I have a CN GP9 and a BN GP7 from the most recent run and when I took the shells off to install a decoder, I noticed that the motors were not the gray plastic "scale speed" motor. When compared to other lokies with the gray motor, these are faster, but not as fast as the older classic runs. IIRC, there was a time when Atlas used a "slow speed" motor on some lokies. In addition, the Atlas website does not list these as having a "scale speed" motor. I have never seen this change mentioned on any of the forums. Has anyone else noticed the same? Since the website does not say scale speed motors on this run, I can't imagine these two to be unique. I wonder why the change after 10 years of the scale speed motor? I have sent an email to Atlas to inquire.
There was a post a while ago, that the latest Atlas motors had black end bells. There was no mention of the new motors being faster! My guess, the difference is because of a new manufacture of the motor, glad I purchased a few extra gray end bell motors!
I don't worry about it. Since all of my Geeps are DCC-ized, I learned a long time ago that you still have to speed-match even ones with the same motors and gearing. Cheerio! Bob Gilmore
I have a few Atlas locos, 150+ all with DCC decoders installed, I really haven't found a need to speed match like locos. Even my old Atlas/Kato locos with the scale speed motor run very nice with newer Atlas locos. Kato is another story.
http://www.atlasrr.com/NLoco/ngp7b.htm Looks like all of these geeps are affected. I wonder what other locomotives have this motor also?
I find it interesting that the upcoming release of the RS-1 still advertises a scale speed motor, yet the latest GP35 announcement advertises a slow speed motor. Why a difference (unless on of the announcements is in error?) As for DCC and speed matching, I have had to do very little to match my 4 axle Atlas engines until now. I guess I will have to work on that.
Very few motors of any manufacturer are exactly the same. The tolerances are pretty loose on these commodity motors. They may be close enough that the differences are barely imperceptible. Some will run faster, some slower and some in the targeted speed range. Atlas has used several motors for different manufacturers. Kato seems to be using the same motor they have always used. But even with Kato there are the same issues with faster, slower and just about "right". This is follows a Gaussian distribution similar to a bell curve. So it really does boil down to speed matching if you are using DCC, and there are easy ways to do this and difficult ways to do this. In general, the best way is to get a decoder that supports trim in both forward and reverse. Apply the same speed curve and just adjust the trim settings for the match. And to make it easier to run your locomotives in any orientation, it is best to speed match in both forward and reverse. Decoders that support trim used to be just a few, but now many of the decoders do. Digitrax SoundTrax ESU LokSound TCS Zimo NCE sort of supports it but only supports one setting for both directions Lenz does not support trim
I mentioned the different motor on another forum when the NEW production GP9's were first released, Dec 2012. I guess I can't say which, but it wasn't the other popular forum. I have DCC, but I'm "old school" and run DC analog most of the time. It will run OK with most older Atlas locomotives made in China with standard speed motors (slightly slower), but seems to be in between the standard and scale speed. Also, the handrails on the new production run are thicker, perhaps because they are painted on my road name, the Western Maryland. Charley.
I received a reply from Cory at Atlas this morning to the effect that while the new housings are black instead of grey, they are still the scale speed motor. My experience with these two lokies leads me to believe otherwise, but I will see how the next new releases run when I make my next purchase.
That's good news, at least for me, because I really like the Atlas Scale Speed Motor, I have remotored all my older Atlas/Kato locos and most of my older Kato locos.
I have to say that I was less than thrilled with my last purchase of Atlas GP9 locomotives. I bought all three roadnumbers they had for MILW last December. They were all sluggish out of the box. I opened them up and saw that whoever applied the factory lubricant had stuffed it in as if they were trying to fill a grease cup. I disassembled all three and cleaned them out. One of them had a weakness in the cab roof that resulted in a crack. One of them still is kind of a pokey runner. I have given them quite a bit of break-in time. Even with DCC, I can't fix the pokey one. I will just need to address that by looking for other possible manufacturing errors. This was disappointing to me coming from Atlas. I usually get good runners right out of the box from them.
I'll concur with what SteamDonkey said. I picked up a couple of the last run too and there was enough lube in them for a G scale loco. It was everywhere. I too took them completely apart and cleaned them thoroughly but they now run fine. Bob
It would appear that the A trains, has slowed down on it's Quality Assurance and Quality Control. Locomotives I've purchased in the last ten years have been problematic, Bad Ordered and sitting on the work bench. Hurrrumph.
I have purchased a lot of Atlas locos over the years, the last ones about a year ago ran perfect. I have also never seen grease in any of my Atlas locos, might be someting they have started in the very lastest releases? I have had some trouble with Kato locos, motors, and trucks, but the 2 Athearn F45 sound equiped locos have caused me the most trouble.
I've had not more problems with Atlas than I have had with Kato or others. I am just baffled to see this change yet be told that the only thin that changed was the color of the motor casing. These two run about the same, but are distinctly faster than units with the grey motor. I do think they need to do a comparison with older units to ensure their supplier hasn't changed up on them. All in all, I still consider Atlas the best game in town overall.
Yes, when I noticed that the motors did not have the grey plastic casing, I tested them against others and noticed the speed difference. I have set them aside and they will probably be among the last I convert to DCC just for this very reason. I have been pondering changing the motors.
On a somewhat related topic, I run DC and have noticed that motor speeds can change significantly over time. It is not uncommon for X, Y and Z locos to perfectly speed matched for weeks, months or even years, only to become so different over time they all need to be re-matched with other locos entirely. Sometimes a loco will no longer match with anything at all. For example, my Athearn FP45 got so slow, I can't run it with anything any more. I'm assuming others have noticed this phenomenon as well. Also, sometimes I acquire a loco that is so different from other ones that are expected to be the same but aren't. I have a Kato C44-9W (most recent run) that is an absolute rocket-sled. No way it will lash-up with any other C44-9W but it matches perfectly with my 1st generation Atlas SD60 series locos with the old (fast) motors. Weird!
