Old Rubber band Drive Locomotives

[Anonymous]

I recently got a bunch of trains from my father and it included about 6 rubber band drive engines and like 4 varney steam engine. The Band drive ones all need new bands so I have those on order. The varney steam engines don't run on my track. Is there something I should know about steam engines? I have just started to run trains so I am a rookie. The other interesting things I noticed. On one of the band drive locos, its a Athern but its made in the USA. Could anyone give me some info on about how long ago some of these things might have been made? Thank you in advance.

Adam

[Sperandeo]

Hello Adam,

Athearn introduced its rubber-band drive, called the "Hi-F Drive," in the late 1950s, and continued making them through much of the 1960s. The best thing that can be said about them is that they were cheap. If you'd like to use the old body shells for sentimental reasons but improve their performance, they should fit on current Athearn geared drive chassis for the same types of locomotives, i.e., your dad's F7 body will fit on the current F7 drive.

The steam locomotives should work when placed on the track just like the diesels. If they don't, check to see that there's an electrical connection from the motor in the engine to the metal floor of the tender, and check to see that the insulated wheels are on the right side of the tender (looking toward the front of the engine). These old steam models were arranged to pick up current from the right-hand wheels of the engine and the left-hand wheels of the tender, but sometimes the tender trucks were replaced incorrectly or just swiveled around too far.

If all of the above are correct, put the engine on it's back in a foam cradle and attach clip leads from your power pack's track terminals to the frame of the engine and the floor of the tender. Apply power and see if the motor runs and the wheels turn. If they do, the pickup wheels and every other part of the current path between wheels and motor probably need a good cleaning.

Good luck,

Andy

[MisterBeasley]

I have several of those old band-drive Athearns. That's the good news.

At first, I could run them around the loop using DC, but the more I try to turn them into working engines, the worse I realize they are. The wheels are old brass, the power connections are not reliable and the motors are ancient 4-poles. I've put decoders into a couple of them. One will run around for a while, sometimes with a few pushes, but then it slows down and won't run anymore. I'm assuming the problem is overheating in the motor. I've cleaned and lubed these things, but I just can't make them run well. As for the other one? Well, I think the metal frame shorted against something, because that decoder (fortunately a cheap one) is now a 2-function lighting controller with no motor control.

The good news? Well, if you look around you can get a brand new engine to replace the old one for less than what it would cost to re-motor and re-wheel one of these old things. I'll probably keep the old ones on the workbench and tinker with them occasionally, but for day-to-day operations I'm going with new equipment.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all of your suggestions. Hey MisterBeasley, I work in bedford MA, where are the good hobby shops for HO scale trains?

Adam

[MisterBeasley]

I really like Maine Trains in Chelmsford. Just head up Route 4 north out of Bedford. After you pass the school, look for a small strip mall on the right. There's a liquor store and a hair salon and some other stuff I forget. Right in the middle is Maine Trains. His hours are kind of limited. Check www.mainetrains.com for the hours. Nice pictures of the in-store layout there, too. Gerry really knows the hobby, and he does custom work, too, both electronic and painting.

Hobby Emporium in Tyngsboro (south of the Pheasant Lane Mall) is pretty well-stocked, and they have some knowledgeable folks there, too. There are also shops in West Acton and Stoneham that I haven't gotten to yet.

[Piedsou]

How times have changed! ! !

I have in my hand the December 1956 issue of MR in which the Athearn rubberband drive F7 was featured in the Trade Topics (new products) column. Here are some quotes: "smooth running piece of power", "control qualities of the new drive system are particularly good in the medium speed range. At extremely low speed there is a slight tendency to quiver. We don't feel that this tendency is pronounced enough to be obnoxious. In fact, the units we tested ran more smoothly than most geared types and certainly more quietly", "one unit pulled a flat car loaded with 2 1/2 lbs. of lead up a curving 3 1/2 % grade, we are of the opinion that the loco is a tremendous bargain".

The unit retailed for $6.95. Plugging that figure into the calculator to see what goods and services would cost today , see( http://minneapolisfed.org/Research/data/us/calc/index.cfm ) we would expect to pay $49.72 cents for it. A bargain by today's standard? Not so much, when you can get Lifelike P2K Geeps for less than $40. Model Railroading is cheaper today than in the 50's, especially when you consider what you get for the buck and most importantly, what's available.

Dale Latham
Remembering the 'good ole days'

[BRAKIE]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Ahurrell

Thanks for all of your suggestions. Hey MisterBeasley, I work in bedford MA, where are the good hobby shops for HO scale trains?

Adam

Adam,IF you really want to go "old school" then add Hobbytown drives for the Athearn GP7.[;)]
Hobbytown is now part of Bear Locomotive Works.

[Darth Santa Fe]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Ahurrell

On one of the band drive locos, its a Athern but its made in the USA. Could anyone give me some info on about how long ago some of these things might have been made?

Most of Athearn's band-drive, or Hi-F engines were made in the mid' 50's to late 60's, but they did continue making two Hi-F engines until the mid' 90's.(the Hustler 4 wheel switcher and the RDC, which looks like a passenger car) One way to tell the age is by the motor. If the motor is tall and all silver than it is from the 50's to 60's. The dark gray motors were done from the 60's to the very early 80's. The gold motors were started in the very early 80's and are still being made.

QUOTE: its a Athern but its made in the USA

All the Athearn Standard and Ready-To-Roll engines are made in the USA. Only their highest quality stuff (the "Genesis" line) is done in China.

[7j43k]

I certainly wouldn't use the rubber band drive units for much of anything nowadays, but hearken back to yesteryear:

When I had mine, I certainly did notice the low speed Jello-wobble that is described in the MR review. BUT when they got up to road speed, mine were very smooth and very quiet. It was my opinion at the time that they would be great for trains that operate at a continuous speed of maybe a scale 50 mph. The only use I could come up with for the design was as a continuously running "background" train, say for a club open house. Unfortunately for the design, I wanted something that would also start and stop in a more pleasant manner, so I went off to worship at the Hobbytown altar.

Now, the only bad thing about Hobbytown was (still is??) that it only had 4-wheel pickup--at slow speeds, mine would stall. Since I wasn't planning on doing the continuous-speed running mentioned above, I scrapped out my rubber band drives to use as pick-up dummies (They had/have all wheel pickup.). I ended up with a permanently coupled AB set with twelve-wheel pickup that ran beautifully.

Yes, they had brass wheels--both the Hobbytown and the Athearn; but I never had any problems with stalling.

Ed

[emdgp92]

I have one of the newer Athearn RDCs with the rubberband (or *gumband* if you're from Pittsburgh, hehe) drive. It's very quiet, and smooth, but not as smooth as one of Athearn's current (not Genesis) F units.

[Anonymous]

Ahurrell
Where do you live
I live in Arlington

[Anonymous]

Since you already have ordered parts, go ahead and see if you can get some of them running. They just might be good enough to start out with. I had several back in my youth. At the very least, you can take off the rubber bands and use them as dummy units.

[rrinker]

The other 'good news' is that, if of similar vintage, the "hi-fi" drive locos generally had 8-wheel pickup, whereas the gear drive AThearns of the same vintage only picked up with 4 wheels, 2 on the front truck and 2 on the rear. Eventually they figured out the mechanism as used today that gives gear drive and all-wheel pickup.

--Randy

[dknelson]

My rubber band F7 always sounded funny, rather hollow, like a New Years Eve noisemaker, and it would seem to hesitate and then race ahead. But it pulled surprisingly well. What's more while the list price was inexpensive, from America's Hobby Center (AHC) back in the mid 1960s, you could get one brand new for $3.98. Even then that was laughable.
Where mine really came into its own was when double headed with my Penn Line F7. I could pull anything. The geared drive of the Penn Line smoothed out the jerkiness of the Athearn rubber band drive.
I used to take my rubber band Hustler and send it sailing off the edge of the layout into a carefully placed laundry basket. Hey I was 12!
You have to be an old timer to remember when Athearn tried to release a HiF drive steam locomotive, a Boston & Maine 4-6-2 that I think they quickly withdrew until they could create a geared version.
Also some other makes of the time used steel springs in lieu of rubber bands.
I also remember that my sister had braces and some of the rubber bands she had for them were perfect for Hi-F drive.

Mister Beasley I salute you -- surely you have to be the only person to put DCC decoders into an Athearn Hi-F drive engine! That's the American spirit -- kin to the garage tinkerer that creates the first airplane or typewriter.
Dave Nelson

[BRVRR]

I have one of the gold motored RDCs. I got it for about 15-dollars at a LHS. Thought it was gear driven. Once it is up to speed it is alright. Starting and stopping is a little erratic though. I think I'll give it to my grandson for his home DC layout.

[Anonymous]

I have a pair of Athearn belt drive F7s that I put low RPM can motors in and used Neoprene bands I found at Wal-Mart. These 2 units MUed together pull great and run very smoothly at realistic speeds.

[MisterBeasley]

I should note that I also have a number of gear-drive locos from the same era. They are mostly Athearns, and they have "the growl" more typical of Athearn engines. Unfortunately, they don't work very well anymore, either.

It seems odd to me that I can buy a whole new locomotive for less money than it would cost to replace the motor and a few other parts, but that's the economic reality. A few years back, I read something warning about being "sentimental" about stock holdings in your investment portfolio. I guess maybe the same goes for old locomotives. Well, I guess you can drag them around as dummies if you want. For my money, the UPS web site reports my 2 replacements are "on track" for delivery today.