General Discussion (Model Railroader)

 I've got one of the new athearn ready to roll SD-60s.... I need to put the decoder in the thing...but I cant get the shell off.... ?????????? wow... I'm scared I'm going to break it...LOL... I've got all the horns and hand rails off... but I can't find how the shell releases... I know you guys are laughing.. but does anybody know how the shell releases.. is there a trick? 

thanks

Have you removed the couplers?

 Yes.. I've removed the couplers.... It seems like the shell is glued in place?  could that be?

Skipper:

 Yes.. I've removed the couplers.... It seems like the shell is glued in place?  could that be?

Its not glued in place. I have an MP15AC with tabs. Check and make sure there arent 4 tabs underneath the trucks that need to be pushed in with a small screwdriver.

 check this out... big glob of glue on the side of the shell and it had the cab end of the shell glued down... gee whiz! .. I also found one of the parts that hold the worm gear in place unlocked... and a very poor solder job on the circuit board... ouch... had to re solder two of the wires back in place.. 

I'm a little surprised, most of the athearn stuff I've got has been in pretty good shape... but this one was not as ready to roll as one would hope.

B(

Still, Skipper, yuz done good.  Anyone who breaks (cough) into their own locos and fixes 'em is an intrepid soul.

-Crandell

RTR= Ready To Repair.

 man, what a day... it's all my fault I bought the SD-60 on Friday the 13th....  right?

 I don't have an Athearn RTR GP-60, but on their RTR GP-35 you just pop off the dynamic brake housing on the top of the shell to access the decoder socket.  There's no need at all to remove the entire shell.

modelmaker51:

RTR= Ready To Repair.

I Agree!!!!

I bought a Athearn RTR a couple of years ago and its been nothing but trouble. I won't buy another RTR from them. Hope your SD60 dosn't give you any more trouble.

Jamie

Last week my Hobby Shop received 4 Genesis locos I had on order; 2 SD70 in UP colors and 2 SD75 in ATSF colors. A side grille was off on the side of one ATSF unit so the owner tried to open it to replace the grille. The front coupler box was glued in place !  He had to grind it out and replace it with a Kadee 148 after replacing the grille. He then told me he once found a shell that had been glued on the frame !  Seems the kids who assemble these units have little or no idea of what they are doing...

Martin 

I work for a local T.V. station and I do a long shift on Sunday... and because our Sunday programs are mostly church and then NFL football... I have tons of time to just sit... so I take little projects with me and my tool box and work on things... I took the SD-60 with me today and stripped it down.. I mean all the way down.. I cleaned enough oil/grease out of the trucks to oil an entire fleet of Athearn Locos... I took the shell and cleaned up all the glue on the inside... trimmed and sanded the inside... I even reworked the hand rails and re painted them... the original paint job was a little sloppy... Got the Athearn's version of the Kadee couplers off and tossed them in the trash... replaced with Kadee couplers.... and weathered the beast so she looks like she's done a little work..... Just got home and put her on the layout.... runs sweet!!!!

But my wife was laughing... she picked up the box and said... I see you finally got it ready to roll......

But you know I kinda like these Athearn Loco's... you have to work on them a little... but they do have pretty good detail for the price you pay...

RailfanS:

I bought a Athearn RTR a couple of years ago and its been nothing but trouble. I won't buy another RTR from them. Hope your SD60 dosn't give you any more trouble.

Jamie

Good!  More RTR sweet detailed tunnel motors for me!  I can't get enough of them!  And they just keep getting better and better.

But seriously, you are dissing a whole line of loco's because of a single bad experience?  That could happen to any make, including KATO, Intermountain, Stewart, even Atlas.  Athearn does have a little higher incident of QAQC problems but darned if I'm going to go without all those nice RTR loco's coming out in the last couple years.

I recently bought a SD 70mac Norfolk Southern and I have added all the grab irons and details and will be looking to sell it on Ebay. Not a big fan of the loco plus I already have another one.

I would agree that you have to take RTR with a grain of salt. I guess I would be one of those newbies who doesn't have the patience to put locos together. I recently did purchase 8 walthers auto carrier kits and assembled all of those so now I'm confused.

Will

Whoever builds most of Athearn's RTR line is kind of sloppy at times. I got a RTR train set for Christmas once, and the coupler boxes on the F7 weren't even screwed on. The screws were there, but they just didn't turn them enough for the threads to hold!

The rest of my RTR stuff is great. I believe my Gas Turbine was made Sanda Kan (makers of Atlas products and a few others), based on the overall design and build, and I don't have a better runner in my entire collection.