If you had a… let’s say… Atlas GP7 dcc sound engine and a P2K GP7 dcc non sound. Are the shells ever interchangable so that you could have your road name on the chasis of another engine that’s not? Are there any interchangable brands? Or are they all just a tad different so this is never possible?
JaRRell
From what I understand, the Atlas Geep is variation of an earlier model made by Kato. The Life-Like Geep is an entirely different design. The only way you’ll know for sure is to take the shells off and see if they at least fit over either chassis. I’m willing to bet that the mounting is different for each shell, but if you’re real handy with tools you could probably find a way of mounting a Life-Like shell to an Atlas chassis and vice versa.
It really depends. I have put Lionel GP 30 shell on an Athearn GP frame with no issues, also a Rivarossi E unit shell on the Model Power frame, also no issues.
But in you specific example, you will have a much harder time. The Atlas GP 7 (if it is like my original run version) has a metal frame/walkway unit rather than the separate plastic walkway/metal frame of the P2K GP’s. This will make matching up the bodies to the walkways quite difficult.
Best is just try it and see what you get.