Athearn shells.

[Anonymous]

Greetings,

Has Athearn changed there shells from the late 70's-early 80's to the present day?

Or do the old shells fit on the new chassis. EX SDP40 or SD45.

I know the older chassis had metal trucks from todays plastic.

Curious.

Mark in Texas

[nfmisso]

Mark;

Athearn has not changed thier older shells. The SDP40 and SD45 are the same as they always have been - too wide. The chassis casting also has not changed, the motor and trucks have changed.

[AntonioFP45]

Hi Mark,

Athearn has not changed it's old shells but if you're not too concerned about the "excess width" of the SDP 40 and SD45 hoods, their is one slight advantage. Should you decide to go the DCC/Sound route like so many modelers are now doing (growing in number!) you can take advantage of the additional room and mount one speaker inside the roof area instead of on the chassis. You would need to ream or drill out the plastic roof fans and install a "Cannon & Company" fan kit. This helps with the sound system response and helps the loco look more realistic. I'm currently preparing an several Athearn FP-45s in this manner. I'm also remotoring them with Proto Power West kits as the Mashima motors draw very "low" amps. Very helpful for DCC/sound.

[dharmon]

Mark,

There have been some variations in the shells over the years.

The 70's models all had metal trucks and pin / hole type mountings.

In the 80s starting with I believe the SD40-2s they made some changes, but not all shells were upgraded. Those made in the 80s and on had trucks with the plastic sideframes. The early SD40-2 shells were made without anti-climbers, the later ones came with them molded on. But both were pin type mountings.

In the late 90s/early 00's, they switched to the tab mountings that are seen on the SD40-2s, GP38-2s and GP40-2s. Those are really the only ones I can think of that were upgraded and also went into the RTR line, plus the AC4400s and such that came out around that time. The frames are still basically the same, except the tab mounts in the fuel tank are added and the pins removed. The rest of the BBs still have the pin mounts (FP45s, GP35s, SDP40s, UBoats, etc). Another twist is that the RPP line locos (CF7, GP60) and SD50s use a coupler type mount to hold the shell on.

The shells can still be worked to fit each other, but best results are obtained from using new shells with new frames.

So yes, there differences in shells. Some can still be interchanged without work. Some require modification. So when I look for shells, I look for ones that are compatible with the frame I have. The rule of thumb I go by is that if it's available in RTR and was formerly a BB, then there are probably more than one version of shell.