I have several Athearn BB Diesels I got from an estate sale. A few of them seem to be dummys but have the drive wheels and holes where the motors used to be, like someone removed them. Anyone know where to get replacement motors, how much they cost and and the other little parts, like short drive shafts etc. for the motor?
Most Athearn 'dummy' locomotives used the same frame as the 'powered' ones. The trucks usually are different to make them roll easier. If these were powered ones at one time, they will have the lower gear cover. If they were powered at one time, you will need the upper worm asm, the drive shafts, flywheel and motor to start with.
That said, you can find spare parts from Athearn - But it will cost you more than a new engine by the time you are done! Unless you can get this junk for a $1 each, you need to move on. You can get complete running Athearn 'Blue Box' engines at Train Meets and even eBay for less than the cost of upgtrading this stuff.
Jim
Modeling BNSF and Milwaukee Road in SW Wisconsin
They probably have always been dummy locomotives -- the frame and trucks on Athearn BB diesels were no different between powered and dummy locomotives.
Athearn's parts department may have the items you need to turn them into powered versions, but you might be better off leaving them as is due to the cost of conversion as opposed to purchasing newer "RTR" models.
(In my opinion, the term "RTR" means "Ready to Rebuild" by soldering all the wire connections and replacing those horribly cheap Athearn light bulbs with LEDs.)
You can get them used on EBay for a reasonable price. Just make sure you get all the components, such as motor mounts, drive shafts that match the flywheel type (hex vs straight), worm gears and covers and geared trucks. As mentioned earlier, it gets kind of expensive. There is a supply house located in Maryland thet I use, Model Railroad Supply Depot, I think, that carries Athearn parts.
I've done several and it's fun for me, but you still get an Athearn Blue Box when you are done.
Len S
Edit: Here is the link; http://www.modelrailcraft.com/category_s/58.htm
If you're going to repower them, I'd go the extra step and take advantage of the several companies that offer high-quality replacement motors for Athearn diesels. Check out the Walthers website.
If you really want to power a BB dummy or remotor an old BB, it can be done with parts more or less readily available. The process is fairly straightforward and not that hard, but it's not particularly cheap. Unless you have an emotional attachment to the models (like I have with the ones I've upgraded), your money may be better spent just buying a newer RTR version.
Having said all that, here's some repowering info you may find useful:
* For adding power to a dummy, you'll need to get all the internal gears for the trucks, as well as the driveline and worm gear assembly. These are all available from Athearn directly, or you can get them from eBay or various hobby shops.
* There are two types of Athearn drivelines. The older style used a plastic keyed "spline" shaft that inserted into female "cups" on the motor flywheel and worm gear shaft. The newer style has a thinner shaft with a dogbone u-joint on one end that fits into a plastic cup on the worm gear shaft. The other end has a hexagonal shaped head that slips loosely into a hex-shaped hole in the motor flywheel. The newer style is also used in Athearn Genesis locomotives and has the same hex-head connection as Kato locomotives.
* A good source of replacement motors is actually Kato. Since they use the same driveline connection, the newer Athearn hex-shaft is an exact fit with the Kato motor. In many cases, the Kato motor is a simple drop-in replacement with no frame cutting required. You can get Kato motors directly from katousa.com. Also check out ulrichmodels.biz for more info on remotoring with Kato motors. You can order Kato motors from them as well.
* If remotoring, consider using an A-Line cradle weight to add weight to the chassis and provide a stable mounting point for the new motor. Ulrich and other dealers also sell the appropriate cradle weights.
Good luck!
Dan Stokes
My other car is a tunnel motor
cacole the frame and trucks on Athearn BB diesels were no different between powered and dummy locomotives
Yes, but the wheels are different. The few dummies I have came with non-insulated wheet sets.
What you have now is a not-terribly-well-detailed shell on a dummy frame. This is similar to what I had when I unboxed my trains from the 1950s and tried to run them. I looked at what I had, and then looked at what I could buy new and what it would take to upgrade the old models.
I ended up buying new engines. They were cheaper than buying the motors, wheels, couplers and lights I'd need to get the old ones running, and the shells were much nicer, too.
The old engines, though, were like old friends from my childhood. I gave them Soundbug sound-only decoders and now run them as dummies.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.