kato and athearn frame shell transplant

[santa fe 683]

Hello  I have an athearn ho scale RTR dash 9 44cw and it runs very badly at my club but fine at home. i am looking to put the athearn shell on to a kato AC4400 or dash 9 44cw frame would it work ? will the athearn shell fit the kato frame?    if anybody has done this let me know.

[jrbernier]

  It's going to take some frame surgery to make it happen.  This leads to a couple of questions:

• Why does it run fine at home, but poor at the club?
• By the time you buy a  Kato engine, you are going to have lots of money in this project - Is there something about the shell that is important?

Jim

[duckdogger]

Jim is correct.  Why not just go with a Kato unit?

Another consideration is what is the variable effecting the operation at the club?  Where is the problem - turnouts, curves, sidings, etc.? Different size rails (i.e. code100 vs 83 or smaller)  Obstructions at the club - spikes or drops soldered inside the rail?

The point is maybe the problem is not your locomotive but rather a combination of factors.