I picked up this locomotive and I am trying to figure out exactly what it is. The only markings anywhere on it (that I can find) are on the bottom where it says Life-Like and Made in China. I was able to find via some searching that it is likely a model number 7088 which matches up with pictures of the road number 1107. I found this info:
Released in 1998, 2004 (revised version with Accumate couplers), and 2011 (DCC-Ready version, with MTL couplers)
The 2011 version is DCC ready. Accepts the following plug-in decoders (non-sound):
Digitrax DN163L0A: 1 Amp N Scale Mobile Decoder for Walthers Proto GP20 and similar.
OK, sorry I am so dumb, I realized that the Life-Like #7088 is actually an N scale. I finally found a matching picture on the internet and how I am pretty sure this is a Proto 2000 HO Sante Fe GP20 #1107 Part Number 8008.
There isn’t any documentation that I have been able to find for it, but I will fire it up and see what it does. Any advice or knowledge about this one that anyone has is appreciated.
Someone more knowlegable than me may be able to provide better information but I’m pretty sure you’ve got the 1998 version there, though I wouldnt’ be surprised if it were offered for a few years after.
I don’t see a “DCC ready” plug anywhere in the pictures you provided.
If you put “Life Like Santa Fe 1107 Proto 2000” into google you’ll find examples of what you have.
I am not to knowledgeable on this sort of thing but the words LIFE-LIKE on the bottom make me think it is not the 2011 release, as by that time P2K was part of Walthers, so I think the LIFE-LIKE lettering would have been removed by that point in time. It appears to have Kadee couplers. I am confused as to weather or not this is HO or N. You said the 2011 release had MTL (I’m assuming that’s Micro Trains Line?) but the model looks to be HO.
If you want to know of the loco is DC or DCC place it on DCC and try to run it on address zero. Also you’ll hear a distinctive wirring sound when a DC loco is on DCC and in idle.
In all of the DCC conversions I’ve done on my Life-Like fleet I have completely removed the “light board” and wired a decoder directly to the track pickup and motor leads. Once LEDs are installed the light board is pretty much worthless anyway.
What you are seeing is a light board for directional lighting. It is NOT a decoder of any kind. I usually remove it and hardwire a decoder in. Not sure you may have to deal with cracked gears. You can check for cracked gears by runing it in dc. If you hear a thump thump you more than likely have cracked gears. I used athearn gears.
Thanks everyone so far, this is all great information and I will work on it. There should be a post by me before this one where I found out more about what it was. I seem to be on some sort of probation with a day’s delay for my posts to be approved, maybe because I haven’t posted in a while.
That is the older version, that board is not a decoder, it is a light board for directional constant lighting on DC. Forge t the cut at the X for DCC, remove the board completely if you want to install a decoder, and replace the light bulbs with LEDs and resistors.
You are definitely getting incorrect item numbers, the descriptions of those items match N scale locos, that loco is an HO scale loco. Forget the couplers, they look like real Kadees, no P2K loco ever came with real Kadees, so they were changed out at some point.
gmpullman thank you for the manual and the guide for the T1 decoder install. That looks like it will be a good project to start on. I have been reading for a long time, now getting ready to put some stuff into HO action.
rrinker, here are some close-ups of the coupler. Are these Kadees? I’m not up enough yet to be able to tell but want to learn. It doesn’t surprise me that the couplers were upgraded, the guy I got this from was really into detailing and modeling. Oddly enough though I don’t think he ever ran anything. I got some other cool stuff from his estate sale that I am still going through. No more locos though. I’ll get this one going and see how it runs, but I am guessing it has hardly been run at all. Everything does look new on it.
The GP20 chassis looks very much like the Life-Like GP7 I just picked up so you should be able to use a TCS LL8 decoder, which is a simple drop-in replacement for the diode light board that came with your locomotive. And the same screws used to secure the light board to the chassis can also be used to secure the LL8 decoder.
If you are thinking of installing LEDs, the LED version of that decoder comes with built-in resistors. All you have to do is replace the incandescent bulbs and solder the front & rear LEDs directly to the blue (common), white, and yellow tabs on the NMRA socket. I also used some black heat shrink as a shroud around the LED bulb to help focus the beam into the front & rear light pipes for the headlights.
The chassis is the same, but that board is not like any of my GP7s that use the LL8 decoder, those decoders are meant for the locos that have a long narrow board with diodes and all the wires connect to a second board which just has an 8 pin socket and plugs in to the diode board. There are no resistors. Or cut at the X marks. This board is the same as the one in the SD 7/9.
The ProtoMax are distinctly a shiny black color. Kadees generally have a graphite/metallic look to them. The Kadee 5 and 158 are flanking a ProtoMax here:
The difference I see between a KD5 and a ProtoMax is with the ’bumps’ around the area were the knuckle and the rest of the coupler meet. I’m being a bit confusing and I can’t seem to see the difference in Edmund’s picture but a bit ago I studied the two in depth and that’s what I found. I though since the OP’s model is perhaps a Walthers model it may have ProtoMax couplers, though they look more like KDs to me.
All LifeLike two axle trucks at that time were the same design (a clone of the Athearn truck) and suffered from the same undersized gear center hole that lead to the cracking.
The gears seemed to fail faster, or more frequently in locos not used, or that sat as NOS, than in locos purchased and ran right away.
But eventually most failed.
LifeLike gave them away like candy until the Wathers buyout, Wathers was a little more conservative but still replaced them for free for many years.
Now, almost 30 years later, you are on your own. But other than replacing all those gears at some point, my fleet of nearly 60 early Proto locos still run great. Many purchased for only $35 to $60.
