Disassembly of the trucks is necessary to slip the rubber band over each wheel axle. Doubling up may assist transferring torque but your best bet is to clean all parts that come in contact with the rubberbands to prevent slippoage. While this drive was quiet and somewhat smooth, it lacked strength and durability. I substitute old Athearn-Globe drives that use all metal components with screwdriver assembly. In place of the ancient open frame motor, I substitute a precision can motor with flywheel setting on a section of 3/4" Plastruct channel held to the frame with silicone sealant. One universal dogbone may have to be adjusted to match the new length or you coulkd try some of Athearns new dogbone universals that are available in different lengths. If you have 2 units and they are F-7 cab units, you can run Miniatroinics mini 2-pin connectors through the rear porthole windows and wire them to operate the motors tied electrically together thereby doubling up on the number of wheels conducting electricity. I do this and have no stalling issues.
Wow - this thread is four and a half years old ! I would hope the OP has it figured out by now.
Mark.
¡ uʍop ǝpısdn sı ǝɹnʇɐuƃıs ʎɯ 'dlǝɥ
Yeah, Mark, but it's like watching a rerun of The Twilight Zone on TV.
Take a walk down memory lane, not only for the discussion of these old models, but also to look at the cast of characters. Why, Jeffrey doesn't look a day older today than he did back then....
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Mark R.Wow - this thread is four and a half years old !
A really slow DSL connection?
rrinker Always with the negative waves, Moriarity!
Always with the negative waves, Moriarity!
Arf arf arf arf arf! That's my other dog imitation.
Disclaimer: This post may contain humor, sarcasm, and/or flatulence.
Michael Mornard
Bringing the North Woods to South Dakota!
Ibflattop I recently got an old Athearn Hustler from a friend and I am totaly rebuilding the drive from rubberbands to gears. I found out that the Athearn 4 truck gear sets will fit into the Hustler with no problems. So out with the rubberbands and in with a new NWSL small can motor, gears from Athearn, a Digitrax Decoder and Leds for the headlights and a yellow becon. Was thinking about putting a sound decoder in to it later like West Port Terminal did for his small switcher that he did. Just trying to find an engine sound that would fit an Hustler type engine. Any Ideas? Kevin
I recently got an old Athearn Hustler from a friend and I am totaly rebuilding the drive from rubberbands to gears. I found out that the Athearn 4 truck gear sets will fit into the Hustler with no problems. So out with the rubberbands and in with a new NWSL small can motor, gears from Athearn, a Digitrax Decoder and Leds for the headlights and a yellow becon. Was thinking about putting a sound decoder in to it later like West Port Terminal did for his small switcher that he did. Just trying to find an engine sound that would fit an Hustler type engine. Any Ideas? Kevin
I would like to see how your conversion turns out. Keep us posted on it. I have a couple of Hustlers with the Lionel gear drive and one that has been converted with a can motor and gears (I added a DCC decoder) but they aren't very reliable. May start liquidating my fleet.
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
I have seen discussions of this before- I believe someone mentioned that the small vinyl hair bands that are available at WalMart in the beauty aisles or where the hair brushes and hair ties are in the health aisles (man up, guys!) are an excellent modern substitute for the old rubber bands.
Someone check me on this info, but I recall seeing it on one or another discussion boards within the past year.
Cedarwoodron
Wow, a post up from the grave a second time. Originally posted in 2009, came back in 2011, and now 2014. Perhaps we should put some more tidbits in as a time capsule when it comes up again in 2016.
For the record I actually now have a fleet of rubber band drives. I believe I have collected at least one of each variation mentioned in this thread.
In addition, my children used such drives for the great locomotive race hosted by Youth in Model railroading fun day. I discovered it was very easy to teach them about the algebra of gear ratios speed vs power when we could simply use the diameters of the drive shaft and wheel axles as the "gears". The epitomy of the evolution was a unit where a ball bearing was installed on the top of the drive shaft towers. The drive shaft itself was tapered so that the gear ratio changed as the rubber band shifted on the shaft.
Finally I discovered that O-rings from the pluming department of the hardware store proved to be more durable than the rubberbands obtained from other sources.
Here we are in 2018. I have been working on a pair of these Athearn Hi-F rubber band drives that I picked up somewhere. They appear to be in pretty good shape, other than missing rubber bands. Athearn now lists the bands as "Out of stock," and "Discontinued."
What can I use instead?
Wow, really, it has been "bumped" again.
So, welcome SilverEagle. Check on Ebay. There's a whole bunch. Click on Model trains, then HO scale, then Athearn, and in the search box at the top, type in rubber bands.
Yep, I just responded to this!
Mike.
My You Tube
TXSilverEagle Here we are in 2018. I have been working on a pair of these Athearn Hi-F rubber band drives that I picked up somewhere. They appear to be in pretty good shape, other than missing rubber bands. Athearn now lists the bands as "Out of stock," and "Discontinued." What can I use instead?
These........:
https://www.ebay.com/p/Athearn-ATH90101-HO-Drive-Belt-Rubber-Band-24/1900623055?iid=332534155783&opts=opick
I did it too....Mike......but the Op's new and needed help....
Take Care!
Frank
It got me thinking, I still have a couple old RDC's that have that drive. Athearn did stock them for the longest time!
I feel another project looming. Good luck TXSilverEagle!
My sister used to buy these bags of small rubber bands for her hais. MAybe 100 in the bag, and cheap. They were in many colors, and about the same size as teh Athearn. I used them all the time.
It’s now August 2018, and I have just rebuilt a bunch of my old Athearn HiF drives using new belts (pack of 50, item #HODB50BK for less than $5 including shipping) from: Sales@ScaleRailroader.com, P.O. Box 2307, Hagerstown, MD 21740-2307. They have them in several different colors, as well as smaller packages of 25. They are a non-latex compound and seem to work well, probably better than OEM. You should be able to find them on eBay using search words Athearn bands Hustler RDC. Good luck!
Bill in FtL
This thread is like the cat with 9 lives. Never the less, Bill has provided new information and even recognized it was an old thread! (that's a shocked gif)
Pressing on. I never had a rubber band drive. In what time frame where these produced?
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I got mine in the early 1960s. I had a GP9, an F7 and Hustler. The first two are now sound dummies. The Hustler is a project I will probably never get to.
BigDaddy Pressing on. I never had a rubber band drive. In what time frame where these produced?
It looks like they were introduced about 1956. They did show up in the 1957 catalog.
Apparently they were still made in 1998. So someone says.
Ed
Believe it or not, I only ever had one Athearn, a GP-9 from the 80's. I had an Atlas, a Bachmann, a Roundhouse box cab, a Mantua steam, and even a Lionel Hustler, but no rubber bands in any of them.
BigDaddy Believe it or not, I only ever had one Athearn, a GP-9 from the 80's. I had an Atlas, a Bachmann, a Roundhouse box cab, a Mantua steam, and even a Lionel Hustler, but no rubber bands in any of them.
That’s interesting, I thought the Lionel Hustler was made for Lionel by Athearn and used the standard HiF chassis. Somewhere, I have an old Lionel centercab switcher (looks similar to a GE 44 ton, but with two axles). As I recall, it had a jackshaft with worm gears to the axles, but a rubber band connecting the motor to the jackshaft. I’ve never tried to run it, I just bought it at a show because it was so unusual.
As for the Athearn HiF rubber band drives, I had the yellow Hustler, a New Haven RDC-1, and a B&O GP9, back in the late fifties when I was a kid. All had HiF drives, plus I also had a Mantua O-4-0 (Shifter) steam switcher.
My little layout was on castors, and rolled under my double bed, which severely limited the height of any scenery. I remember nailing plywood shims onto the legs of the bed just to gain enough clearance for my little Airfix single stall engine shed. That kit was made in England, came in a plastic bag with card header, and sold at the time for 50 cents. Most of the other structures were from Plasticville USA, plus a two story house from a kit made by Aurora. It must have been a fun layout, because I remember it so well, but because it was smaller than the typical 4x8, it had only 15” radius curves and all Code 100 brass track. Looking back, I find it amazing that it kept my interest from the time I was seven years old, to after I entered college, when I gave it to the kid across the street. He then gave it to his little brother when he got out of High School.
Getting back to the HiF drives, my train club recently set up modules in O 3-rail, G scale, HO & N scale inside a vacant storefront in a local mall. It occurred to me that the for the kind of running we do there (no switching, just continuous running around the two ovals) that the HiF drives would be pretty good. I was able to find replacements for my long-gone locos on eBay, which I cleaned up, lubed, and added Kadee “Whisker” couplers to. They are smooth, quiet, and best of all, we don’t have to worry about cracked gear syndrome! Considering how crude the motors were in those days, it makes me wonder how much better the HiF Drive might be using today’s can motors and flywheels. These things are 50-60 years old, and they really run great!
Yeah, they ran great when they got over 30 MPH, or so. Full 8-wheel pickup. Real quiet. MU'ed well together. Quite a good choice for a display layout. Plus. The detailing was so incredibly minimal that you didn't have to worry much about damage.
7j43k BigDaddy Pressing on. I never had a rubber band drive. In what time frame where these produced? It looks like they were introduced about 1956. They did show up in the 1957 catalog. Apparently they were still made in 1998. So someone says. Ed
The Athearn Hustler and RDC’s were possibly made that late, but the Geeps and F-units had their drives replaced with geared units many years before then, probably in the mid to late sixties. There were several different versions of geared drives that led up to the ones seen in Athearn Blue-Box and Life Like Proto locos today. Sadly, the RDC molds were damaged and subsequently scrapped a few years ago, but I’m not sure if the Hustler tooling is still around or not.
Old thread, but useful thread! ;)
I found this when looking for info on a replacement rubber band for a Lionel HO Gang Car, and ordered a set of the rings from the eBay seller in MD.
I think I am missing something else on my gang car, but I'm possibly a step closer with the small investment for the bag of drive bands.
-Dave
The RDC's and little hustler were made clear up into the 80's (which was about when this thread started ) I remember having a lil hustler and putting it on the club layout that was powered by CTC-16 which had a constant voltage. Thing took off like a scalded cat chased by a rotweiler with rabies and an assault rifle. hit a 36" curve skipped the track and skidded three feet across a lake in the scenery much to the amusement of everyone involved. Tough little bugger- didn't hurt it a bit. (No scenery was harmed in the creation of this picture- it was not long before we were dismantleing that layout) Jim
Maybe it's been mentioned here already but those Goody brand vinyl hair bands at Walmart have been mentioned as replacement bands for the old Athearn band drives. Having said that I converted an old Athearn band drive RDC to a motorized one with a simple centrally mounted motor and used it on my old layout.
Here we are in 2019 and this thread still seems to be the de facto online info source for the Athearn Hi-F rubber band drive! I'd never heard of the system before a few weeks ago, when I stumbled upon a yellow box Athearn ATSF F7A in the gift shop of my local railroad museum (Winter Garden, Florida, run by the CFRHS, of which I'm a member) and noticed the curiously fat axles. I removed the shell and deduced from the broken rubber bits that it was a belt drive, even though my brain refused to believe it! It was such a novel and different drivetrain that I had to have it. I ended up grabbing the F7A and the matching Globe dummy F7B for the sum of $25. The motor in the Athearn runs well, but I suppose I need to head down to the local Walmart and grab a bag of those clear Goody silicone(?) hair bands and get her going again! :P
I noticed earlier in this thread, someone had posted a few photos showing the internal variants of the Hi-F drive. I'm wondering just how old my diesel is...it has the one wire per truck setup, fully enclosed shaft bushings, and black rubber driveshaft couplers. I may add some photos later, if I can manage to attach them.
An Athearn Hi-F drive original in a F7A. The B's used the same chassis. You can disregard the note. I have 4 of them from 1959...still run...ATSF/PRR:
Athearn BB rtr SDP40 without fly wheels circa 1963. Shell has since be redone and given to a friend of mine in the UK. It also still runs with a new drive line. I had sent Him quite a few engines that I do not use anymore, after I redid them. They also came with cast metal trucks:
zstripe An Athearn Hi-F drive original in a F7A. The B's used the same chassis. I have 4 of them from 1959...still run...ATSF/PRR
An Athearn Hi-F drive original in a F7A. The B's used the same chassis. I have 4 of them from 1959...still run...ATSF/PRR
The Athearn Hi-Fs are tough little machines. I have an ATSF F7A that's part of a near complete set I bought at a yard sale for $5. It was in pretty rough shape when I got it and not operable, but I cleaned up the motor and wheels, put new bands on it, and it runs great now. I'm not sure of the exact age of it, but I traced it back to around 1957. I also have a Union Pacific F7 A/B set, both powered, that I paid about $25 for the pair, and all I had to do to them was put new bands on and oil them and they were good to go. I'm not sure, but I think they date to the early 1960s.
So I got the Goody clear silicone hair bands from Walmart and installed them in my F7A, but it seems they must be too tight, as the motor struggles to turn and the driveshafts actually work their way free of the motor shafts in short order. I'm disappointed in this result but I assume there must be a better fitting band, and a way to better secure the shafts to the motor?
Best thing to do with those rubber band drives is to put them where they belong in a museum.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
I would agree with Larry. I have 2 of them, both RDC's, and never planned on restoring the drive.
If your serious about it, maybe get all of the original parts and bands and see if that helps.
There are over 400 Athearn F7's on Ebay right now, many different price ranges, and even a few old drives and frames.
Good luck!