Need more clearance in Athearn GP50 - considering re-motoring

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hi, there.

I’m attempting to install DCC and sound in an old-school, Blue-Box GP50. I’ve got the Digitrax motor decoder and the Soundtraxx DSX properly wired; everything runs and sounds wonderful, but I’ve got a “little” problem; I’ve run out of space.

I can’t quite get the dynamic-brake assembly back in place when closing up the shell. I’ve done a lot of re-arranging, trying to fit the DSX in front of the motor, for example (just a little too thick, seems to be pushing on the top of the front truck), re-arranging wires, etc., and I still come up with just a little too much “stuff” to get the last parts back in-place.

Thus, I’m considering re-motoring with an A Line kit (Walthers has the stock number as 116-12605), since it appears that this motor is a little shorter than the original open-frame motor. It would be nice, though, if I could confirm this in advance with someone who has actually installed one.

If that doesn’t work, I may just have to break down and buy a single-piece decoder. I had these sitting around, though, and would prefer to use existing stock before spending more money (especially on an originally inexpensive locomotive).

Thanks in advance!

2

I got an NCE decoder in my Athearn GP 50 but had to do some modification to the shell first. I had to cut out that plastic shelf located under the dynamic brake cover and affix the decoder directly to the top of the motor with double sided tape so that it would fit between the motor and dynamic brake. It fit just right after doing so. The speaker can be mounted in the cab or just under the cooling fans in the rear of the shell also using double sided tape. I would never think of replacing an athearn motor. They are such good strong pulling motors…chuck

3

I’m afraid that that isn’t good-enough. I’ve done all these things; cutting out the plastic shelf (sorry, forgot to mention that), and I’m actually using a wired Digitrax decoder (DH-123D).

The problem is in fitting the Soundtraxx DSX decoder. There isn’t room for THAT on top of the motor; between the wires and the decoder itself, I can’t quite get the dynamic brake assembly back in place.