NMRA British Region Forum

HI All

I've got a couple of Athearn Genesis GP15-1 locos, one with sound and one withiut, The one with sound is great, programmed straight away and in use. However the second one is a different matter. Being a DCC ready one I have to fit a decoder, easy enough I thought but I have not been able to get the body off. I found the instructions appear to omit a couple of scres by the trucks but even with those removed I have not managed to get the body off. This is partiucularly frustrating as I'd like to rn the locos as a pair on the Thamesiders layout at Ally Pally.

Rather then have at it in a ham fisted manner I hope you guys might be able to point out where I've gone wrong.

Cheers
Geoff Tiller

Hi Geoff

I think I had a similar problem with their SD70ace, it was just tight.
I took an Atlas C8-40W apart this week I was convinced there was something holding the body on, The rear end would lift, no movement at the front, I put sticks in the front to try and release it, eventually after a lot of wiggling it came off, there was nothing holding it on!

Found the problem to the Atlas loco, two little pips high on the chassis that latch into the body, now cut off!

ednmra wrote:Who cooks up these daft designs?

The people who don't expect us to take things apart! The Atlas latches are so far up you can't reach them.

The old Athearn clips were unsightly, but at least you could see where they were. At least the Atlas loco had plenty of room to fit the new decoder, with minimal chassis chopping. The Atlas speakers do sound good with the new Loksound decoder.
I find couplings are enough to hold the bodies on.

Hi All

Thanks to Mike's advice, a little (less than) gentle persausion and far too many rude words I have removed the body and fitted a Lenz direct decoder. It just needs to be programmed and to have the air tank repaired that I broke off during pat 1 of this disassembly attempt.

I very nearly gave up and put it back in its box again but glad I gave it that last go that managed to get the body lose.

best regards

Geoff