I got a new Trainman CR GP38-2 some weeks ago. That engine did not have the perfect Atlas drive I am used to. It neeed some lubrication and a long breakin until it ran nice but not perfect. I noticed the drive shafts are made of metal/wire instead of the usual plastic.
Yesterday arrived two Trainman UP GP38-2. They are even more far away from perfection I am used to. They make the typical Athearn drive sound where imprefect manufactured parts fight against each other. The drive shafts are metal too.
It looks to me as if Atlas made a new drive (looking very similar to the old one) without the old tight manucaturing tolerances resulting in a loss of quality.
Any similar observations with HO Trainman drives with metal drive shafts?
I have not purchased a new trainman locomotive in a long time. If Atlas has changed the drive to something that is not their typical high quality product, that is disappointing.
I would think that it would be more expensive to have a drive system that is separate and distinct from their normal drives, since the drive system isn’t generally the most expensive portion of the locomotive.
Are you certain the locomotives are brand new factory products and not a swap out or the results of previous meddling by someone else? Maybe sharing a picture would be informative.
This is the drive of one of the new Trainman GP38-2. The worm gear etc. is totally dry. No lube no oil no nothing. Very unusual for Atlas. I will fix that first.
When Sanda kan the former manufacturer for atlas was bought by bachmann. It left many importers without a manufacturer. After all the smoke cleared Atlas, bowser and intermountain have the same manufacturer So the drives are very similar to each other. There has have been issues with the motors in bowser and intermountain as reported on other forums. The motors look like mabuchi junk. How that bodes for atlas I guess time will tell. Atlas stated that they have different specs. But I’m still skeptical.
It looks like they went from a two piece plastic drive shaft to a one piece metal, as you said. I can’t believe that the one piece shaft would be noisier than a two piece. The worm gear looks the same as always. Yes, I would try some light oil and a break-in period. You might try some tuner cleaner, 2-26 here in the states, around the motor area.
I’d think this situation is temporary, since Atlas, Bowser,a nd IM always produce (er…import) smooth, quiet locomotives.
I bought some newer locos, but looking at the website the newest run of gp38-2 is a 2014 vintage, past the date of my most recent purchase, so no help here.
Edit: The motor looks different than what I’m used to seeing in an Atlas.
The engines got lubed and do a break in now. They are still not perfect as I am used to. I did also notice the different motor. The new one looks somehow cheap. Might be they are the source of the new noise.
I did not assume the new drive shaft is the problem. It is a part to identify the new drive easy.
The motor in an older Trainman GP38-2 and 39-2 has part #920100. The new one is #921100. The drive shaft and the drive shaft support in the flywheels is very different.
That is a risky way. Atlas sells the Trainman series as a world class drive at a reasoable price. It is now a reasonable drive at a reasonable price with a simple shell. Nothing exciting anymore.
I have lost my preferred drive. I used it a lot under Athearn RTR shells.[:'(]
Have you made sure to grease the ends of the drivelines that fit into the flywheels? I can’t tell from the picture for sure, but it appears that they are similar to the Kato/Genesis hex drive. I jury-rigged some hex drive parts using 2-56 hex nuts which were a bit moisy until I gobbed on a bunch of grease.
Or maybe the old motor isn’t available any more, or the price on the old motor has gone up to the point where they would have to raise the price of the engine too much.
It stinks that the new motor isn’t as good, but I doubt the head executives at Atlas sat around twirling their mustachios and saying “Mwa ha ha, let’s put an inferior motor in our engines!”
That motor actually looks even cheaper than Mabuchi’s low end products! Likely 3-pole, with no skew to reduce cogging. My Athearn RTR F7 had a similar motor, and it made all the noise in the entire engine (poor quality bearings and a very cheap commutator). If Kader’s going to make Atlas trains now, they could at least use the same 5-pole skewed armature motors as Bachmann’s standard line (all they’d have to do is remove the big “5” from the side).
Do the Atlas Master diesels still have the better motors?
Do we actually know that the motor problems Reinhard is having has to do with a change of motors at the corporate policy levels?
It seems like there is some Atlas bashing going on without any real explanation of what the motors actually are.
It could be that the changeover simply takes a bit of time for the quality control process of the new manufacturer to become efficient, and new batches will have problems solved or better capture of problems.
I have 2 new c424s with the new motors and they run as smooth and quiet as the old ones. I didn’t notice any noise when I ran them, so this thread prompted me up to check if they have the new motors and they do.
I bought a pair of Canadian National DASH 8-40C in the Canadian National black, red and white made by Atlas. The motors in them look different then what they are now putting into the trainman locomotives. These motors do not have any yellow, but a silver. These Dash 8’s run very smooth and quiet, but have a lot less torque then the Kato motors. From my observations the Kato motors have the most torque, followed by the old black Atlas motors, followed by the Intermountain motors and last are the new motors in the Dash 8’s.
How did I test for this? Found out what the minimum voltage is at which the Kato AC4400 will spin the wheels, then done the same test with the Intermountain and Atlas engines.
