I bought a new Atlas Classic HO GP7, and I am about to add a decoder. My GP7 was announced in September 2005 and released to stores in February 2006.
So, this morning, I set out to remove the shell.
Atlas does not include any info on shell removal, so I really needed to study the issue. I put on an Optivisor to get a closer look.
There are no screws to remove, only the front and rear tab where the shell snaps onto the chassis. And, there is no need to remove the couplers.
The tabs easily come loose, but the shell is still “attached” to the chassis because the railings connect from the frame to the shell. That said, there are only four points where the railing connections must be detached from the shell.
The front railings connect at two points to the front steps of the locomotive. The railings are not glued, so it is fairly easy to pull out the connections with a pair of tweezers. It would help to have rubber tipped tweezers to avoid any damage by reason of scratching the paint.
The other two connections from the chassis to the shell are the side railings that connect to the rear of the cab.
Once the four railing connections are detached, the shell lifts right off, exposing the motor, drive train, and the PC board.
Hope this helps with shell removal for those interested in this issue.
Its an oddball shell/chassis combination, so you need to be careful. The walkway is part of the chassis…not the shell. So you need to remove the handrails where they attach to the cab, and maybe a few near the cab by the battery boxes or esle you will snap the handrails immediately. Actually…just remove the nubby where they attach…you dont need to remove the entire side handrails.
Its not hard, but you need to do it correctly. And the chassis with the handrails sticking up hood/cabless will look odd and makes replacing the shell a bit tricky too.
Or, you could just remove all of the handrails first if you want, but that invites breakage too. IIRC, there is no need to remove the front or rear handrails at all.
I remove handrails by…carefully…using a sprue nipper or rail nipper since they have two beveled edges that I work…carefully…under both sides of the handrail staunchion nubby. Some use the backsides of a hobby blade, but that only gets under one side and more stubborn handrail stauchions will not budge.
Ooops! I got the same message. I think I’ve had this happen before on HOSeeker. The Atlas site also has a break-down.
I’ve collected quite a few Atlas over the years, lots of yellow box, some I’ve added decoders to, and more recently, a few of the “Master” series, with the dual mode decoder. I’d like to find a couple from the series you have. I like the idea of the plug to add a decoder, a little more than I like the dual mode.
I may not have made myself clear on that point, but, yes, the walkway is part of the chassis. That said, you only need to detach the railings at the four points that I mentioned. You do not need to remove the entire hand rail system. That remains attached to the walkway.
Right. I didn’t know for sure how far along you were so i just explained everything. Yes, detaching the handrails at those four points is the way I always removed the shell.
If all you’re going to do is plug in a non-sound decoder, just pop off the (dynamic or non-dynamic) hatch. Plenty of room in there to remove the dummy plug and replace it with your favorite decoder. No need to remove the entire shell.
If you wish to learn how to remove the shell of any locomotive, you can Google "Install decoder (Manufacturer of loco) ( loco model ) " … Most of the time you can find out how to remove the shell.
I guestioned what Stevert said too, Rich, the hatch on the master series, black box, like I have with the dual decoder, is the one that has the removable hatch, to reposition the jumper.