# Lionel Atlantic needs new drive



## bahn1225 (Jan 27, 2008)

I have a *Lionel Atlantic* (4-4-2) I haven't run for almost 20 years.
It needs a new motor/drivetrain.
I know *BarrysBigTrains *does conversion of Bachmanns,
but does he do anything with this locomotive?

And, if not, can anyone recommend someone that will do a conversion on this?

Your assistance in this matter will be sincerely appreciated.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

Until recently you could order spare parts from Lionel. 

George Schreyer has tips on this loco, I have some also. I think I listed some part numbers, but not the motor or gears. 

Greg


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

A couple years ago I was able to order replacement parts not from lionel, but from another supplier who had taken over the "legacy" part of lionel's business. I'm trying to find the name but having no luck--I'll keep looking. I remember I had to find an exploded diagram of the 4-4-2, then search for specific parts by number. It was a company that Lionel had contracted to handle "legacy" parts. But I just can't remember the name


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## Pterosaur (May 6, 2008)

You could try these guys...They have a lot of "Large Scale" parts listed but I did not see the items you need. 

http://www.traindoctor.com/service/gscale/lionel.asp 

I too am concerned as the Lionel Atlantics are still my favorites to run. Spares are rare. What died? Did you lose both the motor and the drive gears?


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## Pete Thornton (Jan 2, 2008)

There's a vendor at ECLSTS every year who has the remaining stock of complete locomotives. He still seemed to have about 1/2 dozen this year, but his prices are unreasonable. Maybe someone can remember the vendor's name ?


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

You see them on ebay often, but in good condition they usually command near $200... the valve gear is first to go, and often there are concealed problems... but find one for $100 for parts is probably a good gamble. I'm looking for a second one. Once you lash the motor down and make the axle shim modifications, the drivetrain is pretty close to bulletproof. 

Greg


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## bahn1225 (Jan 27, 2008)

Posted By Pterosaur on 23 Apr 2011 06:19 AM 
Spares are rare. What died? Did you lose both the motor and the drive gears? 

I'm fairly certain that the plastic gearing stripped, 
but I'd like more of a fix than that.
As I understand it, 
one can obtain a stand alone drive set from AristoCraft[/b].
I'd like to have a conversion of that sort 
as the original Lionel [/b]set-up is not that great to begin with.
I really like the looks of this model, 
I just want it to run as good as it looks,

I'm quite familiar with George Schreyer[/i][/b] 
excellent website of tips, 
but I'm the polar opposite of him when comes to this.
In other words, I can't do it, I need someone who can.


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## George Schreyer (Jan 16, 2009)

try these guys for Lionel parts 

http://www.northlimatrainworks.com/


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

George's tips are very easy to follow and you can make your Atlantic run very well.

But if you desire to convert the motor block, it can be done, however it's a lot of work to cut a big hole in the lionel chassis. It might be better to buy an Aristo pacific, remove one axle and then modify the lionel boiler to fit... that would be a huge amount of work.

How much would you be willing to invest in such a conversion?

Just curious.

Greg


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

@import url(http://www.mylargescale.com/Provide...ad.ashx?type=style&file=SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/providers/htmleditorproviders/cehtmleditorprovider/dnngeneral.css); Posted By George Schreyer on 23 Apr 2011 04:17 PM 
try these guys for Lionel parts 

http://www.northlimatrainworks.com/ 
THAT's the place I was trying to think of! They have lots of parts for the 4-4-2.


Your could probably take an aristo pacific, cut it down to two wheels, cut the frame down, and just lay the lionel boiler shell and cab on top. I've sometimes thought of doing that. It's not a trivial undertaking though. If you get the realcement part,s the fixed George Schreyer suggests are not hard to do and make it run very well


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## vsmith (Jan 2, 2008)

Worst comes to worse and the motor and gearing are unreplaceable, if you dont want to covert it to a 2-8-0 maybe you can simply remove the motor from the engine and then replace/modify the tender trucks with a pair of Aristo centercab bricks, then the tender becomes the motor, pusing the engine and pulling the rest of the train. Be a bit of work but you'd still have an Atlantic.


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## Greg Elmassian (Jan 3, 2008)

That site lists the front axle assembly and the second axle assembly as available. 

Check my site for the part numbers. 

Good deal! 

I doubt your metal worms are damaged, they are metal.. just buy the 2 wheel/axle assemblies...that's the wheels and the gear as a single unit...













Greg


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## W3NZL (Jan 2, 2008)

Its a well known fact that the drives in those old Lionel Atlantics were pretty much "junque", but the loco itself 
was pretty neat, and makes up into a nice H class Pennsy consolidation with one of the Aristo mike or mallet 
drive units... If U cut out that goofy Belpaire firebox out of it and get an AC USRA tender U can make a Connie
for most anybodies road out of it... I had a couple of them in my junk box that I redid with Aristo drives a few 
years back, they work great too...
Paul R...


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## udcdude (Jun 12, 2011)

Attention to all : I am currently rebuilding the Lionel Large scale 4-4-2 Atlantics, Yes the model is nice looking and the gear drives is not the best but if you do what I did you will need the gear drive operational on the drivers. What I recently have done is Powered the tender with my favorite motor block and readjusting the rear truck on the tender, you will need to wire the motor above the drivers to the new motor in the tender because the driver distance is to small for electrical pick up over the long turnouts the power from the motor block tender will keep the driver wheels spinning also 2 pounds of lead weight will need to bee added to the locomotive for traction and going up 2 % grades.
If you would like to see a good performance check out youtube ( http://youtu.be/lAzMqJ-u4xc ). I am currently testing stress on the driver gears and so far zero stress has been evaluated due to the new motor block added in the rear tender. If you want Power, Speed, and Performance this would be the way to go. My self was disappointed these models could not even pull the box the were shipped in and was tired of them sitting on the shelf so with my spare time I started modify the Atlantic and was surprised to see it becoming a working model again. More plans for a Slimline tank and tender using the Lionel Gear drives are in the works but I also have to find who w like to make some metal wheels for the lead pilot truck and rear trailing wheel. Please share your thoughts on this and I would love some feedback.


UDCDUDE


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## Tom Leaton (Apr 26, 2008)

This makes me wonder if you could take a Aristo pacific mechanism, remove the trailing truck, and adapt it to the Lionel boiler shell to make a PRR/Long Island RR 4-6-0. I don't know if anyone has tried this.


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## udcdude (Jun 12, 2011)

Why use Aristo craft parts when there are other drive and motor blocks available. I'm just saying.


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## Santafe 2343 (Jan 2, 2008)

@import url(http://www.mylargescale.com/Provide...ad.ashx?type=style&file=SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/providers/htmleditorproviders/cehtmleditorprovider/dnngeneral.css); Tom,[/b]
Yes it will work, I have made one for a friend. You can also tell by the picture Paul has displayed. The Mikado motor block is the same length as the Pacific block. Thanks, Rex[/b]


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

Posted By udcdude on 12 Jun 2011 02:13 PM 
Attention to all : I am currently rebuilding the Lionel Large scale 4-4-2 Atlantics, Yes the model is nice looking and the gear drives is not the best but if you do what I did you will need the gear drive operational on the drivers. What I recently have done is Powered the tender with my favorite motor block and readjusting the rear truck on the tender, you will need to wire the motor above the drivers to the new motor in the tender because the driver distance is to small for electrical pick up over the long turnouts the power from the motor block tender will keep the driver wheels spinning also 2 pounds of lead weight will need to bee added to the locomotive for traction and going up 2 % grades.
If you would like to see a good performance check out youtube ( http://youtu.be/lAzMqJ-u4xc ). I am currently testing stress on the driver gears and so far zero stress has been evaluated due to the new motor block added in the rear tender. If you want Power, Speed, and Performance this would be the way to go. My self was disappointed these models could not even pull the box the were shipped in and was tired of them sitting on the shelf so with my spare time I started modify the Atlantic and was surprised to see it becoming a working model again. More plans for a Slimline tank and tender using the Lionel Gear drives are in the works but I also have to find who w like to make some metal wheels for the lead pilot truck and rear trailing wheel. Please share your thoughts on this and I would love some feedback.


UDCDUDE 



If I understand you right, you replaced the lionel tender trucks with trucks from a GP38, then added 2 lbs of weight to the tender. Is that right? Did you use two GP-38 blocks? What did you use for sideframes?

It seems like a great idea. I have a lionel atlantic which I modified per George Schreyer's suggestions, but it's fading fast


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

The more I think on it the more I think I'd like to try this. Does anyone out there know who makes the shortest motor block? Or which USAT blocks are the shortest?


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## W3NZL (Jan 2, 2008)

U might want to take a look at the USA 44 tonner blocks...
Paul R...


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## udcdude (Jun 12, 2011)

I could do a conversion for you. if you want to see what it could do check this out on youtube http://youtu.be/lAzMqJ-u4xc. I modified mine into what it actually should be I do have gears and wheels but I can also inspect yours to see if they are still good.you will need the drivers to roll with its motors and I can even do the kadee coupler on the rear tender. I was also able to pull 5 pullmans no problem. weight will have to be added in the boiler of the loc and pheonix sound could be added into the tender there will be lots of room. e-mail me if your interested [email protected]


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

@import url(http://www.mylargescale.com/Provide...ad.ashx?type=style&file=SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/providers/htmleditorproviders/cehtmleditorprovider/dnngeneral.css); Posted By W3NZL on 13 Jun 2011 10:14 AM 
U might want to take a look at the USA 44 tonner blocks...
Paul R...

No longer made. I don't think


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## udcdude (Jun 12, 2011)

I used one USAT motor block the type used in all GP models in the tender and used USAT arch bar trucks for the tender some Atlantic tenders used Arch bar and some used early Betendorf truck it depends on what your modeling. I cut out the entire floor off the tenders frame and moved the rear truck forward. If you have seen the Youtube video posted it is pulling over a dozen boxcar and will pull 5 pullmans no problem there is also another vid on the tube showing it speeding by. You might know this but Atlantics were designed for high speed rail commuter service and where rarely ever seen pulling freight cars so normally I will be pulling 5 pullmans and you will not have to worry about any gears stripping. I am here in California and I run at fairplex Graden Railroad and I own over a dozen Atlantic's Lionel Produced so I was always disappointed on the model not pulling the weight it should. So experimenting like I did I powered the Tender like they used to do in the 20' and 30's in early model trains, you can try using the Aristo stuff but you will not get the Horsepower needed, Not bad mouthing Aristo but it does not have the weight or room for weight needed for the mid Driver wheels to grab on the rails I also had to link both motors together due to the large turnouts and switching I have so there is no hesitation from the front Drivers. If you would like I would like to take a whack at building one for you and you would probably be very pleased in the performance you get out of this.

UDCDUDE


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## bahn1225 (Jan 27, 2008)

* UDCDUDE * 
You have a PM from me.


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