Other loco manufacturers

[Antoine L.]

Hi

So, as of today I've successfully installed LM-2S into:
- Athearn RTR (DCC not ready)
- Atlas silver series (DCC semi-ready)
- Kato (DCC ready)
- Bachmann (DCC not-ready)
- P1K

Have any of your tried other brands?
- Athearn Genesis ?
- Broadway Limited?
- Intermountain?
- Bowser?
- P2K?

other?

Share your experiences!

Antoine

[hirailer]

I have an old Ahearn first generation Genesis  SD70i that was sold DC only. I discarded the existing light board and hard wired a nine pin connector and installed a LM2S module. The front and rear lights have LED lamps and the ditch lights are changed to SMD's. I am using a iphone S4 speaker which sounds pretty good.

All in all the loco runs quite good providing the wheels and electrical pick up are kept clean.

Cheers
Mel

[nodcc4me]

I have installed modules in several P2k Pa-1's, an E8, E7 and another that I can't think of at the moment. The E units run well. I have had problems with all of the PA's truck contacts and one with a bad motor. I removed the plastic covers on the contacts and soldered the leads. The boards were removed and all the PA's are hard wired. I have also installed modules in three P1k RDC cars. The gears are slightly noisy and they all run slower than I would like, but they run well otherwise. I have several Bachmann Spectrum steam and diesel engines that look and run well. One of my best runners is an Atlas GP40-2. My favorite loco, which was my first conversion is a 40 year old Rivarossi GG1. It initially had runaway problems, but after the addition of capacitors to the motor, it runs unbelievably well.

[Josephbw]

I've found the Atlas Silver Series to be the easiest to convert. You get the same chassis as the Gold Series with the speaker mounts already in place for 2 30mm speakers, at least on the 2 that I have. The BLI has been the biggest pain in the tookus so far for me.

Joe

[KPack]

2 Atlas Silver Series 8-40B's - Fantastic running.  I removed all factory electronics and hardwired LM-1's in each.  Each has a single Railmaster Hobbies DSM-8 for a speaker.

2 Atlas Silver Series 8-40CW's - Good running, some drivetrain noise.  I plugged LM-1's into the factory board using a 9-to-8 adapter from TCS.  Dual 30mm speakers in each.

1 Athearn Blue Box GP50 - Very old locomotive.  Original motor and gears.  NWSL semi-scale wheels.  Thoroughly tuned the drivetrain, hardwired everything.  Currently has a Iphone 5 speaker in it that will get removed and replaced.  Locomotive runs very well with a LM-1.

1 BLI SD40-2 - Decent running, though I did have to replace a faulty motor.  Speaker setup is less than ideal (made for dual 28's, but sounds terrible).  Will probably remove and replace with somethign else.  Not much room to work with in there due to the weight.  Decent running with LM-1 hardwired.

1 Kato SD40-2 - Good runner, some drivetrain noise, very lightweight.  Currently has LM-1 plugged into the Kato board with a 9-to-8 adapter from TCS, but that is only temporary until I put the locomotive on the bench for detailing and weathering.  At that point all the factory electronics will be removed and the LM-1 probably replaced with LM-2S for more storage for sounds.

1 Athearn RTR GP35 - Remotored with Kato, drivetrain tuned.  Extremely smooth and quiet runner, my favorite locomotive for switching.  LM-2S hardwired in with 2 sugar cube speakers, very nice sound.

1 Athearn Genesis SD70MAC - Mediocre runner, lots of drivetrain noise even after replacing the motor and entire drivetrain.  LM-1 hardwired in with DSM-8 speaker.  Decent sound.

2 Athearn RTR C44-9W's - Remotored with Kato, extensive drivetrain work to make them quiet.  Very smooth, and mostly quiet runners.  Both have LM-2S modules hardwired in, and both have 4 sugar cube speakers each.  They sound excellent.  My favorite mainline locomotives.

1 Athearn Genesis ES44AC - Smooth runner, very quiet, very heavy.  LM-2S plugged directly into the factory board (lots of space), with all wire connections to the board soldered.  4 sugar cube speakers, excellent sound. 

1 Athearn Genesis SD70ACe - Good runner, noisy drivetrain.  LM-2S hardwired in, single 28mm round speaker in factory enclosure.  One of my better sounding units...the custom K5LLA horn I loaded on there is extremely loud.

1 Athearn Genesis GP7u - Very smooth, very quiet, but very light.  Slower locomotive due to the gearing.  LM-2S hardwired with dual sugar cube speakers.  Sounds good, runs well.

[Antoine L.]

I still think it is amazing how even old locos run well with RP installed.

My most silent and smooth runnin is a p1k f3a. Maybe I should post a video of it.

Antoine

[LW93Rcode]

1 Athearn SD40-2 Blue Box LM2-S with dual 4S Speakers (now removed and installed in the RTR for road name purposes)
1 Athearn SD40-2 RTR LM2-S with dual 4S Speakers , Removed board and hardwired
1 Bachmann GP38-2 (DCC Equipped) LM2-S with 4S Speaker, Removed board and hardwired
1 Atlas Silver 8-40CW LM2-S with 28mm TCS Wow Speaker, DCC ready with 8 pin plug
1 Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0 Consolidation LM2-S with 28mm TCS Wow Speaker, Removed board and hardwired
1 Athearn GP60 Blue Box LM2-S with 4S Speaker, hardwired

The GP60 is a terrible runner and very noisy!  I'm probably going to put this module into an Atlas Trainman GP38-2 eventually, just haven't decided which one.  The rest run great,  one exception being the Bachmann GP38-2 sometimes needs a little warm up before it will creep if it has been cold in my basement or not run in a significant amount of time.  Once it's warmed up though it's a great runner.

[G8B4Life]

I had always wondered if anyone had done a dual 4S speaker install. How does it sound? Did you series or parallel the speakers?

As for my installs, well I wouldn't expect anyone to know these brands but I've got one into an Austrains CLP (I want to see if I can dual speaker this one) and a Trainorama S class. Both hardwired. My last module on hand is waiting for the iPod touch speakers to come in.

- Tim

[Geek.Verve]

I had always wondered if anyone had done a dual 4S speaker install. How does it sound? Did you series or parallel the speakers?

I can't remember where, but I did read someplace that the recommended method was in series. 

[LW93Rcode]

I wired it in series.  I believe it is louder than a single at the same sound level, however, it didn't really give a lot more depth or richness to the sound like I had hoped it would.  At least to my ears. I'll have to see if I can do a side by side comparison.  I will add that I had to basically stack the speakers due to their length.  I couldn't place one at each end of the loco.   I did place the speaker ports opposite ends.  Not sure if any of that would cancel sounds out or not.

[G8B4Life]

Thanks LW93Rcode (and Geek.Verve).

I opened the model up again today and confirmed with myself that there's no room to dual 4S speaker the thing without diecast surgery. We'll see if I bother stripping it back down to do that.

On a different note, from another thread way back when I can't remember, I did get some double sided foam tape and tonight when I had
the model open installed the speaker on it; the vibration and resonance when blowing the horn is now gone. Yay. It sounds much better.

- Tim

[Antoine L.]

Hey! Sorry to bring back an old topic, but I didn't want to make another, since I want to talk about this specific subject.

I just bought this beauty (Athearn Genesis WC EMD F45 #6651)



As you can see it runs with a Kato SD45 and both run together consisted liek a charm.
So yeah, this topic is about loco manufacturer. I thought the Genesis line was "the top of the line". As for details, it really is nice, but motor, gearing, mechanical parts: I am not sure this loco is any better than Kato. In fact, it it noisier and less smooth than KATO. It is set at 490ma !!!! (automatic set up from RP)

What are your thoughts about "top of the line" locos, which one are working best? For me Kato wins for now, but I have not tried BLI, Intermountain, Bowser, Walthers yet.

Have a good day!

Antoine

[Josephbw]

I have 20 LM2s's installed and one of them is in an Athearn Genesis. I can't say that I'm overly impressed with the running characteristics of this engine. Mine also has a high amperage draw. I have several hours on it just running around breaking it in. It has dropped the amp draw a little, but not much.

I have an old Athearn BB, back before the light board, and it runs better than the new Genesis.

Joe

[Antoine L.]

Do you recommend removing the board to hardwire the LM2S? Mine is plugged in the 9pin plug that was there already.

Antoine

[KPack]

If you have the space and everything works fine, then I would leave the factory board.  If you are experiencing electrical issues then I would remove the board and hardwire the LM-2. 

Athearn Genesis has hit-and-miss drivetrain quality.  Some of mine have been okay (GP7u I just finished for example), but my other 3 Genesis locos all required work.  One needed completely new trucks, one needed a new motor (brand new from the box, never run), and the other squeaks like a mouse. 

Atlas usually has great drivetrain quality.  Kato isn't quite as good, at least from my own experience.  I have to say I'm surprised by MTH.  I picked up one from them and the current draw is one of my lowest (well below 200mAh) and it is extremely smooth and quiet. 

-Kevin