Atlas GP20? Vaporidium?

[spookshow]

I have no idea what's going on with Atlas these days. It wasn't all that long ago that Atlas diesels were reliable rubberstamps of the same simple and time proven design. But nowadays, there doesn't seem to be any consistency from one model to the next - be it in design or performance. Case in point, all of the Atlas locos pictured below came out within the past couple of years and yet each of them looks like it could've come from a different company -









Honestly, it just makes me kind of sad 

-Mark

[peteski]

I feel the same way Mark. Ditch the old reliable and start experimenting.  I suspect that this is probably caused by Atlas moving their production to different overseas factories and they like to reinvent the wheel.  Just a speculation.

[pastoolio]

Interesting read guys. I was gonna get a few to retrofit my older detailed GP20's, but after all the issues, not just with this loco, but with all the last few Atlas releases, I'm going to hang up my hat on Atlas. I've spend way too much money on their sub-par offerings in the last couple years.
Mark, @spookshow I appreciate all you have done for our N Scale community! Every time I have an issue with a loco, I have to go check to see if you wrote about it on your site!

-Mike

[robertjohndavis]

Despite making many recent models that fit my modeling perfectly, I will not roll the dice on any Atlas locomotive. It’s hard to hold back the temptation but I have been burned too much. They have lost any sense of consistency on the locomotive front. I don’t expect ScaleTrains looks or Kato smooth running, but give us something that’s stable.

Reading the comments about the LifeLike drive of yore reminds me of what Lionel did after rereleasing the former MTH PRR L-1 in O scale. The MTH locomotive was an exceptional runner. Lionel “had” to redesign the guys wound up with the motor mounted out of alignment with the rest of the drive (among other issues) and turned an all-time great design into a nightmare.

[Dwight in Toronto]

I will not roll the dice on any Atlas locomotive. It’s hard to hold back the temptation but I have been burned too much.

Oh no … this is exactly what I have been saying about Bachmann N scale offerings for the last 20 years, and haven’t spent one penny on that brand in all that time.  It saddens me to see that Atlas has seemingly cheapened its way to being similarly despised, and avoided, by serious hobbyists.  Hopefully they can nip this in the bud and turn it back around.

[peteski]

Hopefully they can nip this in the bud and turn it back around.

I seriously doubt it. They ditched those very simple reliable split-frame mechanisms with axle-point bearing lo friction trucks (with no or little DCC friendliness) and ditched them for "new and improved" DCC equipped models with oddball and more complex mechanical designs. Even if Atlas (well, the Chinese company which has the tooling) still had the tooling, they aren't going back to those.  The new Atlas mechanisms sure have a lot of design similarities with the ones other American manufacturers use, so they all probably share the same engineering team (and factory).

[tehachapifan]

I feel like the golden age of N scale locomotive drive design, which we enjoyed for the better part of three(?) decades, has largely come and gone. How anyone thought we needed to go away from that design is beyond me (more room for sound being the only thing that sort of makes sense). I never once experienced a significant connectivity or operational issue with the contact strip design, unless the contact point became extremely dirty or tarnished. Even then it still worked surprisingly well, and I rarely find the need to clean those points. The design was so simple, yet so hardy and trustworthy. All this said, I've found that my Scaletrains locos run very well with these newer drive designs and my Atlas N scale SD45 with a similar looking drive as the ST one also runs quite well. So, not all has been lost I suppose. However, only time will tell on how well wire connections between the trucks and drive will hold up in comparison to contact strips.

[robertjohndavis]

Oh no … this is exactly what I have been saying about Bachmann N scale offerings for the last 20 years, and haven’t spent one penny on that brand in all that time.  It saddens me to see that Atlas has seemingly cheapened its way to being similarly despised, and avoided, by serious hobbyists.  Hopefully they can nip this in the bud and turn it back around.

It’s crazy but my two Bachmann K4s, EM-1, 44 tonner and S2 run infinitely better than anything I have had from
Atlas in recent memory. That’s where we are at.

[Sokramiketes]

I'm a long term fan of the Kato design with needle point axle pickups and contact strips.  To the point that I would probably start milling brass frames to use those components if I need to outfit a reasonable number of engines for a home layout that is heavy on good operations.

But, I also get into friendly debates with folks from the other side.  And the reasons against pick up strips are that it compromises the side and frame detail quite a bit.  Yeah, it does.   Add in the other mechanism changes that have come with sound, and lighting packages, and we are where we are.  I can also recall a couple conversations about factory capabilties these days, meaning not all places can still match the precision of the old designs.   That might be true, although from apperance only, things seem just as complicated. 

[peteski]

I'm a long term fan of the Kato design with needle point axle pickups and contact strips.  To the point that I would probably start milling brass frames to use those components if I need to outfit a reasonable number of engines for a home layout that is heavy on good operations.

But, I also get into friendly debates with folks from the other side.  And the reasons against pick up strips are that it compromises the side and frame detail quite a bit.  Yeah, it does.   Add in the other mechanism changes that have come with sound, and lighting packages, and we are where we are.  I can also recall a couple conversations about factory capabilties these days, meaning not all places can still match the precision of the old designs.   That might be true, although from apperance only, things seem just as complicated.

The old-school pickup stripe rubbing on the wheelbacks, tread, or even flange (I have examples of all  those ways) do wear down faster, and collect more "fuzz" than a pointy axles and cup bearings/pickups. They also increase the friction of the trucks rolling ability - no such problem with Kato-style trucks. Strips can also can get out of alignment and no longer touch the wheel, and of course those almost exclusively use inside axle bearings, with increased friction over Kato's clever design where bearing and electrical contact are a single unit.

What I am surprised about is the the alternate truck design used by several companies. It is similar to Kato low friction pointy axles, but the axles are not pointy and they ride in thru-holes in the sideframes. That to me is not as good of a design as the pointy axles riding in cups.

[GaryHinshaw]

I'm a long term fan of the Kato design with needle point axle pickups and contact strips.  To the point that I would probably start milling brass frames to use those components if I need to outfit a reasonable number of engines for a home layout that is heavy on good operations.

🙋🏻

[tehachapifan]

Got mine today. So far, it seems to be running pretty nicely but the sound volume is quite low (at least the horn and prime mover are low). I'm curious about this as the master volume and the sound slots for the prime mover and horn are nearly maxed out. However, the bell and the compressor seem pretty loud in comparison. I suppose it could be a speaker enclosure issue, but I may try loading a different sound file in it and see if that does any better.

Update: It appears that the decoder is an incarnation of a LokSound Select and not a V5, which is quite interesting.