Ban on Athearn Locomotives

[Anonymous]

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

[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.

[waltersrails]

sounds good.

[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]

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

[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.

[icmr]

Ok. We are supposed to be talking about maintainence.



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[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

[waltersrails]

sounds good ns railfan

[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.

[Anonymous]

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

[waltersrails]

hows the ic topic of yours

[icmr]

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



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[waltersrails]

to icmr

[waltersrails]

um no

[Anonymous]

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

[icmr]

Your bad on something arent you?



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[waltersrails]

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

[icmr]

Scale?



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[waltersrails]

B&O HO

[waltersrails]

B&ho

[icmr]

You like the UP shells dont you.



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[waltersrails]

nope good proto info pics.

[icmr]

Why do you look at railpictures.net? Is it for the train ads?



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[waltersrails]

yes

[icmr]

Yeah, back to "trains".



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[waltersrails]

ok?

[icmr]

Your right about not being right.



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[waltersrails]

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhtttttttttttttttttt



No

[icmr]

Oh. You mean they need to.



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]