What's the verdict on the Atlas FA-1 gold (first run)?

[OldEastRR]

And did you notice that on the inboard ends of each truck, the edge of the truck frame when it swivels hits the fuel tank? And how the bottom of the truck frame rides barely higher than the edge of the wheel?

Another nice touch: no insert listing decoder settings for the ESU unit is included, Oh ... I know!! You can ask to have them texted to your cellphone!!

I don't have a cell phone.

[bbussey]

They don’t on any of mine.

Once again, this is basically the venerable Life-Like mechanism retrofitted to take the sound decoder PCB, the speaker, better pickup springs, and the new PCB SMLED-equipped light board in the nose to upgrade the original light bulb and add numberboard illumination. I followed the same frame modifications Atlas did to digitize and add sound to a Life-Like FB-2.  Every other component (other than the windshield that was retooled because the original tooling was either damaged or lost), is exactly the same as the original Life-Like release - including the truck frames and the fuel tank.

[Point353]

They don’t on any of mine.

Once again, this is basically the venerable Life-Like mechanism retrofitted to take the sound decoder PCB, the speaker, better pickup springs, and the new PCB SMLED-equipped light board in the nose to upgrade the original light bulb and add numberboard illumination. I followed the same frame modifications Atlas did to digitize and add sound to a Life-Like FB-2.  Every other component (other than the windshield that was retooled because the original tooling was either damaged or lost), is exactly the same as the original Life-Like release - including the truck frames and the fuel tank.

The design of the truck contact strips was changed: https://www.spookshow.net/loco/llalcof.html

[bbussey]

I mentioned that.  The new design is better in my opinion.

[OldEastRR]

The only good news is the 2nd run FA1s run faster at top speed than the 1st run, but the sound is still weakly pathetic.

The contact between the decoder board and one of the motor brushes is broken on my loco. I had to disassemble the entire loco to find this out. Be great if Atlas would send me two new contact strips, but ......

[Chris333]

So you like fast running locos? That's loco.

[davefoxx]

The only good news is the 2nd run FA1s run faster at top speed than the 1st run, but the sound is still weakly pathetic.

The contact between the decoder board and one of the motor brushes is broken on my loco. I had to disassemble the entire loco to find this out. Be great if Atlas would send me two new contact strips, but ......

But, what?  If you have a warranty issue, contact Atlas for a return authorization number and send the locomotive in.  I received two “new” locomotives from a vendor that had taken them back as returns and put back into stock.  They had been dropped and were destroyed, which the vendor did not check and resold.  Atlas took them back, repaired them, and even replaced details that I didn’t realize were broke or missing in the damage.

DFF

[Dave V]

So you like fast running locos? That's loco.

Yeah, "high speed," especially for a freight locomotive (although don't tell the Long Island Rail Road that FAs aren't for passenger service  ), isn't exactly a plus.

[bbussey]

The only good news is the 2nd run FA1s run faster at top speed than the 1st run, but the sound is still weakly pathetic.

As I implied earlier, your assessment is in the fringe minority. The sound is fine. Standard ESU quality. I had to turn the volume down on my units.

[thomasjmdavis]

Just curious, @OldEastRR ... since you seem to have a different experience from most of the other posters, did you buy your units brand new, or used (or rebuilt, refurnished, pre-owned,  or some other way where someone might have messed with the CVs or added a resister in the wrong place)?

[Dave V]

Any chance you could post a video of the sound so we can see what "weakly pathetic" sounds like?

[bbussey]

The "weakly pathetic" sound is anything but that.

Here are my first three units purchased, fresh after TCS KA-N1 keep-alive was installed and the vintage Life-Like shells were swapped on, passing through what will be New London.

This is a Life-Life FB2 ungraded with all sound components and pickup shoes pilfered from a new donor Atlas FB1, after I milled the frame to match the current Atlas configuration.  The only difference is the decoder is the all-wires version rather than the Next18 version that comes with the Atlas units.

And this is my FA1/FB1/FB2/FA1 mashup that is dedicated to pulling my RBB&B circus consist, passing through the future New London site.

All quite robust, and that's after I turned the volume down.

One satisfying note:  As with the new Atlas models, the vintage Life-Life numberboards are clear plastic with the numbers tamped on the face, so they now illuminate when swapped onto the Atlas mechanism with no modification required.

[packers#1]

My wife just asked me why I was being so loud on my phone from the other side of the couch while I was watching those videos, so me thinks the locos sound pretty good.

[OldEastRR]

Just curious, @OldEastRR ... since you seem to have a different experience from most of the other posters, did you buy your units brand new, or used (or rebuilt, refurnished, pre-owned,  or some other way where someone might have messed with the CVs or added a resister in the wrong place)?

I have an old analog LL FA1 that I had jdcolombo install DCC, keep alive, and sound in some years back. John likes LOUD loco sounds, so I had to turn down the volume after I ran it. It also was a runner. (He used an ESU decoder). I bought the first run Atlas loco w/o decoder, put in a DT but couldn't get it to consist with the ESU FA. Then it stopped running altogether. (I found out later, the contact strip to the motor broke, somehow). Then I bought another first run w/ ESU decoder and that died for some reason. My friend bought 3 second run locos w/ decoders. All locos bought new from Lombard Hobbies.
Before my first run loco died, we ran both his and mine on parallel tracks (I have a double-track main) using my NCE controllers. When both locos ran neck and neck, the speed setting for mine was 12, his was 6. CV Settings for both Vmax was 255.
As for speed, I find it a good indicator of a loco's PULLING ABILITY, and when you have heavy trains on 14" R. curves and 2% grade, ya kinda want to have a loco that can produce maximum engine power. Going 40mph on that track, and going 40 on straight level track ain't the same thing.

Maybe John has a special touch when putting ESU sound in a loco that makes his sound louder than factory install. Maybe the air is much thinner here on the West Coast than elsewhere. Maybe there are huge variations in the quality of Atlas N scale locos. Maybe I'm just unlucky. I'll get another 2nd run FA so I can doublehead it with my LL, but that's the last Atlas loco I'll ever want. (Their rolling stock and buildings are quite fine. As for their track....uh, we all know about that)

P.S. To me, Atlas is quite picky about warranty. If they suspect you touched the mechanism or fooled with it in any way -- even to see what was wrong -- they disallow replacement.

[peteski]

Did the original Life-Like model use motor identical to what Atlas used in their new run?  Likely the motors specs are different - remember Atlas uses a "low-speed" motors.