The Right Decoder


Z

zulutrain1

New Member
Hi,

I bought on ebay what I believe to be an HO Atlas/Rocco GP40. It was supposed to be DCC ready. The engine was missing the plug and would not run. I brought it to a local train shop and had it repaired. I am running DC. I loaned the engine to a friend who has a Bachmann EZ command system.

Was there ever a factory equiped dcc Atlas/Rocco engine? What decoder would you recomend? It has an 8 pin socket
 
Yes, Roco is currently making a DCC starter set which includes a GP40 Engine with an installed decoder, a few cars, and their DCC system.

I've never had one of their decoders, but I've seen that people tend to replace them with a different one.

Roco's GP40 uses the same tooling as the Atlas "yellow box" GP40 (Atlas imported them and rebranded them as Atlas) The engine runs great although the handrails are a bit thick.
 
Litchfield Station also has the lowest prices for DCC equipment on the internet.

The original decoder was most likely a board that was wired into the loco. When you got it "repaired" unless an Athearn or similar light board was installed. the loco will not take an 8 pin decoder unless you wire in the socket in the first place (in my opinion, if you're going to do wiring, just wire the decoder in instead of putting a new socket in)

For 8 pin decoders, NCE, TCS, MRC and digitrax make them. NCE, TCS, digitrax (and maybe MRC) makes decoders with a 9-pin connector that plugs right into the Athearn light board AND should come with a 9 pin harness that ends with an 8 pin plug.
 
diburning said:
... When you got it "repaired" unless an Athearn or similar light board was installed. the loco will not take an 8 pin decoder unless you wire in the socket in the first place (in my opinion, if you're going to do wiring, just wire the decoder in instead of putting a new socket in)

...
Click to expand...

I don't understand, why would he need to install an Athearn board into an Atlas loco?

Zulutrain1 said the board has an 8-pin socket, and the reason it wasn't running was the jumper plug was missing. (Apparently the original owner had a decoder in the loco, and removed it, and didn't replace it with the jumper plug.) If that's the case, any decoder with the 8 pin plug will work. It then just comes down to how many functions he wants in the decoder.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Cjcrescent said:
I don't understand, why would he need to install an Athearn board into an Atlas loco?

Zulutrain1 said the board has an 8-pin socket, and the reason it wasn't running was the jumper plug was missing. (Apparently the original owner had a decoder in the loco, and removed it, and didn't replace it with the jumper plug.) If that's the case, any decoder with the 8 pin plug will work. It then just comes down to how many functions he wants in the decoder.
Click to expand...

diburning said:
When you got it "repaired" unless an Athearn or similar light board was installed.
Click to expand...

Also, Athearn sells the light boards as spare parts. Atlas does not. The light board, although is not always necessary, makes installing 8-pin decoders easier if they aren't designed to be plugged into a harness

Also, his loco is NOT an Atlas loco. It is a Roco loco that used to be imported as an Atlas yellowbox loco which was in production BEFORE DCC was invented.
 
zulutrain1 said:
Hi,

I bought on ebay what I believe to be an HO Atlas/Rocco GP40. It was supposed to be DCC ready. The engine was missing the plug and would not run. I brought it to a local train shop and had it repaired. I am running DC. I loaned the engine to a friend who has a Bachmann EZ command system.

Was there ever a factory equiped dcc Atlas/Rocco engine? What decoder would you recomend? It has an 8 pin socket
Click to expand...

By ZT1's original post here, (emphasis are mine,) the loco came DCC ready with an NMRA 8 pin socket. Since this would be a retrofit by the original owner, why would he need to buy a $35 or more board, when, by his own words he runs DC. All he needed was a jumper plug, that just about any LHS that does DCC installs probably have a ton of laying around.

I know that the Atlas/Roco locos weren't DCC ready. Neither were the Atlas/Kato engines, but DCC is easily installed in them, as the original owner apparently did. He sold the loco with the board that he either had installed, or installed himself without the decoder he used. The original owner just removed the decoder, and did not put a jumper back in.
 
I can only speak for myself :rolleyes: but I would highly recommend
NCE decoders. They have superb control, silent running, torque
and all the gizmo you expect from a good decoder.

In any case, all decoders have either a "plug" or are "dropped in"
for the 8 pin socket (thank god for standardisation)

It's only my opinion and yes, I am bias toward NCE :D

If you are looking for sound there's a host of good co. out there:
QSI, Locksound, Soundtrax Tsunami, MRC:p (I know,
I know they have bad press, but in my turbo they are fantastic!)


:cool:
 
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