Athearn Super powered PA/PB-1 vs. regular powered

[Anonymous]

In my current collection two of my Athearn engines, a PRR PA-1and PB-1 both powered, I believe to be of the super powered (or super geared I've seen both names) variety mainly because they move, much faster than any other engines I have and can haul alot more. i recently purchased off ebay another athearn PRR PA-1 with a different road number only to find that it wasn't as fast as my other engines. So i took the covers off to inspect them and I noticed that the flywheels and motor on my original engines (the supposed super powered ones) was a silver color and that the unit I bought off of ebay had brass (gold colored) flywheels and a gold colored motor. I was wondering if the silver colored flywheels and engine is indicative of the super powered athearn engines. and another question i had is would i be able to take a motor from a super powered F7 and use it on my PA-1's by retaining the original trucks on the PA and just hooking up the driveshafts? Thanks.

[cwclark]

good question but I don't know the answer..i just purchased two A unit PA-1's and a PA-1 B unit but they are proto's...they aren't out of the box yet and will start the SP daylight paint scheme soon as i get a chance...Chuck

[Anonymous]

If the grey/silver colored flywheels are combined with the fact you have metal side frames you are using the first run of Athearn Pa's. Usually the color othe motor can be a give-a-way but not necessarily. Athearn went to the plastic side frames and also went to the brass fly wheels in their later runs. I believe only the F units had "super power" on the box, but don't quote me on that.

[Anonymous]

"Super Power" was indeed applied to the F units - this was the type with a large diecast ballast weight over the motor (which runs superbly and can haul anything as a result). Not heard of a Super Power PA though I've sort of built one - my lone PA has about its own weight in lead ballast added inside the shell and can pull pretty much anything!

[Virginian]

These sound like routine early Athearn PA & PB engines. They can be regeared to a more prototypical speed range, which will give you a smoother power range, and with some added weight, more tractive effort. "Super geared" locos will run slower, not faster, than as manufactured units. This is the first time I have heard the super power term, except of course as applied by Lima. I hate to be the one to break the bad news, but for 35 years we as modelers have been trying to get manufacturers to slow the models down, not speed them up.

[ericsp]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Railroading_Brit

"Super Power" was indeed applied to the F units - this was the type with a large diecast ballast weight over the motor (which runs superbly and can haul anything as a result). Not heard of a Super Power PA though I've sort of built one - my lone PA has about its own weight in lead ballast added inside the shell and can pull pretty much anything!

The one Athearn F7A I have seen that was not "Super Powered" did not have flywheels. Presumably this was the original way Athearn made the motor and drive train, then upgraded but left the original option for the F7s for many years, it seems like they were only recently discontinued.

[METRO]

As I remember, the "Super Powered" Athearn F7s had large metal weights that were specially designed to fit over the motor, this made the unit a lot heavier and in turn gave better performance. I also believe, although I too and not 100% on it, that the F7 was the only unit with "Super Power" status.

The Athearn RTR line F7s were the same as the late-model Athearn Super Powers. I doubt that other models could be given the extra weight as hood units really didn't have much room to put it (although the GP38-2 did have some weight in the dynamic brake area.)

I think the other posters are right that what you have is an early-model Athearn (with the gray motor and flywheels) and a late-model (with brass.) Looking at my Athearn PA-1, there does not seem to be slot for a large weight the way there is on the F7 and mine did not come with one.

I've reciently put my Athearn PA-1 onto my reserve track, as I purchased a Life-Like P2K PA-1 to replace it, they pull great and have a much smoother acceleration as well as having a proper front pilot and body mounted couplers. I've also been happily very impressed with the Stewart/Kato F7 that I bought to test out against my super powered Athearns. It's really night and day between them, and after I get some cash saved up I'm going to replace all of my Athearn F7s with the Stewart/Katos.

~METRO