Lloyd2 wrote:Unfortunately, I don't know. I doubt it is a Genesis, but I do not know what the difference is between Blue Box (I don't even know what that means) and RTR (which I assume means ready to run.) I bought the locomotive in used condition. Now I know why it was so cheap! (heh) I sure appreciate your offer to help, but, as you can see, I can't be of much help to you. - Lloyd
Athearn "Blue Box" refers to the "shake the box" kits they make that you assemble yourself.
If you can post a pic, someone can tell you what you have.
Rotor
Jake: How often does the train go by? Elwood: So often you won't even notice ...
The "Blue Box" is what Athearn always made. The "RTR" and other series are basically upgraded versions. Much nicer, in my opinion, as far as detail.
BB (Blue Box) is not bad, and it's as reliable as a concrete block. But they lack a little asthetic appeal to some.
I could try to describe how to take apart a truck but there is an illustration of how to take apart an F7 truck at http://www.2guyzandsumtrains.com/Content/pid=24/page=2.html
The saddle over the worm is much the same on your loco, there is a clip holding the two sides of the truck together which when it is assembled is right under the flywheel and a long U shaped clip on your truck facing upwards. Once these three clips are off, it is easy to open.Take the worm out gently and rotate the gears on their spindles and axles and check for binding, both individually and while meshing with others rotating them with your fingers
To me, it would seem that your truck has either a gear which has possibly picked up a bit of ballast or dust and fluff stopping it rotating and causing the effect. The worm at the top COULD bind if it were minus a thrust washer and it burred the bearing... that is someone else has looked at it before! Older Athearn gear boxes are fairly well bomb proof and your granchildren should be handing your stuff to their grandkids with relatively little maintenance!
Hope this helps!
Regards
Trevor
Rotorranch wrote: The "Blue Box" is what Athearn always made. The "RTR" and other series are basically upgraded versions. Much nicer, in my opinion, as far as detail.BB (Blue Box) is not bad, and it's as reliable as a concrete block. But they lack a little asthetic appeal to some.Rotor
Rotor,Not all Athearn RTR locomotives are blue box..You have new tooling and of course the Rail Power Products shells with upgrades.Then you have the upgrading of the old BB shells such as the SD40-2,SW1000 and the SW1500 while the GP35 and SD45 are rail power shells and not the old wide body BB GP35/SD45..
What Lloyd is talking about is the old BB SDP40 long discontinued..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Lloyd2 wrote:Okay. Since there is no daylight through the radiator fans and there is a large lightbulb sitting in the middle of the cab, it looks like this is a blue box kit. I'm probably the only one in the world who didn't know these things, but it is nice to have my knowledge level pushed up a notch. Thank you, Matt! (I've been out of model railroading for about 30 years, so that might account for some of my ignorance.) It seems strange to me that Athearn would have a different mold (or whatever it is called) for RTR and kit locomotives. I wonder what their motive was. But that's a question for another time. - Lloyd
BRAKIE wrote: Rotorranch wrote: The "Blue Box" is what Athearn always made. The "RTR" and other series are basically upgraded versions. Much nicer, in my opinion, as far as detail.BB (Blue Box) is not bad, and it's as reliable as a concrete block. But they lack a little asthetic appeal to some.Rotor Rotor,Not all Athearn RTR locomotives are blue box..You have new tooling and of course the Rail Power Products shells with upgrades.Then you have the upgrading of the old BB shells such as the SD40-2,SW1000 and the SW1500 while the GP35 and SD45 are rail power shells and not the old wide body BB GP35/SD45..What Lloyd is talking about is the old BB SDP40 long discontinued..
Brakie...I know that. I guess I should have added more info, but was trying to keep it clear and simple.
Rotor,You would be surprise how many modelers is confused with Athearn products especially the older BB locomotives like(say) the old fat bodied GP35 and the new GP35 using the former Rail Power shells.
When it comes to freight cars its even more confusing between the old BB RTR cars,the former RMC cars,the retooled cars and the new tool cars.
Most likely you got a Contact bushing thats frozen. I had this happen to me, BB Athreans SP SD-40T snoot nose this is providing its BB Athreans. Take off the clip on the bottom of the truck so you can take the wheel set out. Soak it with WD-40 or some lubricate and let it soak for a while. Take some niddle nose pliers and try to rotate the bushing. If that dosen't work you will need a new wheel set for it.
4x8 are fun too!!! RussellRail
This is a dis-assembly routine I wrote up for another modeler a couple of years ago. It's for an Athearn SD40-2 but since it's very similar to the SDP40 it should work for you.
First, remove the top contact strip. This is the metal strip on top of the motor that has it's ends under the contacts on the trucks. Second, locate the worm gear housings. these are located on the trucks where the drive shafts go in. The worm housing is a rounded piece of plastic on top of the truck. Using a straight blade screw driver, pry up on the side of the housing. It should pop free. Carefully remove the worm gear assembly and set it aside on a clean paper towel. The truck can now be lowered out of the frame. Set it aside. Repeat procedure for the other truck. To remove the motor, grasp the motor between thumb and forefinger and rock it to one side so that it pulls up one of the mounting pads. Lift the motor out. You have just stripped your locomotive to the frame. Next, disassembly of the wheel trucks. On the bottom of the truck is a plastic clip. Carefully slide a straight blade screw driver under the front edge and push gently to the side. It will pop up on one side. Repeat for the other end of the clip. Lift out the wheels and set them aside. On the top of the truck is a smaller clip. Remove it the same way you did the bottom one. Once the clips are off, you can separate the halves of the truck. carefully remove all gears and set aside. Repeat procedure for the other truck. Your SD40 is now disassembled
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jeffrey-wimberly wrote: This is a dis-assembly routine I wrote up for another modeler a couple of years ago. It's for an Athearn SD40-2 but since it's very similar to the SDP40 it should work for you.First, remove the top contact strip. This is the metal strip on top of the motor that has it's ends under the contacts on the trucks. Second, locate the worm gear housings. these are located on the trucks where the drive shafts go in. The worm housing is a rounded piece of plastic on top of the truck. Using a straight blade screw driver, pry up on the side of the housing. It should pop free. Carefully remove the worm gear assembly and set it aside on a clean paper towel. The truck can now be lowered out of the frame. Set it aside. Repeat procedure for the other truck. To remove the motor, grasp the motor between thumb and forefinger and rock it to one side so that it pulls up one of the mounting pads. Lift the motor out. You have just stripped your locomotive to the frame. Next, disassembly of the wheel trucks. On the bottom of the truck is a plastic clip. Carefully slide a straight blade screw driver under the front edge and push gently to the side. It will pop up on one side. Repeat for the other end of the clip. Lift out the wheels and set them aside. On the top of the truck is a smaller clip. Remove it the same way you did the bottom one. Once the clips are off, you can separate the halves of the truck. carefully remove all gears and set aside. Repeat procedure for the other truck. Your SD40 is now disassembled
Jeff..great write up!
Add pics to that, and you got a regular How-To article there.
NS AS-416 wrote: Lloyd2 wrote:Okay. Since there is no daylight through the radiator fans and there is a large lightbulb sitting in the middle of the cab, it looks like this is a blue box kit. I'm probably the only one in the world who didn't know these things, but it is nice to have my knowledge level pushed up a notch. Thank you, Matt! (I've been out of model railroading for about 30 years, so that might account for some of my ignorance.) It seems strange to me that Athearn would have a different mold (or whatever it is called) for RTR and kit locomotives. I wonder what their motive was. But that's a question for another time. - LloydGlad to help with identifying the loco. I'll send you the scan within the next couple days ( by Thursday at the latest since I have to make a trip to the library at school to 'borrow' their scanner ) so you can get your loco up and running again. Since your particular loco is older than I am I'll scan in the closest loco I can find size-wise to make finding part numbers easier - I highly doubt that they made any changes (other than minor tweaks involving materials) to their drivetrain in the Blue Box kits over the years.Matt
Save yourself a trip to the library, they're available on line. The website http://www.hoseeker.org/ has a collection of parts breakdowns and assembly instructions for a lot of manufacturer's products. I have it in my favorites on my web browser. The one you need:
http://www.hoseeker.org/assemblyexplosionAthearn/athearnsdp40diagram1966.jpg
TomDiehl wrote: NS AS-416 wrote: Lloyd2 wrote:Okay. Since there is no daylight through the radiator fans and there is a large lightbulb sitting in the middle of the cab, it looks like this is a blue box kit. I'm probably the only one in the world who didn't know these things, but it is nice to have my knowledge level pushed up a notch. Thank you, Matt! (I've been out of model railroading for about 30 years, so that might account for some of my ignorance.) It seems strange to me that Athearn would have a different mold (or whatever it is called) for RTR and kit locomotives. I wonder what their motive was. But that's a question for another time. - LloydGlad to help with identifying the loco. I'll send you the scan within the next couple days ( by Thursday at the latest since I have to make a trip to the library at school to 'borrow' their scanner ) so you can get your loco up and running again. Since your particular loco is older than I am I'll scan in the closest loco I can find size-wise to make finding part numbers easier - I highly doubt that they made any changes (other than minor tweaks involving materials) to their drivetrain in the Blue Box kits over the years.MattSave yourself a trip to the library, they're available on line. The website http://www.hoseeker.org/ has a collection of parts breakdowns and assembly instructions for a lot of manufacturer's products. I have it in my favorites on my web browser. The one you need:http://www.hoseeker.org/assemblyexplosionAthearn/athearnsdp40diagram1966.jpg
Didn't know about the site, do now.
@Lloyd2: do you still want the PDF I made or does the above link do it?
Thank you, Tom. Looks like I will not need the PDF. I appreciate your help, though.
Sorry for being so slow in corresponding, but I've been out of town. I brought my power truck to a hobby shop owner, and he suggested that the plastic on the axles/gears had begun to deteriorate. He took off the bottom clip and, while holding the wheels stationary, showed me how the gear on an axle moved. He said that Walthers had had a similar problem with some Life Like diesels when they took over the company, and that he had replaced lots of gear/axle/wheel assemblies for customers in their Life Like diesels. He said that the gears slipped and eventually jammed. In his opinion, the only solution was to replace the gear wheel sets.
I still have not taken apart the power truck. There is apparently a clip on the top of the truck (holding the sides of the truck together over the gear train) as well as on the bottom, but I hesitate to pry off the top clip because I don't want to do any damage. I'm going to see if I can find any replacement wheel assemblies or even a replacement truck (if it isn't too expensive.) Too bad this baby is about 40 years old. I doubt Athearn has any replacement parts for it.
Thank you all for your help and encouragement. If there is any interest, I'll let you know the results of my search. But I'm still open to any ideas anyone has. Thanks again! - Lloyd
Front power truck is 40024 (@9.75 or less)
Rear power truck is 40025 (@9.75 or less)
They can still be found or ordered from Horizon directly. Truck is same for sd45, sd9, f45, fp45, etc