What are Pittman motors?

[dragenrider]

I saw this on ebay and was wondering what they were compared to the original Athearn motors. Was this an upgrade of sorts?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5960860419&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

[cacole]

Pittman motors are the older open frame replacements that were more powerful than original motors used by Athearn, so these locomotives should have more pulling power than a stock Athearn.

[jrbernier]

They look like they have Hobbytown of Boston chassis. These were the 'high class' drives of the 50's thru 70's. They had Pittman motors and brass wheels. They were quite heavy and would 'pull the wallpaper of of the walls'. I think I have sold of all of my Hobbytown stuff, as my Atlas/Kato/P2K engines draw far less current, have all wheel electrical pickup, and n/s wheels. They run just as well or better than the old stuff!
In that auction, you are getting 2 old Athearn shells(too wide) and a pair of well built, but dated drives. Interesting stuff if you want a 'project' as long as the cost does not get too high. You can buy brand new P2K GP7/9's from several mail order firms for $40-50 each, and these are DCC ready!

Jim Bernier

[rrinker]

With the listed age of those units, the Pittman DC71 motor was a HUGE upgrade. If the current "tan can" Athearn motors are not so good, the older ones were even worse.
A Pittman motor just refers to the manufacturer. I believe Pittman as a company is long gone, but similar motors are made by others. By today's standards, Pittman motors are somewhat of a current hog (but not as bad as the old Athearn motors in those units), but they are MUCH better constructed than even the current Athearn motors. For an open-frame motor they are pretty decent.
There's a bigger problem with the Athearn GP's than the motor though - the hoods are too wide! It was done to fit the motor, and viewed alone it's not TOO obvious, but put it next to a modern unit with a scale-width hood, like a Proto2000, and it is VERY obvious. Also, Athearn liked to mis-label things - a first generation GP with dynamic brakes was called a GP-9 by Athearn, even though the detailing is correct for a GP-7. The non-dynamic versions they called a GP-7. They weren't alone in this, in those days.

--Randy

[jrbarney]

Now absorbed by Penn Engineering Motion Technologies:
http://www.pennmotion.com/
Pittman motors are still being made for industrial uses, but, I believe, not by Pittman for model railroading. In their day, they were the best open frame motors and Lindsay motors were the best encased motors. I believe Charles W. Pittman, Jr. made the model railroad series of motors strictly as a "work of love" because he was also a model railroader. I think he got out of the business because it just wasn't profitable for his company. Possibly the rights were sold to Bowser ?
Bob
NMRA Life 0543

[dragenrider]

Interesting information. Thanks for the making me a little smarter! [D)]

[Anonymous]

From what I understand, Pittman is still in business but stopped making the motors back in the 70's to concentrate on their government business. The only problem I could see with these is the fact that the motors are very old and may need to be remagnitized. IMHO I thing the Hobbytown Chassis is still the best chassis available and can be handed down to your grand children as is. Detail wise their trucks leave a lot to be desired. They are also so designed that they will fit inside a narrow hood even with the DC-71 motors. Bear Locomotive Co. nopw produces the Hobbytown Chassis and has can motors available for repowering.

Rick

[Don Gibson]

OLD customized wide-body Athearms with a BETTER motor?
They'll run, but the ATLAS.GP-7 endeavors and Proto 2000 GP-9's on EBay are far superior.

[ben10ben]

Pittman motors are alive and well in trains. All of todays high-end O gauge trains have Pittman can type motors.


While I can't comment on older ones, I do know that the newer ones have several advantages over a standard Mabuchi can motor. Among other things, they have ball bearings, a 7 or 9 pole armature(compared to 5), replaceable brushes, and some even have NIB core magnets. They typically run about 10-20 times the cost of a Mabuchi motor($20-30 compared to $1-3), but most consider them to be well worth the extra cost. They find their way into the high end scale steam engines from Lionel, MTH, 3rd Rail(Sunset), and others.