Athearn RS-3 RTR quick plug-hard wiring instead

[jondrd]

 OK, I had a successful decoder install in this engine; it started acting up and now I want to hard wire a decoder instead of using the original quick plug. I see the truck power pickups for one rail but I don't see the pickups for the other rail(too much black on black to see clearly). How does the other rail power get picked up?

Thanks,

       Jon

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

One of two ways. Either there's a wire that you're not seeing coming off a pickup or the loco picks up from the frame on that side. In the second configufarion the truck is grounded to the frame meaning you have a 'hot frame' loco.Get a good bright light so you can see everything. Otherwise you can trace the wires from the quick plug and see where they go.

[steve58]

Look VERY closely. On the RTR RS-3 that I have, one of the wires from each truck broke off easily. Just slight movement caused them to break free. Very poor soldering from the factory.

[RDG1519]

The other responders are right. The wires from the trucks collect from one side only, the frame collects from the other side. You do have 8 wheel pickup, provided you have electrical continuity.

My Reading and CNJ units are an electrical pick up nightmare. I love these Athearn units but somehow the folks painting them put a lot of paint over the electrical pickup points. The other problem is the wire from the trucks. I have resoldered them all. Some were cold solder joint. I have two cracked gears and maybe more. This is only on my decorated units. My undecs do not have this problem. The only ones running well are the ones I replaced the entire frame, motor, and trucks from my undecs to the factory painted ones. I do not know if you can disassemble and clean up the factory painted units. the cracked gears really surprised me.

I think Jeff Wimberly has said that he had to replace the entire power truck once, this said on a post a year ago. If I am mistaken please let me know.

I really like these ALCOs from Athearn but I am not happy with electrical pickup on my CNJ and Reading painted units.   Chris

[jondrd]

Jeff, Steve, Chris,

   Ah, some avenues to explore. I was wondering if maybe the frame was hot, but I thought mfrs had gotten away from that approach-so much for discounting the obvious. Yes, I looked at one of the solder joints on one truck and thought "that looks like one of mine, that can't be good". Will check wires for fragility. Before I had the problem which caused me to pursue avenue of hard wiring decoder it was running like a much more expensive model, I was impressed. Decoder I had put in did have BEMF so that may have helped a bit.

   Before I do the hard wiring even though the frame is hot is the motor isolated from same? You knew there had to be a follow up "oh, boy" question, right?

   Thanks guys,

           Jon 

 

[jeffrey-wimberly]

I think Jeff Wimberly has said that he had to replace the entire power truck once, this said on a post a year ago. If I am mistaken please let me know.

Right you are. That was on an AC4400. Both trucks were messed up. The front truck was so bad I had to replace it altogether, also the soldering was VERY sloppy. I had to redo all of the solder joints. The big surprise was the light/DCC board. It smoked inside of an hour. I like Athearn, most of my locos were made by them, b ut I won't be buying many of the rtr units.

[rrinker]

 I'll have to keep all this in mind since I had every intention of purchasing a bunch of the Reading units. I think I am at least partially responsible for getting them made - last train show I was at was the National when the NMRA Convention was in Philly, and the Athearn rep asked me what I woudlliek to see while I was lookign over the dispaly - I flat out told him, do the RS-3's in Reading, as-delivered, since they were the most numerous first gen diesel they had - I also told them to do it right, not like the P2k Geeps where they for some inexplicable reason did the step edges in yellow but did not do the vertical handrails in yellow Would never have been that combo - and P2K did do other roads with contrasting vertical handrails. I haven't even seen one of the Athearn RS-3s in person as of yet so I have no idea how well they did... I did point the Athearn rep to the RCT&HS for a source of proper detailing info.

 

                                  --Randy

[RDG1519]

rrinker,

There is nothing wrong with the accuracy and fidelity of the Reading and CNJ Athearn ALCO's. They are beautiful and have the correct details, fuel tanks, exhaust stack, horn, etc. The problem is over painting of the truck assembly to the extent that they have bad electrical pick up. Not on undec, unpainted units. In fact I have had to replace the frame and trucks from my undec units to power the factory decorated units. Once this is done they also perform extremely well, and I am also an ATLAS RS-3 fan so when I say these Atearn RS-3's are excellent runners I am saying something. I have installed LokSound sound decoders in them.

My next plan is to completely disassemble the power trucks and clean them and see if I can make them work, otherwise I will purchase new power trucks from Athearn. Be on the look out for cracked gears as well. Thanks, Chris

P.S. I support every Athearn and ATLAS Reading and CNJ locomotive that has been produced by buying at least one road number.

[jondrd]

 Hi everyone,

     eMailed Athearn on Tuesday to be absolutely,perfectly sure I understood advice on hard wiring the RS3.

     Response today from Athearn: "Thank you for your inquiry. Please note that the other rail gets its power through the frame. The power exits the circuit board to the frame via the grounding wire. The motor is isolated from the frame."

     If the sun is out tomorrow I'll check through the black on black maze to get circuit twists and turns fully understood. Yes, I know the sun will be out tomorrow, I mean without any overcast.

Thanks again guys, these forums are pricless for the information available.

  Jon