Ban on Athearn Locomotives

[waltersrails]

nope good proto info pics.

[icmr]

You like the UP shells dont you.



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[waltersrails]

B&ho

[waltersrails]

B&O HO

[icmr]

Scale?



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[waltersrails]

scale is what i mean i'm not trying to sound bad on this.

[icmr]

Your bad on something arent you?



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[Anonymous]

I'll bring your videos to you next week sometime icmr.

[waltersrails]

um no

[waltersrails]

to icmr

[icmr]

Sometime will be Tuesday or I will be at your door on Wendsday.



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[waltersrails]

hows the ic topic of yours

[Anonymous]

There's some good bargains on discounttrains this week. I might order a few things.

[waltersrails]

i'm going to lube up a couple of my engines this weekend. the bachmann and my CN c44-9w Athearn might sound better and run faster.

[waltersrails]

sounds good ns railfan

[Anonymous]

My only beef with Athearn is the Genesis 4-6-2 I purchased from a LHS. The engine has a defective drive gear. Apparently Athearn shipped a lot of 4-6-2 Genesis engines with this problem. I got some instructions late last summer to ship it back to Athearn for replacement of the drive mechanism. Athearn still has my engine.

I email them from time to time to find out the status. Two months ago I was told to check back in May.

At least they reply to my email.

Jimbo

[icmr]

Ok. We are supposed to be talking about maintainence.



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[Glen1]

There's a lot of reading here, but what it all boils down to is that every manufacturer, no matter how highly regarded, can put out a stinker. Just the same as any automobile company. You can get a good or bad anything at one time or another.

Case in point. A friend of mine and myself have a number of Atlas locomotives. Up until recently, neither of us have had any reason to be disappointed with their quality. While on a recent business trip to Florida, he picked up a Dash8-40CW in the Santa Fe warbonnet scheme. The last time I was over at his house he ran it for me. There's a loud growling noise coming from somewhere in the drive train. He hasn't torn it down yet to see if he can locate the source, but it just goes to show you. After about a dozen or more flawless models from them, he got one that's not so great. I myself had an Athearn Genesis SD70MAC that was terrible.. I worked on it for hours until I finally got the noise down to a more acceptable level. Then I sold it. My hobby dealer says that every once in a while they get a Kato unit that runs rough.

I'm sure there are always going to be models from any manufacturer that are poor quality. The problem is, if the manufacturers had to pay someone to sit down and go over every model with a fine tooth comb and reject each one with a defect, the cost would be prohibitive. I don't know from personal experience, but I would guess that where these models and made, there is a short test track. Someone puts the unit on the track and tries to run it. If it goes forward and backwards and the lights work, it goes in the box. As far as noisy is concerned, it's probably too noisy in the plant to tell.

Like it or not, that's probably what they feel they can afford while staying within a certain price range.

[waltersrails]

that is true one that. Like said earier i like athearn engines and if one brakes i enjoy fixing it.

[Anonymous]

icmr, you're right about not enough companies making DEATH STAR engines. The only ones are
Atlas GP40
Athearn Genesis SD70
BLI SD40-2
and I have seen concor GP38s too.

Thank gawd they're easy to paint. Out of my 3 DS engines only 1 is factory painted.

[waltersrails]

sounds good.

[easyaces]

I agree with Glen1 who posted on 31 March. Not all the makers are created equal, and some bad ones are going to slip by.

[Anonymous]

Athearn Genesis are great but the Blue box Athearns suck so bad. I actually love the Genesis SD70Ms Great engines!!

[waltersrails]

have the made sd70m-2's yet?

[jkroft]

From now on, I am only buying Tyco.

[james saunders]

QUOTE: Originally posted by waltersrails

have the made sd70m-2's yet?

no but i hope they do soon

[METRO]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jkroft

From now on, I am only buying Tyco.

HAHA, now that's the perfect answer!

Seriously though, anyone who's been in this hobby for over 20 years can tell you what it used to be like. Most people new to the game wouldn't even recognize what was offered back then, but I clearly remember as a kid, reading my dad's old issues of MR where a pair of Tyco SD24s (now marketed by IHC) were pulling the flagship train on the Virginia & Ohio. That's totally unheard of today.

We're lightyears ahead of where we once were, and we largely have Athearn to thank for that. The first P2Ks had a clone of the Athearn mechanism in them, and the Genesis line still arguably makes some of the best locomotives, depending on the model, in the industry, period.

Once upon a time though, Athearn BBs were golden trains, the standard of the hobby, and they still can be modernized fairly easily. I also love my Genesis F7s, and when I compare them to my Kato-powered Stewarts, they run just as well and have twice the detail, now that's well worth my money.

Cheers!
~Astral

[ICRR1964]

WOW! This thread took some good hits from both sides of the coin.

I see know reason for bad mouthing BB units. We all seem to forget from time to time about who was on the cutting edge of loco's many years ago. Athearn made a great loco and still does to this day. Back in the 1970's Bachmann and Atlas came up with some comparable loco's that did run just as good and were about the same price. But problem being they were using the same idea as Athearn loco's.

Athearn engines are great for the younger kids starting out, they are tough and require little attention. I have over 200 Athearn BB, RTR, and a few Genesis units. Sure they have had some problems, but so have my Atlas, Spectrum, and Kato units.

I spend allot of time rebuilding and repair work on my loco's as long as doing work on other peoples. Allot of the problrems people have are because they do not take care of the loco's, whether its a BB unit or a P2K. I have a freind of mine who bought 2 new Broadway LTD loco's and loved them to death, until one of them started to act up. He used the word junk just like he did on his Spectrum line he had. Buy the way, I bought all of his Spectrum line for half of what he paid for it. You will not beleive what a bit of oil will do for a loco. Give me time, but I will end up owning his expensive Broadway LTD unit before long, besides he is talking about buying brass, because he thinks it is better running and requires no maintanence. LOL!

Their are allot of MR's out there that are tinkers like me, and believe in doing our own fixing, others cannot even tighten a simple screw. It does not matter what you own or what you paid for it, or how much you run it.

If it has moving parts it needs attention some time or another when it starts making noise, or stops dead in the rails.

I wonder what would happen to my Truck, car, and Harley if I did not do the maintanenec on them?????????

[icmr]

QUOTE: Originally posted by waltersrails

have the made sd70m-2's yet?

Athearn, NO. Tower 55, YES!



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[Anonymous]

Well said ICRR1964. Athearn BB is nice, considering the price. As with anything, they do require attention from time to time. But so does Atlas. But BB is tough and just doesn't seem to wear out. My GP38-2 is 12 years old and still going strong. I gave her a new paint job last month because it ran so good. It will run slower than my other BB. Yes, it has the Athearn "growl" but it's reliable, that's for sure. Never have I had a single problem with it. (I've only had it since last fall ,but the box says "Jan 1994")