Ok, I know about the Athearn rubber band drive, but I have never seen one assembled. I have a bunch of the trucks with the large axle for the rubber bands. My question is related to how the rubber band goes around them. Does it just loop down and go over the bottom of both axles, or is there supposed to be one rubber band per axle? If two bands how does one get them over the axle without disassembling the truck?
This old drive system had solid driveshafts held in bearing posts. The rubber bands ran over the driveshaft and down around the large axles. Each axle had a rubber band on it.
You have to disassemble the truck and disconnect the drive shaft from the motor to install new rubber bands. I don't remember the procedure, but I do remember that it wasn't difficult.
I still have my old rubber-band powered loco stored away. It was my first HO scale loco and I ran the heck out of it. The rubber bands are long gone now. I had a paper route as a kid and used small rubber bands to roll up the papers. Those rubber bands fit the locomotive perfectly! I had thousands of those rubber bands! Wish I could remember what size they were, but that was almost 50 years ago!
Good luck fitting new bands on the axles. It isn't hard to do, just time-consuming.
Darrell, quiet...for now
Probably looks like something similar to this, http://hoseeker.org/assemblyexplosionAthearn/Assembly%20Explosion%20Athearn%20%20Hustler%201991.jpg , except with two rubber bands per truck.
I had an old Athearn RDC with rubber band drive. The pully shafts were longer and I think each had a steady bearing at the end to keep it supported. I suspect the F7 is similar.
Here's a Hi-Fi GP-9 instruction sheet with a good view of the band arrangement.
There are hair bands made by Goody you can find at any Wal-Mart that are more like a stretchy vinyl, and don't rot like traditional rubber bands. I've had some on an old Budd car for a long time without any deterioration.
Nelson
Ex-Southern 385 Being Hoisted
SteamFreak Here's a Hi-Fi GP-9 instruction sheet with a good view of the band arrangement.There are hair bands made by Goody you can find at any Wal-Mart that are more like a stretchy vinyl, and don't rot like traditional rubber bands. I've had some on an old Budd car for a long time without any deterioration.
One thing that is hinted at in the instruction sheet but not mentioned, is that all of the rubber bands must go around the drive shafts in the same direction; coming up from the back of the rear axle to the right-hand side of the drive shaft and down to the front of the axle. At least, get them all the same. Otherwise, your axles will be turning in different directions, and your loco won't move very well. Been there, done that.
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Gary M. Collins gmcrailgNOSPAM@gmail.com
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"Common Sense, Ain't!" -- G. M. Collins
http://fhn.site90.net
gmcrailOne thing that is hinted at in the instruction sheet but not mentioned, is that all of the rubber bands must go around the drive shafts in the same direction; coming up from the back of the rear axle to the right-hand side of the drive shaft and down to the front of the axle. At least, get them all the same. Otherwise, your axles will be turning in different directions, and your loco won't move very well. Been there, done that.
Having both trucks turning opposite directions is a good way to find out if one end is more heavily weighted...
Athearn still lists the rubberbands as available. Part number 90101.
I had a couple GP7's and a RDC as well as a pair of Hustlers with the Hi-F drive. They ran like a bat out of hell. The bands at times stuck to the drive line making for some interesting happenings.
I recently got an old Athearn Hustler from a friend and I am totaly rebuilding the drive from rubberbands to gears. I found out that the Athearn 4 truck gear sets will fit into the Hustler with no problems. So out with the rubberbands and in with a new NWSL small can motor, gears from Athearn, a Digitrax Decoder and Leds for the headlights and a yellow becon. Was thinking about putting a sound decoder in to it later like West Port Terminal did for his small switcher that he did. Just trying to find an engine sound that would fit an Hustler type engine. Any Ideas? Kevin
maxmanProbably looks like something similar to this, http://hoseeker.org/assemblyexplosionAthearn/Assembly%20Explosion%20Athearn%20%20Hustler%201991.jpg , except with two rubber bands per truck.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
Thanks for the replies. I know what I am doing now.
Throw it away (alright, convert it to a dummy) and forget about it!
Mark
markpierceThrow it away (alright, convert it to a dummy) and forget about it!
As should be evident from the drawings taken from that wonderful HO Seeker website, the truck has to be partly disassembled to get the rubber band in place. And that was always an invite to the young modeler to get the wheels reversed and other havoc.
What is or was surprising about the old Hi-F rubber band drive is that the locomotives actually pulled pretty well. But there was definitely a point above which adding more weight was counterproductive; I bought a GP7/9 where the guy had added all sorts of lead weight to the frame and the thing would simply not run at all, I mean zero. The rubber bands would slip, well before the motor could become overheated.
Two real negatives to rubber band drive are the sound -- a sort of insane grandfther clock ticking sound where the shell acted as amplfier -- and the speeds, particularly of the Hustler. When I would double head my Athearn rubber band F7 with my PennLine geared F7 it would moderate the speed and added considerably to the pulling power. So assuming you can live with the funny sound, mating the rubber band drive engine with a geared engine should address the excess speed issue. And you'll be running a piece of model railroad history -- for better or worse.
Dave Nelson
ANother benefit - back when Athearn offered the choice of the rubber band "Hi Fi" drive or gears - the Hi Fi locos had 8 wheel pickup, the geared ones, only 4 - 2 wheels on each truck. So for best operation over dirty track and insualted frog turnouts, the rubber band drive was the way to go.
Best ones yet were the RDCs, at full throttle a sudden stop would cause about a 2 foot lurch as the rubber bands stretched and then pulled back. Instant death for any HO scale apssengers due to excessive G forces. Fun stuff in the midst of mundane scale speed operations.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
If you want to make your Budd cars or F-units crawl, try this motor.
DUAL SHAFT DC MOTOR
It's a 24 volt motor, so it really slows it down. Full speed can't be more than 60smph.
Hi!
These Athern F & GPs were my first HO locos back in 1961! For the money, they were terrific. They were OK for pulling trains but slow speeds were not their forte. But, if its drag racing locos you were after, man they could fly!!!
As I recall, the bands had one half twist on them, and you had to make sure they were all twisted the same way to assure each wheelset was going in the same direction. If you need new bands, a good office supply store should have rubber bands of the same or close to the same size.
Enjoy,
Mobilman44
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
This evilbay lot has some parts for Band drive, if you need any.
One thing that could reduce the speed and add to the power, if you could find one, would be the old Pittman conversion unit for the Hi-F drive. Shortly after the rubber rand drives came on the market, Pittman put out a conversion unit (for the 4-axle locomotives) with a geared-down driveshaft, which passed through the motor, and was about 1/8" in diameter, so it didn't use the shaft support from the original drive (you just snapped that off the frame). The gearing more than compensated for the increased driveshaft diameter. The unit reduced the breakneck top speed to something more realistic, and improved the pulling power.
I had one of these in an F-7 back in 1961, and as I remember, it was not any noisier than the stock drive, which was remarkably quiet for the time.
Another thing that can improve the running qualities of the Hi-F drive is to run two powered units together. The start and running is much smoother, because the two units compensate for each other by smoothing out the surges caused by the flexing of the rubber bands. And the pulling power is vastly improved!
gmcrail ....old Pittman conversion unit for the Hi-F drive...
....old Pittman conversion unit for the Hi-F drive...
Taking a couple of rubber bands off an RDC makes it start like the real thing and it sounds good just sitting there humming. Another source of rubber bands is orthodontests or kids with braces. My kid always made sure I got some after every visit. With what the orthodontest charged he should have sent me an engine every week.
Texas ZepherConsider it like I am the curator of a museum and want all the exhibits to be in the best possible condition.
Although I did turn my old rubber-band drive engines into dummies, or "honorary engines" as I prefer to call them, I admire your attitude.
I gave them a chance, though. I cleaned them up, replaced the bands and even put in decoders. But, they just didn't run well enough to justify further work. I looked at replacing the motors and wheels (for better electrical pickup) but then I found I could get brand new Protos in the same road name for less money.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
The budd cars can be improved by removing one set of rubber bands and placing a flywheel on that side of the motor and also adding weight improver electrical contact and traction
TerryinTexas
See my Web Site Here
http://conewriversubdivision.yolasite.com/
I still run my F-7's for nostalgia reasons at times. The versions I have are from around 1963 and they still run strong. I have bought plenty of spare parts at shows very cheaply but have not needed to replace anything.
One thought: The type I have has a round hole through the frame that the shafts from the motor goes through (versus a slot) and over time the hole tends to wear oblong from the tension of the rubber bands and lack of adequate bearing surface not to mention the saft gets grooved. I found that redrilling the hole and fitting a piece of copper tubing in it to act as a bearing sleeve and realigns the shafts back to a parallel position to the frame.
NYC-Big 4 One thought: The type I have has a round hole through the frame that the shafts from the motor goes through (versus a slot) and over time the hole tends to wear oblong from the tension of the rubber bands and lack of adequate bearing surface not to mention the saft gets grooved. I found that redrilling the hole and fitting a piece of copper tubing in it to act as a bearing sleeve and realigns the shafts back to a parallel position to the frame.
I keep a small amount of Labelle teflon grease on the shaft and bearing surface to keep wear to a minimum. The drastic reduction in RPM's of the motor I installed helps cut down on wear as well.
All rubber-band-driven locomotives should be deposited here, thank you.
The "grave site" is located along Highway 395, several miles south of Mono Lake, CA.
Oh come on, how could you dump a Lionel HO section gang car there? When I was a kid I used to call it the "bumper car" because, well, basically that's what it did, bounce bacn and forth between a pair of bumpers. We had it halfway up our mountain. Initially had some problems, then my dad realized the track spikes were contacting the wire screen in the mountain and causing the short, so the track was glued down instead.
Then there is th advantage to the Athearn ones I mentioned - they are 8 wheel pickup, which beat the gear drive models of the saem vintage and still beats many brass diesels - why is it brass makers can;t figure out how to insulate the axles to allow for all-wheel pickups? Speakign of brass - there's always the brass locos with the spring belt drives! There are also modern power trucks with belt drives that are very effective. Also Bachmann has been doing belt drives in steamers so there's no motor and worm gear showing underneath the boiler.
As Moriarity (Gavin MacLeod) said to Oddball (Donald Sutherland) in 1944 France, "it's a piece of junk."
Always with the negative waves, Moriarity!
Ah, yes! Good ol' rubber band/Hi-Fi drive! What, tell me, would the hobby have been without it?
Shortly after Christmas, 1962 one of these came close to being my second HO-Scale locomotive -- the only loke I owned was a plastic bodied Varney F3 which, by the way, I still own -- and it likely would have been had not the hobby shop proprietor there in Moses Hole . . . . . er, ah . . . . . Lake -- old habits die hard -- told me about the rubber band drive and I, naturally, shyed away from such exotic technology. It was one of the GP9s and he pulled the shell off the frame and showed me. A couple of years later when I was on a tour of duty in Massachusetts a number of people in the club I joined had some of these and they ran pretty good if I thought just a little on the fast side.
Roll the clock forward to 1981; I am working in a hobby shop and Uncle Irv reintroduces his RDCs. One of the steady customers is eyeballing one in the display case and I nonchalantly comment that they run fine until the rubber bands stretch and then they hardly run at all. Rubber bands? Get real!!!!! So I pull the shell and show him!
You know, he bought one, I suppose, because he just had to have one!
. . . . . and by the way, an old timer told me that a nearly perfect match for these rubber bands can be found at Orthodontist supply houses.
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet