with the same question.  Have an older one that I would really like to have sound in.

[spookshow]

I received one of the sound units a few days ago and so far it has performed very well. However, as I was preparing to do a shell swap with an older Rock Island unit I realized that I'd had a senior moment when ordering the new one and wound up getting one that had a gray fuel tank and trucks instead of the required black and so had to send it back.

From what I can tell, the shells and truck sideframe / bottomplate details are identical between the two versions (despite the radically different chasses) -



Conversely, the fuel tanks are completely different between the two as far as how they attach to the chassis and I don't think they will swap (which is why I had to return mine) -



The real bitch is swapping out the cab light guts as they have changed rather drastically. Previously, you had these two parts that got their photons from the decoder board -



And now you have this wired up little goodie instead -



Getting that stuff out of the cabs so that you can swap them is a huge pain. And at this point I'm not even sure how I did it. Basically I just poked and pried in trial and error fashion until they finally popped out. So, now I just need to wait for my replacement unit so that I can (hopefully) complete the swap.

-Mark

[spookshow]

I managed to get the shells swapped, but I'm having problems with the cab end light on the new shell / old chassis combo. The headlight lights up just fine, but light also shines out of the cab windows on the hood side (like some physical blocking mechanism is no longer lined up properly). I don't think it did that before the swap, but maybe someone who has one of the older versions can verify that for me?

Thanks,
-Mark

[spookshow]

I switched everything back to the way it was before and the cab light does indeed shine through the cab windows on the older version. Weird that I never noticed that before.

-Mark

[squirrelhunter]

I managed to get the shells swapped, but I'm having problems with the cab end light on the new shell / old chassis combo. The headlight lights up just fine, but light also shines out of the cab windows on the hood side (like some physical blocking mechanism is no longer lined up properly). I don't think it did that before the swap, but maybe someone who has one of the older versions can verify that for me?

Thanks,
-Mark

Were there any problems with getting the old shell onto the new chassis? Or just with the old shell on to the new chassis?

[spookshow]

No problems. Apart from the cab lighting stuff, the shells didn't change.

-Mark

[squirrelhunter]

Thank you!