SteamFreak wrote:
"There are hair bands made by Goody you can find at any Wal-Mart that are more like a stretchy vinyl, and don't rot like traditional rubber bands. I've had some on an old Budd car for a long time without any deterioration."
I'm headed to Wal-Mart right now to look for the Goody stretchy vinyl bands for my Athearn Budd RDC and Athearn F3.
See if you can locate the clear ones. I've since swapped the purple bands for clear (which are a little more flexible), but the purple was dark enough that it didn't show through the RDC windows.
Nelson
Ex-Southern 385 Being Hoisted
markpierceAs Moriarity (Gavin MacLeod) said to Oddball (Donald Sutherland) in 1944 France, "it's a piece of junk."
I have a package of the clear Goody hair bands. Installed four of the medium size on the RDC and had to stretch them to get a reasonable tension. They seem to work so far. Now I have to clean and lube the squeaking bearings and re-connect a broken wire.
And then on to the F3.
Thank you, SteamFreak, for the tip.
Texas Zepher markpierceAs Moriarity (Gavin MacLeod) said to Oddball (Donald Sutherland) in 1944 France, "it's a piece of junk." Yeah, but I would love to have a fleet of those Tiger's right now, and a few Panzer IV's too.
See those really WERE pieces of junk - they weren't Tigers at all, but Soviet T-34's painted to look like Tigers. The Shermans were real - they were still in use by the Yugoslavian Army at the time!
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
I have three of the rubber band drives from the early 60's. The bands are fairly easy to install. These models still work well.
Hallmark of Irv Athean's design - simple, rugged, and reliable. Simple enough to maintain and be low cost, rugged enough to be suitable for younger modelers as well as experienced ones, and reliable enough to just keep running year after year, instead of breaking down within a couple of weeks and causing the prospective model rail to loose interest in the hobby.
Kevin,
I have been trying to find a way to put a gear drive in my Athearn Hustlers and the Ersnt set is no longer made, nor is the Accurate Lighting unit. Can you post or send me any photos of how you used the 4 wheel Athearn truck gear set? I would love to get these little critters to run better and slower. Thanks,
Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
This was a fun one to read. I have just recivied a rubber band drive Bud car. Looks to have been re motored and it hauls.
Cuda Ken
I hate Rust
Yes, fresh rubber bands and some new dilithium crystals, and those belt-drive Athearns would travel at about Warp 8. They are actually fast enough to launch themselves off the tracks on curves.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
rrinkerTexas ZepherYeah, but I would love to have a fleet of those Tiger's right now, and a few Panzer IV's too. See those really WERE pieces of junk - they weren't Tigers at all, but Soviet T-34's painted to look like Tigers. The Shermans were real - they were still in use by the Yugoslavian Army at the time!
Texas ZepherYeah, but I would love to have a fleet of those Tiger's right now, and a few Panzer IV's too.
I know this is an old subject but I had a neighbor give me some box of rr stuff and there are these two engines in the box They appear to be athearn but not sure any guesses
[View:http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/themes/trc/utility/:550:0]
That my friend is an Athearn Hi-F drive F7B. Low speed = warp 6. High speed = see low speed. As pulling locos they're virtually worthless and forget about running them on any track smaller than code 100. If you can get hold of a modern Athearn F7 chassis the body will fit on it with only minor modifications. I did it with a HI-F F7B Southern Pacific Black Widow. If you don't want it let me know. We may be able to work something out.
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
that's what I thought untill I opened it up I have a few of the old athearn ones some where in a box I cannot find info on this one anywhere
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Yep. That's definitely an Athearn Hi-F loco. Type 'Athearn Hi-F F7' into your Google search bar and you'll get a lot of hits.
Mike, that B unit has an aftermarket motor with reduction gearing to give it more realistic performance, but I don't know who made the kit.
That doesn't look like the original motor and drive mechanism. I'd guess this one was re-motored. Notice the gear arrangement. The originals had a direct coupling from the motor to the horizontal shaft, using a piece of rubber tubing to hold them together. The drive shaft looks a lot thicker than I remember, too. The gear arrangement would greatly reduce the speed of the engine, although the thicker drive shaft would increase it a bit.
The ones I remember were from the late 1950s. It may be that Athearn changed the design a bit in later years.
I believe it was Ernst that made the gear tower kit for the Hi-F locos. They're still out there here and there. Ebay is a good place to look.
MisterBeasley The ones I remember were from the late 1950s. It may be that Athearn changed the design a bit in later years.
As you look through this you'll see some things that are familiar. Hi-F drives were used from mid 1950s to the early 1960s. Found this on the Tyco forum.
The early F7A Hi-F had the truck frames insulated. There had to be a wire from each side to the motor for power. The shaft supports were held on to the chassis with the truck mounting screws.
This second Variation has a new style motor with redesigned trucks. The wiring is simplified to only one wire to the motor, using ground from the trucks to the chassis.
Third variation. Same as the second except the shafts had flex joints on the motor and the shaft could be lifted off the supports.
An early drive with flywheels added. The performance didn't improve much.
Drive with a Kemtron motor assembly. Note the gear box with much thicker shafts. It didn't need the shaft supports. It ran smooth with flat sided drive belts.
mikeGTW that's what I thought untill I opened it up I have a few of the old athearn ones some where in a box I cannot find info on this one anywhere [View:http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/themes/trc/utility/:550:0] URL=http[/URL]:550:0]
URL=http[/URL]:550:0]
To me, that looks like a product made by Pittman as a "drop in" replacement for the standard drive. Well, drop in after you cut off the shaft support towers and guarantee that you'll never go back to the standard drive (that's what slowed my purchase WAY down). The review in "Model Trains" mentioned a 4 to 1 gear reduction, but that the increased shaft diameter changed the overall correction compared to the standard drive in a 2 to 1 manner.
Back in the day, Athearn's F's and GP's cost around $6-$8. I imagine the Pittman replacement was that much or more--there went the train budget.
Glad to see there's some still around. Retrospectively, I wish I'd bought a couple.
Ed
I have all those that Jeffrey shows the pictures of so I think it must be the Kemtron upgrade if you want to call it that I got 2 a units and the b unit in the box all the same moters in them just had never seen this one in the last 50 yrs of being in this there were two nos tyco engines and about 20 old yellow box Athearn cars Some old atlas brass switches the kit ones you have to put together
That's a good haul for the cars. What are you going to do with the locos?
SteamFreak Mike, that B unit has an aftermarket motor with reduction gearing to give it more realistic performance, but I don't know who made the kit.
The reduction drive was made by Pittman. I had one back in about 1961. They actually did a decent job of taming the Hi-F units down to where they were useable. They hauled well and were not too much noisier than the original drive setup. You did have to add a bit of weight to the frame or the roof of the unit...
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Gary M. Collins gmcrailgNOSPAM@gmail.com
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"Common Sense, Ain't!" -- G. M. Collins
http://fhn.site90.net
There are re-gearing kits available from Earnst Gearing to convert the old rubber band drives,
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
modelmaker51 There are re-gearing kits available from Earnst Gearing to convert the old rubber band drives,
I'd sure like to see one.
what is the point of rubber band drives when you could have a regular drive shaft
It looks like the kit for the RDC is still available through Walthers, but the one for the Hustler has been discontinued. I don't know if Ernst is still in production.
7j43k modelmaker51: There are re-gearing kits available from Earnst Gearing to convert the old rubber band drives, I'd sure like to see one. Ed
modelmaker51: There are re-gearing kits available from Earnst Gearing to convert the old rubber band drives,
As I remember, gum bands on the Athearn drives, broke on a regular basis. Gum band replacements were much easier to find once you got your teeth braces.
Conemaugh Road & Traction circa 1956
Frisco1521 what is the point of rubber band drives when you could have a regular drive shaft
Back when they were making these, Athearn produced both gear-drive and belt-drive models of F7s and GP9s. I had both models of each engine. As I recall, the gear-drive engines cost more and were really noisy. I suspect that Athearn was really trying to produce models that teenagers on small allowances could afford.
Those gear-drive engines, by the way, have been retired and sit in boxes under my layout. They just don't run anymore, and the effort to rebuild them isn't worth it, considering how well today's models run and look. The belt-drives, however, were very easy to convert to dummy engines, and make excellent shells for adding a sound-only decoder.
Frisco1521what is the point of rubber band drives when you could have a regular drive shaft