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Hello Brakie !!!...good to know there are still a few of us left from the good old "50's" of HO Model Railroading!!! Getting the Pittman motors up here in Canada was difficult, so I retained the Athearn motors, trued up the commutators [in a crude but effective way, and attacked the drive belt situation in a different way. I found the Athearn shafts would "bow down", beyond the bearing stanchions [this meant the outermost two axle drives], causing a bit of slippage on those 2 rubber bands...so I wound the outer portions of the driveshafts with copper wire, increasing the diameter by about 50%, and pretty much equalizing the tension on all 4 bands. <br />I found the Athearn rubber bands tended to slowly disintegrate rather than just break...went to #8 from a stationary store I think.I tried the heavier O-ring type bands you mention, but they would tend to hang up on those dearly departed Rail Line X2F uncoupling ramps we had back then.You are right on about the Hobbytown drives, they were state of the art back then. I kind of liked Varney's diesel drive, too. <br />Got any more "Memories of the HO 1950's" you'd like to thread???....regards/ Mike
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