It ran quiet as a mouse at the train store I bought it from, but it was a bit loud when I brought it home and ran in on my DCC layout. I know I have to cut the capacitors on the board, which I still have to do (I see two of them on the board). Not sure what else I can do, maybe lube the gears and drivetrain a little.
Would the shell fit an Atlas GP-7 chassis?
I took off the stock decoder and hooked up a 9V battery to the motor leads, and the thing ran MUCH quieter (as quiet as an Atlas at 9V) without the stock decoder. I will be replacing the stock decoder very soon with a TCS DCC decoder.