jfallon Athearn quality has been hit or miss ever since Horizon took over the company. John
Athearn quality has been hit or miss ever since Horizon took over the company.
John
Totally agree, including a reference to MRC sound equipped locos--I've got a Challenger with one of those.
My last few Athearns and the results.
1. GTEL--dim lights had to be fixed. Front truck fell off after 30 minutes of running. Very delicate to handle
2. MP15AC with sound---Had to send back since it would not go. Had to replace the speaker and add an enclosure. It works fine now
3. Two SD70M's--Bad trucks, bad boards.
4. A few Athearn GPs RTR new within last year, still in boxes--thinking I should check out.
I have had the best luck with Kato overall--from handrails to motor, never a problem and they take the track well. I just saw them at the WGH and asked them to do more in HO--we'll see.
Second would be probably Atlas. My first MTH has turned out to be pretty good. I plan on buying the Intermountain ES44AC as the reports have been good.
I will not buy another Athearn unit(they're not just $50 anymore, my GTEL was like $300) without trying out first.
Richard
The "Athearn" RS-3 is actually the MDC RS-3 untill Athearn/Horizon bought out MDC.
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
Athearn quality has been hit or miss ever since Horizon took over the company. The old blue box kits, made in California, were good as is and were very easy to tune up and make into a great locomotive. The RTR's are updated blue-box drives with new or improved body shells. They can be good, but they are made and assembled in China now, and quality seems to depend on which day it was made!
My only RTR is a CF7 which I plugged in a DH123 decoder. It runs sporadically, sometimes it runs fine, sometimes there is gear noise, sometimes it doesn't run at all. I also noticed that the lights don't always work either. I'm probably going to take out the circuit board and hard-wire the decoder like I do on the old BB Athearns.
Genesis is better quality overall, at a higher price of course. Just avoid sound equipped units with the MRC sound decoders unless you intend on changing it.
If everybody is thinking alike, then nobody is really thinking.
http://photobucket.com/tandarailroad/
I've never taken any of the newer Athearn locomotives apart, but I know the older ones used a brass strip that holds the brushes in the motor. The one on the bottom side of the motor also gets its electrical pickup through the frame. You must isolate this strip from the frame.
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
Which Digitrax decoder did you install into them? I had some Digitrax DH123s that caused so much motor hum and poor speed control that I took them out and used NCE or TCS decoders instead.
If your decoders are the DH123s, try a better quality Digitrax or other brand and see if they don't run better.
I have two RTR, they both run fine, my newest Conrail SD60 was as noisy as a blender at first but afters some running it got better. My other - a CSX Dash-9 was noisy to but the same day I got it- it took a tumble off my layout and went to a million pieces and when I put it back together it is an quiet as my Atlas trains. So something was loose that got corrected when I put it back together. As for the pickup issues, try cleaning the wheels, I have heard of dirty wheels being an issues with some of them.
I have a handful of Genesis units-an SD75 and a couple of MACs-and they run well, one has a Digitrax sound decoder and the other two Digitrax non-sound. The drives are not as quiet as Atlas or Proto in my experience (I have one or two of each of those brands).
Got a Dash 9 RTR for Christmas and slapped in another Digitrax decoder-this loco runs as well as the Genesis units but is not as detailed. I'm happy with all of them.
Jim
Visit look4trains.com
Ho crazy In the past i purchased three quick plug athearn locomotives, i installed digitrax decoders in all three units. Ive had nothing but problems with pickups and loud motor hum. They have become a pain in my side. So i guess what i want to know is are the genessis locomotives alot better than the plug and play units or should i just stay away from athearn?
In the past i purchased three quick plug athearn locomotives, i installed digitrax decoders in all three units. Ive had nothing but problems with pickups and loud motor hum. They have become a pain in my side. So i guess what i want to know is are the genessis locomotives alot better than the plug and play units or should i just stay away from athearn?
Here lays the trap many modelers fall into..
Many compare Athearn RTR with Atlas or Kato..That's like comparing a Cadillac to a Toyota..
I have several Athearn RTR and had problems with one only because in my wisdom I tighten the motor screws to tight-a prime example of "if it ain't broke then don't fix it".
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
I have several and they are all fine
I have several Athearn locomotives and they all run great. If your looking to model the modern era Athearn is your best bet for having modern loco's and rolling stock. MTH and Intermountain are starting to make some modern day motive power but I think Athearn still leads the pack. Your always going to have a few lemons in the batch and thats why I always test my purchases at the hobby store if possible. Ive purchased Athearn products that were missing small pieces that most likely fell off during shipping or packing and Athearn has never refused to send me replacement parts. Overall I really like Athearn.
I have 20 Athearn locomotives, and they all run great. One of them is 35 years old and it still runs good. I run DC, so I don't know about DCC. all of the proto 2000 locomotives I have, run like Cr_p! So it really depends on your preference.
aloco It's hit and miss. Some Athearn RTR locos run good and some don't. I have a bunch of Athearn RS-3s, and there are a few lemons in the batch. Two of them would just not run no matter what I did to them, so I converted them to dummy locos. Another one had bad gears, so I took some gears from an old Life-Like GP18 and put them in - now it runs like a top.
It's hit and miss. Some Athearn RTR locos run good and some don't. I have a bunch of Athearn RS-3s, and there are a few lemons in the batch. Two of them would just not run no matter what I did to them, so I converted them to dummy locos. Another one had bad gears, so I took some gears from an old Life-Like GP18 and put them in - now it runs like a top.
Same thing here. I bought a matching pair of RS-3's a couple of years ago. One ran fine, the other sucked. It made awful gear noise and jerked along. I added shims to the trucks and that helped a little. I have a couple other Athearn RTR that are so-so. The only real good Athearns that I own are a consist of Genesis F7 ABBA. They are real smooth.
Rich
Alton Junction
I assume you mean locos from the Ready to Roll line? I don't use DCC, so I can'r really speak to your DCC conversion issues, but overall, Athearn isa good brand. Understand they make a wide range of products, locos, rollingstock, sclae autos, etc. Not ever one of those products is likley to be perfect for your needs.
The Ready to Roll locos are "mid grade" in price and quality, but with a little tuning most can be very nice. The Genesis line is the high end, and in my experiance with their F7's, they are very good.
Since I don't model current day, a lot of their other loco models are not of interest to me and I have no first had experiance with them.
Others will have a different view, but that's my thoughts, Athearn is generally a good value. A great number of my freight and passenger cars are Athearn, and/but a great many of those have been kit bashed or super detailed in some way as well.
Sheldon