Atlas Maine Central GP38 Upgrade

Hello folks. Spring is slowly arriving here in Nova Scotia and it sure feels different this year with the province being in semi lock down because of the Covid 19 Pandemic. One benefit is that with a ton more time being spent at home, I am getting more Modeling railroading work done this year than I would be if things were "normal". Yesterday, I installed a recently purchased ESU Select Direct V5 decoder in one of my Maine Central GP38's. I have 2 of these that I acquired back approx. 15 years ago. When I was switching over from HO scale to On30, I decided to keep a small number of locos and rolling stock (just in case 😀). The 38's spent 7-8 years in their boxes and were not run at all. When I took them out and ran them on my On30 track, they were  a bit on the sluggish side and stuttered down the track. I disassembled them and took the trucks and gearboxes apart and cleaned all the old coagulated grease out and reassembled - as expected , they ran as well as a brand new Atlas -i.e smooth as silk. Recently after comparing ( on line videos , etc.) the most current offerings of diesel sound decoders, I decided to give the ESU V5 a try. I selected the Select Direct  http://www.esu.eu/en/products/loksound/loksound-select-direct/

It is a drop in replacement board and fits perfectly in place of the original Atlas ( made by Lenz) dual mode decoder. I simply removed the wires from the old decoder and soldered them in place on the new ESU decoder. For the speaker ,  I used an a single ESU 50321 Sugar cube speaker    https://www.traintekllc.com/esu-50321-11mm-x-15mm-8-ohm-sugar-cube-speaker/

To facilitate removing the shell from the frame in the future, I used a TCS micro plug to allow the speaker to be disconnected quickly ( as it is body mounted). These particular Atlas locomotives have a removable dynamic brake blister. This was done so as to allow quick access to the original decoder so that a plug could be moved from a DC to DCC position on the decoder or vise versa - hence they were known as a dual mode decoder. The dynamic brake blister has a small recess on the underside  that is the area below the air filter area on the loco. This recess was a perfect fit for the sugar cube speaker ( see picture below).  Once that was done, I placed the locomotive on the ESU Lok programmer programming track and added the sound package that I had downloaded from the ESU website previously. The sound package is a perfect match for the engine type that was in EMD GP38's. The beauty of the V5 select decoder is that it is upgradeable in the future should a better sound package become available or more features added and you are able to do this without removing the shell of the locomotive - you just need a Lok programmer with programming track ( and internet connection of course) This decoder is future proof for sure!! I was able to use the built in throttle control that is part of the Lok Programmer to test the unit on the programming track before reassembling the locomotive. The sound is awesome!!! Probably the best sounding diesel sound decoder that I have heard. As I have only recently acquired the ESU Lok Programmer, I am thinking that I have much to discover yet and will be using it to tweak some of the settings on this new install ( volumns, Operating characteristics, etc). Although these decoders operate extremely well "out of the box", I look forward to the challenge of exploring all the options and possibilities that go into making ESU decoders exceptional - there is a lot to learn and I am looking forward to it. Now on to the second Maine Central GP38 install...till next time.

Atlas GP38 with original dual mode decoder

Installed ESU Select Direct V5 decoder and 50321 Cube Speaker

Dynamic Brake Hatch with Installed Speaker