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Lionel Atlantic PS3 Upgrade With Smoke!!


Chuck
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Here I'll show what all is involved to upgrade the Lionel 4-4-2 Atlantic to MTH ProtoSounds 3 with in-snyc chuffing smoke! :)

 

Few years ago I had one of these cute little loco's and opened it up to evaluate whether it was even feasible to attempt a DCS PS2 conversion and made up my mind it was way too much work...So I sold it.

 

Another brand new old stock Lionel Atlantic came my way at a reasonable price and being retired I figured why not convert it to PS3.

 

I didn't take a pic before I started working on it so here's a stock photo that is posted online somewhere.

 

MT-0201267_3fdd8d2a-602e-11e1-a656-e091f5975601_00.jpg 

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The stock loco & tender are can I say it??  A disaster!

All plastic wheels, aluminum tires on drivers, Seuthe smoke unit, only 1 light and that's the headlight, marker & boiler classification lights are jewels and the road name of AT&SF...I'll strip off the lettering and re-letter into the Milwaukee Road as should look great pulling some Orange & Maroon Aristo-Craft heavyweights!

 

First thing I did was completely dis-assemble the loco and evaluate the drivetrain for adding a flywheel. Plastic gears...ugh...but at least Lionel uses a good grade of plastic. Biggest surprise of all is they used a Pittman motor with ball bearings on the armature shaft!! That motor probably cost more than the rest of the loco!

 

So to flywheel this motor arrangement I had to extend the armature shaft by 1-1/4".

 

Started by dis-assembling motor and chuck the armature in my lathe and turn down the armature shaft so I can extend the armature shaft.

 

Here I'm machining the shoulder...

 

IMAG0009.JPG

 

 After that I bored out a piece of hard brass round stock that was almost the same O.D. as the motor armature shaft. I bored it out so there was maybe like .001 or .000 interference fit. Here's with the shaft extended...

 

IMAG0011.JPG

 

Cleaned and trued up with worm gears pressed back on...

 

IMAG0012.JPG

 

Infact those above pics were my first attempt...I re-did the brass shaft with a longer one...sometimes things take a few attempts :mellow:

 

Since that extended shaft pokes thru into another compartment in the loco's frame I made up a shaft support mount that uses a ball bearing.

 

IMAG0010 (2).JPG

 

Here's the motor assembly mounted in the frame/ chassis with a flywheel I machined out of black plastic. I prefer to use plastic flywheels for a number of reasons and first being less rotating weight means less mass and less vibrating,,,and most of all ease of machining and the flywheel bore doesn't have to be perfect press fit. Brass flywheels need to be bored precisely to fit a shaft...plastic is forgiving as it'll stretch a bit. Infact can usually locate them on a shaft via thumb pressure the "lock" them into position with a drop of really thin super glue :)

 

Oh and I located the bearing support with hot glue. I use hot glue as it holds just fine and if/ when I ever need to remove the motor to replace it the hot glue will come back apart! 

 

IMAG0011 (2).JPG

 

Just another view and can see how the motor is "retained" with zip ties...yeah real hi-tech there Lionel :blink:

 

IMAG0012 (2).JPG

 

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Nice job, to see the flywheel enclosed in it's own area.

I always wonder when I attempt something, is it really worth all the effort?

It's just easier to post "I want"....  to MTH who will make them better!

Maybe someday we will get some new G scale stuff from them with metal gears.

BTW, that Lionel GP you built Chuck is still running strong. You sure don't build for profit margins!

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Okay so on to the bottom of the drive or in this case the drive wheel & axles.

 

All Lionel did was set the axles into a slot in the frame, that is the plastic frame is the bushings and installing the bottom cover with the back of the driver electrical pickup brushes holds the drivers into "place". But there's "play" in that design and Lionel uses such fine gear tooth spacing and any slop will cause the gears to fall out of mesh. I felt something better needed to be done.

 

I've read of other folks using split bronze bushings and such on the drive axles...well I decided to go the ball bearing route...that is ball bearing equipped driver axles...if I can make it work.

 

Here's the stock setup...axle riding in plastic...looks like something that early Piko did on their drives.

 

IMAG0001.JPG

 

Here's with the bottom cover set into place....

 

IMAG0003.JPG

 

After removing the drive wheels from the axles I installed a set of ball bearings. Oh I was able to "pull" the wheels off the axles by hand.

 

IMAG0004.JPG

 

Since this loco was new and knowing that the crankpins are prone to breaking ( I've fixed a few) I decided to bore the screw hole clear thru and will be using long screws to hold the eccentric rod tight when the rods etc. are assembled later.

 

I would like to find some metal centered drivers but couldn't find anything that compared to the huge size of the originals. 

 

IMAG0006.JPG

 

Here's the drivers installed. I forgot to take some pics of boring the frame & bottom cover to accept the bearings. Well really I did but that process almost ended up a total disaster.

 

This setup doesn't have a way for adjusting gear mesh/ backlash. What I did was use small pieces of styrene to shim the motor down and now have just about absolutely perfect gear mesh.

 

I also had to machine about .020 ff the backside of each drivewheel in the axle hub area as I used flange bearings mainly to keep the bearings from sliding "in" if the loosen up.

 

With Red "N" Tacky grease.

 

IMAG0008.JPG

 

The last pic shows why I had to extend the motor armature shaft...that is the drive gears are so big that there's no room for a flywheel anywhere else.

 

With ball bearings on the drive wheels the drive is nice & smooth. All 4 wheels sit level and can now really load up the frame with lead weight for good pulling.

 

I feel very confident in this axle retainment upgrade as they aren't going anywhere and the axles will wear out before the bearings do. 

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On to adding a smoke unit. I decided to use a MTH One-Gauge Hudson/ Dash-8 type smoke unit. There is room for the big double barreled Challenger/ Big Boy type but I felt that may produce too much smoke for a little 4-4-2 :D

 

IMAG0004.JPG

 

First thing I had to do was find a brass tube that fit the stack bore hole.

 

Here I'm boring the stock MTH exhaust funnel out to match the O.D. of the chosen brass tube. I could have went with a larger exhaust setup but over the years I've found that the smaller sizes produce smoke that shoots out of the stack at a greater velocity up into the air...and helps produce smoke rings which I find amusing :)

 

IMAG0001.JPG    

 

Brass funnel mounted on smoke unit...

 

IMAG0003.JPG

 

Here I have the brass stack tube pressed into the funnel and "jigged" in my arbor press to hold it square while soldering...nothing worse than having smoke shoot out of a stack at some crazy angle.

 

IMAG0006.JPG

 

After all that s done it was time to make up some brackets to mount the smoke unit into the boiler.

I won't go thru all that and say that I made a 2 piece bracket out of aluminum. One bracket mounts to the smoke unit bottom and one mounts in boiler. Then the 2 pieces join together. Here's a overview pic of what all I used .

 

IMAG0018.JPG   

 

Installed in boiler...These kind of steam locos with a removable smoke box front I try to mount the smoke unit for front access for maintenence.

 

IMAG0023.JPG

 

Bottom view...

 

IMAG0024.JPG

 

Stack view with trim ring installed...

 

IMAG0022.JPG

 

Screwdriver "test" to see how "square" the smoke unit is mounted..good enough as she ought to smoke up a storm :)

IMAG0015.JPG

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So now on to the loco trailing truck. It's factory equipped with plastic wheels...ugh!

 

But it is a rather nice looking fairly well detailed molding!

 

IMAG0001.JPG

 

The wheel is of a very large diameter and made me wonder where to find a metal replacement that is close in size??

Answer was to buy off eBay a Bachmann Thomas Annie or Clarabel car and use the wheels...well probably any of the Thomas freight car wheels would work??!!

 

IMAG0005.JPG

 

Little smaller in O.D. but it'll work. I see on the Bachmann parts website that at one time these wheels were offered for sale?

 

I did have to machine the axle ends down to fit the Lionel truck frame. I would have liked to have bored out the frame axle holes and install ball bearings but unfortunately the truck is a 1 piece design. Suppose I could have split it in half, installed bearings then re-assemble but not today.

 

IMAG0008.JPG

 

After polishing the turned down axle ends I just snapped the wheel into the truck :)

 

IMAG0009.JPG

 

I do plan on making this truck capable of picking power but haven't settled on how yet. Maybe just by using some piano wire rubbing the wheels backside or bronze strips...or maybe even pickup brushes.

 

Wheel size looks fine and I'll never notice it being some .050" smaller in diameter :)

 

IMAG0010.JPG  

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Those are some very nice modifications that you did to your Lionel 4-4-2 Atlantic.

 

I found one of these locomotives on eBay about 6 months ago. It was quite inexpensive since it needed some work, but the previous owner had installed metal wheels and axles in the front truck and both tender trucks. The electrical pickups on the main drivers were the standard brushes but they were very poor so I abandoned them. I added phosphor bronze brushes that rub on the insides of the drivers. These are connected to wipers on the tender trucks so the locomotive never stalls anymore. It has a very large footprint.

 

The crankpins on the drivers are problematical and are prone to crack as you mentioned. One of the pins on my locomotive gave away shortly after I got it. I fixed it by milling off both pins and drilling the wheels to .200 where each pin goes. I then made 2 pins on my lathe out of .250 brass rod. These were drilled .500 deep and tapped 2-56 for a retaining screw. I then turned the new pins down to just over .200 for .250 on the other end of the rod and pressed them in tightly into the driver wheels. I also sawed a notch in the end to drive the valve gear. Since the connecting rods are just over .250 in diameter, they slipped right back on and are held with the screw and a washer. It's been running fine ever since.

 

I also added a backup light and lots of lead: 4 pounds in the locomotive and 2 pounds in the tender for a total of 11 pounds total weight. I have pulled 19 cars with it on my layout so I'm pleased with it's performance. I run on straight DC since I have 15 G scale locomotives and money for DCC is short. That may come someday.

 

Pictures:

 

Crankpin Repair 1

Atlantic%204-4-2%20009%202_zpspowmvznb.j

 

Crankpin Repair 2

Atlantic%204-4-2%20009_zpsdhsedgzd.jpg

 

Wipers on Main Drivers

Atlantic%204-4-2%20008_zpsdhi0b4rx.jpg

 

Tender Wheels with Wipers

Atlantic%204-4-2%20003_zpsy0m9t3ma.jpg

 

Backup Light

Atlantic%204-4-2%20005_zpsxvvjtm2h.jpg

 

 

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Great work on the crankpins! I could never really understand why they break in the first place as there should be no real "load" on them. But if both drives fall out of sync as in one axle jumping a tooth on gear that may bind everything up enough to snap a pin? But then again with the rods being made out of plastic they should bend or snap.

 

Could be something as simple as the screw that's used was forced in and expands the crankpin causing it to break?

 

Anyway that's something I need to do...that is come up with a reverse light on tender! :)

 

Yep I'm doing the same...all wheel power pickups!!

 

I wonder why Lionel never produced anymore of these loco's..along with no more Geeps? Instead they settled on making the battery powered crap that they sell nowadays :mellow:

 

Surely can't be that the molds got scrapped years ago with various owners cleaning house? I do recall a magazine article from say late 90's early 2000's in maybe Classic Toy Trains or the O Gauge magazine about these Atlantics. It was an interview with the design engineer at Lionel. He stated that the original prototype model had 1 more boiler course in it but management felt that was too long so they shortened it. Somewhere out there is the original prototype as he kept it. Just more Lionel folklore.   

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7 hours ago, Chuck said:

Great work on the crankpins! I could never really understand why they break in the first place as there should be no real "load" on them. But if both drives fall out of sync as in one axle jumping a tooth on gear that may bind everything up enough to snap a pin? But then again with the rods being made out of plastic they should bend or snap.

 

Could be something as simple as the screw that's used was forced in and expands the crankpin causing it to break?

 

Anyway that's something I need to do...that is come up with a reverse light on tender! :)

 

Yep I'm doing the same...all wheel power pickups!!

 

I wonder why Lionel never produced anymore of these loco's..along with no more Geeps? Instead they settled on making the battery powered crap that they sell nowadays :mellow:

 

Surely can't be that the molds got scrapped years ago with various owners cleaning house? I do recall a magazine article from say late 90's early 2000's in maybe Classic Toy Trains or the O Gauge magazine about these Atlantics. It was an interview with the design engineer at Lionel. He stated that the original prototype model had 1 more boiler course in it but management felt that was too long so they shortened it. Somewhere out there is the original prototype as he kept it. Just more Lionel folklore.   

 

Thanks for the compliment. You are no slouch yourself. Your work reminds me of the great stuff that George Schreyer used to do. He also modified a Lionel Atlantic to a great extent and thought very highly of them.

 

I'm curious myself as to why Lionel has not followed up with this locomotive and others like it. Lionel apparently has decided to stay in the O Scale and O Tinplate market, however. The G Scale market is quite large at this time. I liked HO too, but as I get older I can't see as well and things in HO are quite small.

 

I think that you are correct about the screws causing the breakage. There is really very little stress on the pins and it's odd that they would break, but they do. I was looking for a new driver wheel when that one broke and there are just no parts other than what you can find used on eBay. So, I decided to get serious and make some pins. I would encourage you to do the same since I see that you have the tools.

 

I first trimmed off both crankpins down to the wheel with my mill. I then drilled the holes spot on with a #9 drill (.1960). The pins were originally .250 and I turned them down to .200 for 1/4". That gave me a .004 press fit which I did with a small clamp. The pins are 13/16" long and drilled/tapped for 2/56 as I mentioned above. It makes for a permanent fix. From what I've seen, you won't have any trouble doing this at all. It's right up your alley! LOL.

 

The reverse light likewise isn't very hard. I used a piece of scrap brass and made it about 3/4" OD. I added a small ring and a visor for some detail. It uses a bright white LED with a 470 ohm coupling resistor (remember, I'm on DC) and it lights up nicely when the locomotive is backing up.

 

Another good thing is the great amount of room inside of the boiler and tender on these Atlantics. Lots of room for circuit boards and wiring and importantly, lots and lots of lead!

 

Thanks for the compliment. You are no slouch yourself. Your work reminds me of the great stuff that George Schreyer used to do. He also modified a Lionel Atlantic to a great extent and thought very highly of them.

 

I'm curious myself as to why Lionel has not followed up with this locomotive and others like it. Lionel apparently has decided to stay in the O Scale and O Tinplate market, however. The G Scale market is quite large at this time. I liked HO too, but as I get older I can't see as well and things in HO are quite small.

 

I think that you are correct about the screws causing the breakage. There is really very little stress on the pins and it's odd that they would break, but they do. I was looking for a new driver wheel when that one broke and there are just no parts other than what you can find used on eBay. So, I decided to get serious and make some pins. I would encourage you to do the same since I see that you have the tools.

 

I first trimmed off both crankpins down to the wheel with my mill. I then drilled the holes spot on with a #9 drill (.1960). The pins were originally .250 and I turned them down to .200 for 1/4". That gave me a .004 press fit which I did with a small clamp. The pins are 13/16" long and drilled/tapped for 2/56 as I mentioned above. It makes for a permanent fix. From what I've seen, you won't have any trouble doing this at all. It's right up your alley! LOL.

 

The reverse light likewise isn't very hard. I used a piece of scrap brass and made it about 3/4" OD. I added a small ring and a visor for some detail. It uses a bright white LED with a 470 ohm coupling resistor (remember, I'm on DC) and it lights up nicely when the locomotive is backing up. I also changed to a bright white LED for the headlight.

 

Another good thing is the great amount of room inside of the boiler and tender on these Atlantics. Lots of room for circuit boards and wiring and importantly, lots and lots of lead!

 

 

 

Thanks for the nice response!  :)

 

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finally received most all parts I ordered and am proceeding.

 

I really like lights...the more the better! Lionel used non-functioning marker/ classification lights on both boiler & tender :angry:

 

First thing I did was to remove the lights and pop out the red & green jewels. They have both a layer of paint and foil on the backside. I soaked them in white vinegar with a little salt overnight and the paint/ foil pretty much fell off the next day.

 

After doing a little research I bought some tiny little nano Leds that measure just 4 x 2mm in size...couldn't even hardly see them :o

 

Pencil tip is pointing at one...IMAG0007.JPG

 

But they're very bright!

 

IMAG0008.JPG

 

So I drilled out the marker light housings so I could feed these nano lights up thru the mounting posts without destroying them...bigger lights would mean a complete re-work of the mounts.

Cross drilling...

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Then drilling tiny hole up thru the mounting post...

 

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I painted the housing interior white to "brighten things up"...Here's with a Led already fitted...This is the boiler classification light assembly.

After this the trick was to get the Led to lay and stay flat while applying a dop of super glue to keep it in place...ugh!

 

IMAG0010.JPG

 

Here's the boiler lights illuminated...

 

IMAG0015.JPG

 

And tender markers illuminated :)

 

IMAG0011.JPG

 

So now I moved onto the headlight. I like illuminated number boards but Lionel left them blank so I opened them up with a Dremel, glued some clear plastic over the opening then applied homemade on my inkjet printer number decals and applied. Then dull coated the light housing.

 

Here's with a MTH Led installed...

 

IMAG0002.JPG 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Okay as I finally got back to working on this project!

 

Back in early February I was downloading a soundfile and chain files to the PS3 tender board when I had a major catastrophe...Channel Fixed One on my TIU failed while loading the chain files. This managed to "brick" the PS3 tender board...It leaves the board useless as the DCS remote will show the error "engine no found in DCS" :(

 

 Only remedy is to send the PS3 boiler board back to MTH Service to reflash board to clear error via use of a pogo?? That took about 4 weeks from time it was sent in with a RA number to where I received it back. Fee was $20 which I was more than happy to pay to restore a bricked board :)

 

In the meantime I installed Bachmann small metal wheels into the engine front & tender trucks.

 

Here's the engine front truck with LGB power pickup brushed installed on 1 axle...the rear axle. I did want to do the same to front axle but the amount it swings in curves and being sort of exposed I didn't want any wires to be easily visible...so rear axle works just fine. LGB brush assemblies work good as just drill some holes thru the frame and press them in...solder on the wires then good to go!

 

IMAG0002.thumb.JPG.86426385888b23852bdee3c8f443ea10.JPG  

 

Here's the loco's rear trailing truck with LGB power pickup brushes and brush holder I think?? Dunno as dug then out of a parts box :)

 

IMAG0003.thumb.JPG.3c285a62e22db167aa5bb8a16baa3909.JPG

 

Here I made a custom drawbar and mount out of brass and aluminum. The 2 screws shown thread into the cab floor so that worked out great!

 

IMAG0004.thumb.JPG.dad86b5b642750de26ce26451f150674.JPG

 

Here's the cab "deck" rear shot showing custom flat 6 pin tender tether receptacle. This worked out great as just enough room between bottom of cab floor and chassis to "squeeze" it in. 

 

IMAG0007.thumb.JPG.723922ee6f36baa9d31238b099e340fa.JPG

 

Here's the PS3 high amp boiler board installed into engine with tach reader mounted etc. 

 

IMAG0005.thumb.JPG.7284b90e246e0036040fb155e3c20fa5.JPG

 

Home brew power distribution board...front & rear trucks,  drivers & power from/ to tender plugs in here. 

 

IMAG0006.thumb.JPG.15bfd5a6386074218f08cbcfce2eca9a.JPG

 

On to the tender, Here's a tender drawbar pin I made out of brass and it was threaded. Tender frame was threaded and pin screwed in. The tender frame is plastic so to reinforce it I filled the area with J&B weld. Here it's painted black but J&B weld around pin is like 1/4" thick. 

 

IMAG0008.thumb.JPG.9ee6874430d4bf9ed745b359c64ae8dc.JPG

 

Tender front trucks with Bachmann wheels and custom phosphorous bronze wipers for power pickup and wiring. 

 

IMAG0009.thumb.JPG.fc1fb0513ce9e93fd5d1bc2cff9de668.JPG

 

Same with rear truck. Because of amount of drag this produces I may swap the wipers out with MTH passenger car power pickup assemblies...and only use 1 per truck. 

This also shows the MTH operating ProtoCoupler I installed.

 

IMAG0010.thumb.JPG.31a2f9ed3bdafff19fea89f6271008c9.JPG

 

Water scoop removed and 3.3" speaker installed. I don't worry about using speaker guards as I'd much rather have an unimpeded flow of sound :)

IMAG0011.thumb.JPG.338f3f0752c67943654c75957a825fbd.JPG

 

Tender inside showing all components including PS3 tender board, speaker enclosure, tender tether, wiring etc. 

IMAG0012.thumb.JPG.aa8e461e782c6f0451c0ba26161bf6b9.JPG

 

Tender front showing lead weight (wrapped in black electrical tape and then hot glued), tender 6 wire tether & another home brewed power distribution board.

 

IMAG0013.thumb.JPG.d3e76cc35355197738e9cf5ed724aeb4.JPG

 

Tender rear showing PS3 Tender Board, another lead weight and some wiring.

 

IMAG0001.thumb.JPG.6eb0fc036270bf323fc229b2b21697a5.JPG

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I usually make my own wiring harnesses so thought I'd show how I deal with the PS3 1mm pitch contacts. They're small, very small and you need to use like 28awg or smaller wire.

 

The PS3 1mm contacts really push the limits of me and my crimp pliers...can not go any smaller. Here's how I handle the contacts to crimp them. Order contacts on the reel and cut between them as the left over tabs give you something to grab with.

 

IMAG0014.thumb.JPG.e5540aa26377bd4febbe6c6ed478ac1f.JPG

 

With the reel tab in place can manage both wire and contact with one hand while working crimp pliers with other hand...sort of.

 

IMAG0017.thumb.JPG.c764b7fcc848686f8ffeb4dd1fa78bce.JPG

 

When finished it should look something like this. Oh can bend & break away the tab when performing 2nd strain relief crimp while still in pliers. Sorry about out of focus pics but these things are way small.

 

IMAG0019.thumb.JPG.0feb87be7859df774958f4d2b4b5e9eb.JPG 

 

That's about as far as I've progressed with this project as need to makeup and install the volume & smoke pots along with DCS/ DCC switch. Build up light & smoke unit wiring harnesses.

 

Here I did in the dead of Feb. have a nice window to do some painting outside...go figure??!!

Painted tender sides Milwaukee Road orange & maroon.

 

IMAG0020.thumb.JPG.0087faec182ab18fb11b874fee3feb1e.JPG

 

I have to make some decals but be something like this...probably won't use that logo as go with the older Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific type.

 

IMAG0021.thumb.JPG.3a87486f7c629e9e50d855d8bd438958.JPG

 

Also painted the cab sides under the windows (whatever was easiest to mask) orange. I don't know how accurate this paint scheme is but just needed a way to cover where the old lettering was removed...and it matches the scheme on my Aristo heavyweights :D 

 

IMAG0023.thumb.JPG.5b234c3f7184da0c13399bd706aa2e13.JPG

 

Also painted the cab interior zinc chromate green as that color I had...and it'll illuminate a bit better when cab lights are on! 

And check out the simulated wood roofing!

 

IMAG0024.thumb.JPG.331adcd2457519baa150e9260581087d.JPG

 

I also stripped and painted a Aristo baggage car into Milwaukee orange & maroon...Tru-Color paint of course!!

 

 

IMAG0001.JPG

 

Doors & ends...

 

IMAG0002.thumb.JPG.266e5c00fad7079a3522f4467deecaaa.JPG

 

Aristo observation...

 

IMAG0003.thumb.JPG.a406bcf71f17213dde1527c399caffeb.JPG

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Here's some more work I did on this Lionel Atlantic.

 

Adding lead eights to chassis...

 

IMAG0001.thumb.JPG.74bdee603427f84c18a4739d00415f24.JPG

 

Raymond turned me on to this process years ago when we first started lowering Aristo Dash-9's....That is wrap the weights in some good quality black electrical tape (I use Scotch Super 88) then hot glue into place. Hot glue won't really hold onto bare lead but works very well with black tape...And gives the overall install a nice clean look not to mention contains any lead remnants from  rubbing onto wires etc...you know the whole PC thing.

 

Here's 3 weights built up and now makes loco weigh in right at 10 pounds. I think I'd rather loose half the weight by using traction tires on both drive axles...but that's another project for later.

 

IMAG0002.thumb.JPG.3c5f06f47c286ab31a2dfd21df5d50ce.JPG

 

Here's some boiler & cab wiring using a patch board.

 

IMAG0004.thumb.JPG.24a563f8484f08c1dfe1e01b9c5bd19a.JPG

 

Have to make some seats for these guys...

 

IMAG0005.thumb.JPG.834b1ea2a29b502685d73bea147adcfa.JPG

 

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Okay, So after dealing a few days with the sore throat from hell (the thing hits hard and leaves about as fast as it came) I'm back on this Atlantic.

 

I didn't like the stock Lionel trucks with Bachmann small metal wheels using wipers so I swapped them with MTH freight trucks using MTH brush assemblies for power pickup.

 

Lionel on top, MTH bottom.

 

IMAG0002.thumb.JPG.33fb814800e970620ad0db84954428fa.JPG

 

IMAG0003.thumb.JPG.2e4b2ea7eb8a572cf6ba002c3edc14ee.JPG

 

The MTH wheels are a bit bigger and the truck bolster design helps raise the tender a bit..which in my case was/ is a good thing. I also drilled out truck frames and added ball bearings for the axle journals to ride in.

 

Had to make a bushing out of some styrene tube and lower the overall height of truck post a bit...easy work for great results!

 

IMAG0004.thumb.JPG.37bf0efd5e174a91355e9b30219fcf2a.JPG

 

Tender front MTH truck...

 

IMAG0005.thumb.JPG.4da0f9e280c8b529f140b48b79310ecc.JPG

 

And rear truck...

 

IMAG0008.thumb.JPG.a1a5449454049907d5fdb89e835351bd.JPG

 

Just finished up tender wiring for reverse light and tender markers.

 

IMAG0009.thumb.JPG.7cfae8a036de0883f9da26b5fbab3471.JPG

 

Decaled and clear coated tender shell and loco cab. All that's left is to make a video and then this project is done...for now. I do have some exciting modifications that I'm working on but that will be a great subject/ s for another topic! :D

 

IMAG0010.thumb.JPG.9709726e2ae8e1d13c782b977a45f86d.JPG

 

 

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