Large Scale Central

Lionel Atlantic a blast from the past, rebuild and upgrade 2.0

Looking like a Queen. Nice work Nicholas. Thanks for the article. It has been saved.

Hmmm… if I jump hard enough, I MIGHT make it to the tender… do I? Nah, to heck with it. If we stall on the mainline, maybe those idiot bean-counters will FINALLY give us back the cab aprons!

Hey Nick,

That came out great!!! How’s she run?

Chuck

Looks great, I really want one of those engines, How do these Atlantics run?

Nico Corbo said:
Looks great, I really want one of those engines, How do these Atlantics run?
Nico...I own 6 of them. When upgraded like this and with the added tender pick-ups they run as smooth and quiet as any LGB loco I have ever owned.

If there is a weakness it is in the design of the drivers. I have purchased 2 with cracked posts where the side rods screw into the main driver. This is difficult to fix. Nearly all came with the steel rim cocked on the plastic “spoked” wheel insert. This creates a “wobble” as the engine goes down the track but is easy to pop back in alignment.

Lastly, if you pick up the sound equipped version (Pennsy), anything much above 12 VDC will blow the sound card.

I really like these engines, too bad Lionel no longer makes them. With a few minor improvements these could have been a great seller for them.

Jason, Yup I will get to work on the foot board ASAP…:slight_smile:

Chuck she runs well will do a full shake down run this weekend. Thanks for the extra parts I ow ya…

Nico they run great once you do a couple of mods to them and they really pull well, Here’s a couple of videos I found running on YouTube.

Nick

http://youtu.be/DZuKG4lXl7E

http://youtu.be/ukPoW2iYGdI

http://youtu.be/mHoL-RQzOFU

Rollin out for the 1st time and it ran like a top. Just what I wanted it to pull. Nick

(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/nicholas_savatgy/_forumfiles/nikey3.JPG)

Now all you need is a nice big speaker…

(http://www.elmassian.com/images/stories/motivepower/lionel/atlantic/atlantic_speaker.JPG)

Looking good Nick. I’ve been after one of these locos for years. I’ll get one some day. Passed a few up, oh well that’s life. Later RJD

That’s nice except it’s a PRR Atlantic…The NYC never ran Belpaire fireboxes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belpaire_firebox

Actually they did, when the merger happened some of the equipment from the pennsy ended up on the central as well as visa versa.

The central even leased 2 berks and 2 ML 4000 locos for testing before they were sold to the DRG.

It was a free for all towards the end.

Great work there Nick ! You never mentioned you were so adept at upgrading locomotives with the electronics and such .

My Atlantic is my favorite locomotive. The only problem I’ve had is that the tires on the drivers just will not stay mounted on the wheels. Does anyone have a permanent fix for this?

If I ever find the right DFX file, I will cut mine out of brass on the CNC mill.

Nick S. said:
Actually they did, when the merger happened some of the equipment from the pennsy ended up on the central as well as visa versa. The central even leased 2 berks and 2 ML 4000 locos for testing before they were sold to the DRG. It was a free for all towards the end.

Huh?? The NYC was running steam in the late 60’s as Penn Central was formed on 2/1/1968??

mike dorsch said:

Great work there Nick ! You never mentioned you were so adept at upgrading locomotives with the electronics and such .

Mike,After fixing all those defective boards from aristo and MTH you kind of learn that it’s not too hard, but I do get stuck from time to time and train friends lend a hand with advise.

The RR looking great by the way.

Nick

LOL…You betcha

Nick S. said:
My goal here was to be able to reliably pull 4 heavyweights all day long with full lights, sound and puffing smoke. please feels free to add anything of use to the article that may enhance the rebuild. Nick

So where’s the videos of the puffing smoke? Oh that’s right as QSI isn’t able to run the motor & a smoke unit at the same time as the board will overheat & shut down.

You betcha!!..LOL

Chuck Hanson said:

Nick S. said:
My goal here was to be able to reliably pull 4 heavyweights all day long with full lights, sound and puffing smoke. please feels free to add anything of use to the article that may enhance the rebuild. Nick

So where’s the videos of the puffing smoke? Oh that’s right as QSI isn’t able to run the motor & a smoke unit at the same time as the board will overheat & shut down.

You betcha!!..LOL

oooooo this from a guy that blew up a bigboy and caught it on fire because he’s not that talented and not in large scale so his Ebay page says for a year.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200928538476?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

You betcha LOL USA Trains and QSI, The only way to run a RR

Who the heck says you can’t run smoke and the motor with QSI? What planet are you from. Later RJD

R.J. DeBerg said:

Who the heck says you can’t run smoke and the motor with QSI? What planet are you from. Later RJD

:slight_smile: