I just bought a Genesis USRA 2-8-2 UP # 2537 at a meet. How can I find out how old this engine is? It was purchased from Tony's Trains and has a # G9008. It is DCC ready but no decoder.
Harold
If the unit is DCC ready then it is recent enough that the age makes no diference at all. Were this not sew then an ammeter would tell you the current draw and that would tell you if it was older than say 20 years or so.
I have locomotives that are 35 years old and still draw very low current draws, indeed they were such smooth operators that I could not uncoupe the trains at the uncoupling ramp, especially if the locomotive will continue to operate in the same direction..
The LION "invented" the 'cutting key', a key well known to operators of transit equipment, but unknows to the fright operators. This key electrically opens the special transit type couplers. Thes couplers not only make a mechanical connection between the cars, but also have the brake lines and electrical portions built into them.
So anyway, the 'cutting key' of the lion is nothing more that a reversing switch built into a momentary contact button. Just tap that and the train uncupples purrfectly, and the observers cannot even notice the little buck that disengages the couplers.
Of course NOTHING can uncoupple the DRAW BARS on the subway trains of the LION.
ROAR
The Route of the Broadway Lion The Largest Subway Layout in North Dakota.
Here there be cats. LIONS with CAMERAS
wolfman hal How can I find out how old this engine is? It was purchased from Tony's Trains and has a # G9008. It is DCC ready but no decoder.
Call Athearn, have all numbers ready. They are very helpfull.
Mike.
My You Tube
I found a post in this forum that was a "review" and said they were no longer produced(for Athearn by Samhongsa), but still widely available in 2009, when the review was written.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/161306.aspx
There are other threads on this loco and there are issue with it's wiring, and gear breakage.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
wolfman halI just bought a Genesis USRA 2-8-2 UP # 2537 at a meet. How can I find out how old this engine is?....
I bought two of those locomotives the year they were first released. The outside of the original boxes show the year as 1999.I later bought two more of these locos, used, likely made in the same year, but they came without boxes. They were purchased either in 1999 or 2000.Later, I bought another two, both in their original boxes, and either unused or used very little. The first four are in-service, the other two awaiting conversions as specific CNR prototypes. The sides of their boxes show the year 2000.
While these are very smooth-running locomotives (the mechanism was apparently from Samhongsa, noted for brass locomotives), they were notoriously poor pullers. My layout has a lot of curves and a lot of grades, mostly occurring in the same locations, so poor pullers aren't much use.A little investigation determined that the locos, as offered, are not properly balanced, but rather are back-heavy. To compensate, an overly strong spring was used on the trailing truck, in an effort to transfer some of that weight forward.
For a model steam locomotive to maximise its pulling power, the total weight of the locomotive should be balanced at the mid-point of the drivers' wheelbase, and on these locos, despite the spring, that was not the case.To that end, I set about trying to correct the situation, and you can read about my efforts HERE.
In addition to balancing the weight, I was also able to add more weight while still maintaining the balance. Some owners reported trouble with the gears, although none of the four which I have in service have experienced any such problems, despite fairly severe service (100 oz. trailing train weights, on 2.8% grades - that grade is mostly curves, and is about 45' in length). Locos are doubleheaded, with DC operation.If your loco has gear issues (I think it was a case of one of the two gears splitting, but I'm not positive) NWSL has replacement gears available.
Here's one of mine in service, very little-changed from its original appearance, but much improved performance-wise...
Wayne
It is DCC ready
If it has those very words, "Dcc ready" on the accompanyinig literature or packaging, it would have been brought to market after 2002/3. That particular term was not in wide use because DCC, as a way of operating, was still relatively new and had only generated perhaps 20% of all sales at that time. Bachmann, Genesis, and Atlas, as examples, were bringing DCC-ready locos to market because of demand and in order to bolster the appeal of their product to the small, but growing, number of modelers who were beginning to make the leap to DCC from DC ops. By then, Trix, BLI, MTH, Rivarossi, and the three previously mentioned were advertizing in our host's magazine that they were offering DCC with sound and were about to introduce new products with DCC and sound. Obviously, there was an inviting public if they were going to bring container loads of DCC locomotives across from China, Singapore, Korea, and Japan.
selectorIf it has those very words, "Dcc ready" on the accompanyinig literature or packaging, it would have been brought to market after 2002/3.
I bought several of the Genesis USRA 2-8-2s when first introduced. My records tell me I got it in December of 1999. One of the selling "features" and also their shortfall, IMHO, was the method of installing the decoder. Only the locomotive had power pickup. The DCC JST 9 pin plug was at the end of a pig-tail that extended under the coal load in the tender but there was no electrical connection TO the tender. If you wanted to plug in a decoder it was a simple matter of removing the dummy plug and sticking a decoder on to the end of the pigtail, then stuffing the whole thing back into the cavity under the coal bunker.
An easy solution but the downside was reduced wheel pickup.
Regards, Ed
selectorIf it has those very words, "Dcc ready" on the accompanyinig literature or packaging, it would have been brought to market after 2002/3....
After reading your post, I took a look at the instructions included with mine, and while they don't show "DCC ready" either on the box or in the instructions, the latter do note:
"DCC Installation
Your new Genesis USRA 2-8-2 locomotive has been designed for easy installation of DCC. DCC can be added by simply unplugging the small circuit board from the end of the wiring harness and plugging in a DCC board. For details, contact a DCC manufacturer."
The wiring harness referred to was the infamous "pigtail" stuffed into the tender, leading me, as a DC operator, to suppose it to be power leads from the tender to the motor.When I realised its true purpose, I removed them from my locos, not only re-wiring them to run without need of the tender, but also adding Bachmann axle wipers (from their recently-released 2-8-0) to the Athearn trucks, thus ensuring good electrical continuity.
For both of you, I joined the hobby in early 2005, and was very 'green'. BLI had already won the Loco of the Year award, I believe in 2004 or 2003, for its NYC Hudson with Quantum Sound. Rivarossi introduced its first DCC loco, the H-8 2-6-6-6 the next year, if I remember correctly.
It wasn't long after joining this forum that I began to read of efforts to convert DC locomotives to DCC. In late 2005 or early 2006 I began to notice complaints that the widely adopted description of "DCC-Ready" had a wide range of meaning, all the way from a notional shrug to 'you figure it out', and to the locomotives coming with a motor properly isolated from the frame in all respects. Even so, decoders were routinely fried, and discussion centered around the fact that the motor didn't need to be isolated so much as the brushes did...after all.
So, I may have been off by about a year, perhaps two, but I seem to recall that the term 'DCC-Ready' was a major source of irritation and wide interpretation only after I had begun to learn about the hobby. It has been a while, so maybe the hair-pulling was going on several years before I joined.
DCC appeared somewhere between when I had to dismantle my layout due to divorce and when I got back in the hobby 4 years ago because of my grandson.
I wondered if the OP, Harold, was really asking if he bought a loco that, at some point during it's production, had specific problems. From the brief research I did today, I don't know if this was only produced by Samhongsa or their were later versions.
BigDaddy DCC appeared somewhere between when I had to dismantle my layout due to divorce and when I got back in the hobby 4 years ago because of my grandson. I wondered if the OP, Harold, was really asking if he bought a loco that, at some point during it's production, had specific problems. From the brief research I did today, I don't know if this was only produced by Samhongsa or their were later versions.
They were only produced by Samhongsa. The 2-8-2 was released in 1999, no question.
The Athearn Genesis 2-8-2 and 4-6-2 were some of the very last products they produced before closing up shop.
The locos are known to have cracked gears, Samhongsa left Athearn holding the bag, and Athearn left customers mostly in the cold.
Despite Samhongsa closing, or because of it, Athearn seemed unable or unwilling to create a source of replacement parts - BUT:
Lots of these locos did NOT fail, and are still running fine - mine is.
And like Wayne I disassembled mine, and added weight and balanced the weight.
The loco was marketed DCC ready (that exact term may not have been used?) and has a plug ready for a decoder, equiped with a dummy plug.
All long gone on mine - rewired while it was appart.......
When I unpack some books, I will find the Walther Catalog on which it was the cover featured product, and we can see how the DCC ready aspect was worded.....
Sheldon
Harold just might have been curious, in which case, we might have ruined his day. But as you say, not all had problems.
Never ask questions, you don't want the answer to.
ATLANTIC CENTRALWhen I unpack some books, I will find the Walther Catalog on which it was the cover featured product, and we can see how the DCC ready aspect was worded.....
Genesis282 by Edmund, on Flickr
From November 1999 Advertisement.
Cheers, Ed
And there you have it, it says "DCC ready" right there in the text of the ad.
wolfman halHow can I find out how old this engine is?
Did anyone ask why there is a need to know how old the engine is since it has already been purchased?
(and not being a steam engine guy, why can't we cut off one of the driver axles and count the rings?)
maxman wolfman hal How can I find out how old this engine is? Did anyone ask why there is a need to know how old the engine is since it has already been purchased? (and not being a steam engine guy, why can't we cut off one of the driver axles and count the rings?)
wolfman hal How can I find out how old this engine is?
Natural human curiosity would be my guess.
You know how old you are, you know how old your car is, you know how old your house is,.............
I believe they made another run of those engines in the same yr. The 3 I have are higher stock numbers and different road numbers than shown in the ad. I got them in 2000 from a LHS going out of business near Me, for 50% off. Kept two gave one to a friend. I actually bought a lot of engines/steam/diesel from that LHS in two days.......could not beat the half off. Best buy I thought were the 4 Bachmann Spectrum 2-8-0's for half off...great detail/runners. I did not care what the roadname was.
I had run this one alot and still have not had any problems with it......I run DC.
This one I tested for running and never even put the detail on it or taken it out of the box in 8yrs.It's probably longer than that, now that I think about it. You'll notice, it has a different road number, than the one on the list.
Take Care!
Frank