Great for the corporations -- bad for us

[OldEastRR]

For anybody thinking they'd like to service and clean the truck contacts on their Atlas N scale S-2  --- don't! I suppose it's fine the companies give us design/parts diagrams (mostly), but it'd be even better to give us service tips on how to do simple maintenance and repairs on the damn things.

I wanted to clean the cup[s of the contact plates that hold the s-2's wheel ends -- turns out you have to de-solder the truck wires from the decoder board to have any chance to re-assemble the trucks. Great -- I get to fool with the soundboard just to clean the %$#%* wheel cups. Plus the fact that the axles themselves don't stay in the truck body once it's disassembled.. They just lie there, held by gravity -- there's no little tabs to keep them there if you turn the truck.  After many fruitless tries to reassemble the trucks, I came to the conclusion I'd have to de-solder the truck contact wires from the board, pull the assembly of truck and wire free of the body, and try to reassemble the truck with the wheels, body and contact plates sitting flat on a table-top, and hopefully hold that all together while I shove the outer frame down over the assembly to get it back together. (I haven't tried that yet) And of course re-solder the wires to the sound board, where a slight mistake can trash it.

People have already commented on this retrograde practice of using wires to transmit power to the engine, but I get it -- cheaper, easier. less design hassles to do it that way if they're not a big fan of split frame chassis. And yes, it probably takes a special jig and machine-placed operation to put the trucks together, but hey -- why tell us that? More fun to find out the hard way, right guys?

Lesson: products (all of them not just model RR stuff) are destined to be done the cheapest, flimseist, bare-minimum design, with fastest cheapest way of assembling them, and if with complicated pieces, basically unserviceable to any regular person. And we're supposed to buy them with a smile and live with that.

So ... if your Atlas N S-2 is balky and you suspect dirty contacts ... well, live with it. Or be prepared to pretty much take most of the assembly apart to Clean. The. Contacts. On. The. Trucks.  I suppose one could dunk the whole loco in a sonic cleaning bath, have no idea how that's turn out.  Or do what the manufacturer recommends when something in the product goes wrong.

Just buy another brand-new one.

[peteski]

Fact: Not every company is Kato.  I also doubt that much thought is ever put into designing models for ease of servicing after sale.  As someone who routinely services all sorts of N scale locos, I encounter that first hand, and have to deal with it.

[jdcolombo]

Notice that there has not been a release of the S-2 since 2019.  The model was introduced in 2016, and there was a second run, then nothing.  I read somewhere that Atlas has no intention of running these again because of the assembly issues in hard-wiring the decoder and trucks in the model.  And I think the factory they used in China is not with us any longer.  Plus the sound decoder, which was custom-made for this model, is now a generation out of date, and likely cannot be replicated with current parts.  So if we see the S-2 again, it will have to be with a redesigned chassis and probably a redesigned decoder board (I'd guess based on the ESU Nano sound decoder).  I was hoping for an NKP version of the S-2, but that is likely not going to happen, at least not any time in the foreseeable future.  If I want one, I'll have to repaint my E-L unit or hope that Bachmann releases a decent version of the S-2 based on their S-4.

John C.

[learmoia]

Notice that there has not been a release of the S-2 since 2019.  The model was introduced in 2016, and there was a second run, then nothing.  I read somewhere that Atlas has no intention of running these again because of the assembly issues in hard-wiring the decoder and trucks in the model.  And I think the factory they used in China is not with us any longer.  Plus the sound decoder, which was custom-made for this model, is now a generation out of date, and likely cannot be replicated with current parts.  So if we see the S-2 again, it will have to be with a redesigned chassis and probably a redesigned decoder board (I'd guess based on the ESU Nano sound decoder).  I was hoping for an NKP version of the S-2, but that is likely not going to happen, at least not any time in the foreseeable future.  If I want one, I'll have to repaint my E-L unit or hope that Bachmann releases a decent version of the S-2 based on their S-4.

John C.

It seems like we just got a release of S2.. (CGW comes to mind) and they haven't been sitting on the shelves for 4 years..

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Nobody is getting rich in the model train industry.

[Rossford Yard]

I agree with Ed.  Not only that, but as a former designer (not of model trains) I know that most designs are full of compromises, and you need to pick the features that eliminate the most problems.  If ease of tearing apart is one of them, it is probably better to go with designs that make the product better than easier to maintain.

Short version, I doubt the purposely design in features that make stuff obsolete before their time just to sell more, but who knows.  And, if we look at the evidence in front of our own eyes, it seems to me stuff is ever more reliable compared to early stuff.  Of the maybe 400 N scale locos I have bought since 1990, only a few have been clunkers (and none of those came from Atlas or Kato, or now Scale Trains) although a few models like the Alco 630 and SD 50-60 lines from Atlas seemed to be not as good a runner or puller than most of their models.  Probably 99% of the locos I have could still run well with some wheel cleaning.

The timing of this post is good.  My layout will be open to some op sessions at the National next month, and I have pulled trucks off to get those little wheel needle pockets clean prior to other ops sessions.  It is a pain, and only a few had gunk that affected their running, and those did benefit from being cleaned.  If money was less an object than time or hassle, I would probably call the Atlas parts department and buy some corresponding new trucks after 10 years or so.

[jdcolombo]

It seems like we just got a release of S2.. (CGW comes to mind) and they haven't been sitting on the shelves for 4 years..

The N-scale CGW was released in October 2021 according to the Trovestar link below; it was announced in 2019 (the original pre-order deadline was April 2019) according to the Overland Hobbies link below.  I'm pretty sure that was the last announced release of the N-scale S-2.  So you are correct that it hasn't been sitting on the shelves for 4 years, but it has been over 4 years since the release announcement, which came two years after the initial release announcement.  I hope we see additional S-2 releases, but I suspect we won't, at least not without a substantially revised mechanism. 

https://www.trovestar.com/generic/zoom.php?id=195356
https://www.overlandhobbies.com/CGW_Maroon_Black_3_Rd_s_Alco_S_2_Standard_DC_p/atl10003377-9.htm

John C.

[dem34]

If it makes you feel better, on the most recent Atlas models, the Wires terminate in Ferrules wedged deep into the frame halves. About 2-3 extra seconds to take the trucks off to correct a factory assembly error.

[mu26aeh]

Shameless plug, we still have a CNW and a Boston and Maine at Mainline Hobby Supply

Could have sworn 1 was a B&O unit, but that's not what the website tells me

[Chris333]

I bought a set of Atlas S2 trucks to use as tender trucks for HOn30. Just saying they work just fine. If you can solder a wire to a rail joiner you could handle wiring a contact strip.

[garethashenden]

Shameless plug, we still have a CNW and a Boston and Maine at Mainline Hobby Supply

Could have sworn 1 was a B&O unit, but that's not what the website tells me

The B&M one on your website is an S4, not an S2.

Atlas did a partial run of the S4s last year. They only released the Silver ones, the Gold sound equipped ones are MIA. Maybe once those finally ship we will get another run of S4s and more S2s.

[mu26aeh]

The B&M one on your website is an S4, not an S2.

Atlas did a partial run of the S4s last year. They only released the Silver ones, the Gold sound equipped ones are MIA. Maybe once those finally ship we will get another run of S4s and more S2s.

I didnt realize they released the S4, figured that was a typo 😁

[Spades]

I can't speak for Atlas or Kato USA.  Web search shows that both have less than 20 employees  I am just guessing but most of the design, engineering, shipping and manufacturing are done by not Atlas employee contractors. 

As for the construction of locomotives, etc.  Any good little Marxist and any other economist will tell you.  Everything has a price.  I would assume the contractor building the locomotive have a bit of say in the design of the locomotive.

[mramsey]

Atlas did a partial run of the S4s last year. They only released the Silver ones, the Gold sound equipped ones are MIA. Maybe once those finally ship we will get another run of S4s and more S2s.

January 2021: pre-ordered my first DCC (and sound equipped) locomotive, an Atlas Gold B&M S-4.  Still waiting. 

[basementcalling]

 Blame the DCC sound decoder. Atlas switched to hard wired trucks to help improve electrical contact to keep the sound unit running, as the contact strip mechanical design evidently had small hiccups that the flywheels prevented from affecting performance, but the momentary interruption of juice to the decoder caused issues with it producing sound. I don't know that Kato has changed their loco design or not.

Very few electronic devices today are user friendly for repair work.