I have an athern blue box engine an pa1. The engine is beautiful and i would like to run it. To get it back up with getting a moter and everything else needed it would be to expensive. I would like to turn it into a dummy engine. What would i need to do? Would it be to change the trucks? I wanna run the engine and make it part of the fleet and figured turning it into a dummy or non powered would be the best.
Sean, the unknown train travler,
The easiest way would be to take the shell off, then remove the metal strip from atop the motor - it's normally part of the electrical supply system to the motor, so not needed for a dummy. You can leave the motor in place or remove it - the extra weight if you leave it should help it to track well.
Next remove the plastic cap atop each truck's gearbox - the tip of a small screwdriver slipped between one side of the cap and the side of the gearbox will spread it enough that it can be removed. Lift out the brass worm and the driveshaft on which it's mounted, along with the bronze bearings on either end and the plastic drive shafts connecting to the motor. You could then replace the plastic cap which you removed first - it keeps the truck attached to the frame, so it needs to be in place. Both trucks will require those parts to be removed and the caps replaced.
However, there are a number of gears still in those gearboxes - the locomotive should now roll when pushed or pulled, but the gears will offer some resistance. If you want it to roll more freely, the solution is to remove most of those gears. To do so, the caps on top need to be off, which will then allow the trucks to be removed from the frame of the locomotive. You'll find a clip-on cap on the bottom of the truck, similar to the one on top, but longer, and another on the top of the lower portion of the gearbox. Both are removed in the same manner as the top one.
This will allow the two halves of the gearbox to be separated, and you can then remove the five gears therein contained. Leave the three axle-mounted gears in place - they're actually part of the wheel/axle assemblies. Put the two gearbox halves together, then drop the three wheelsets into place and snap the bottom and short gearbox clips back into place. Next, place the loco's frame onto the assembled trucks - there should be a nub on the underside of the frame's bolsters or some other alignment device to properly locate the trucks - then snap the top retaining clip back in place. Finally, put the shell back onto your new dummy unit.
I'd suggest saving the removed parts. I'm not sure which of them might be useful for repairing other Athearn diesels, but spare parts can be handy. Otherwise, some may be useful as scenic items around a locomotive shop or in a scrap yard.
You'll find diagrams for many HO scale models HERE, and for your PA, click on the "LITERATURE" box at the top of the list, then on "ATHEARN" and finally "DIESEL ENGINE DIAGRAMS" under the Athearn category, then scroll down the list to PA1 - there are four versions, so the procedure which I've outline above may vary a bit depending on which production run your model is from.
Wayne
Wayne's "tutorial" is perfect. With the metal wheels still in place, you can ad track powered sound, and lights, as you wish.
I've done this on a few locos, only I started with an unpowered unit, with plastic wheels, and added the metal wheel sets to power lights, sound, etc.
Mike
My You Tube
I will second the response from Wayne and Mike. I have added the metal trucks to a dummy to make it track better and allow adding lights/sound if desired. Much better than the plastic truck/wheels on the dummy.
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
The motor is gone already, as i received it that way. The drive shaft is broken on one side if I remember. I fiqured if i turned it into a secondary non motorized unit, I would still be able to use ut on the layout. It looks to good to do anything bad with like a wreck scene or graveyard kind of thing. I will look at taking the gears out and going that route. Does not sound to hard. Thanks.
I have two old Athearn Blue Box engines that I've converted to dummies. These were originally belt-drive models, so all I had to do was remove the motors. The frame weight is plenty, so I think getting rid of the motor is a good idea. I put cheap sound decoders in each of them, and a headlight in one, so that they now run happily in consist with powered engines.
You can, however, either replace the motor directly or get an even better one from someone like NWSL.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
The motor was long gone before I got it and the drive shafts gone. All I need to worry about is the trucks.
Sean,
Here's a pic/diagram of the PA You should have.....I thought You had one!
Also a pic' of the SW that I said I had and am redoing.......LOL!!!!
Take Care!
Frank
Frank I do have one. I was making sure what i had in mind was about right. Wow frank, alot of work to do there. Looks like it blew up or something.
Nice start on that locomotive, Frank, but it looks more like one of Alco's S-series switchers than an EMD SW.It also appears that you have all the needed parts on hand, too.
Here's a fully assembled S-1, still in service:
Wayne,
Yeah...I know it's an Alco...I said SW for Sean, cause I'm redoing a SW 1500 cow&calf that I'm redoing to send to Him and I was throwing a little humor in. LOL
I found that Alco on a siding on the Puerto Rican Marine terminal in Jacksonville Fl. when I brought a 40ft ''can'' from Chgo that missed the Train in the 90's, headed to PR by barge. Some interesting stuff, goes on in the Transportation business, Train/Truck/Water.
BTW: That's My younger Son in the pic', He went with to spend a couple days with His Mom, She lived in Jax. She's My ex....but He lived with Me......His decision...once He reached 13....ILL. law. She took Him out of state illegally anyway.....but that's another story! LOL.
zstripe Sean, Here's a pic/diagram of the PA You should have.....I thought You had one! Also a pic' of the SW that I said I had and am redoing.......LOL!!!! Take Care! Frank
Frank (Zstripe)
lets give the engine to macgiver. He can get it up and running with 2 hairclips, a piece of duct tape and a ball point pen;
That's cool, I've done that with BB's before. I bought a powered AT&SF PA B unit a few years ago & lucked out this past summer found a dummy A-B set of AT&SF PA's. I swapped the couplers from the dummy A unit to the powered B unit, swapped the bodies & voila, a set of AT&SF PA's A-B-B units
Brought to you by the letters C.P.R. as well as D&H!
K1a - all the way