Ban on Athearn Locomotives

[waltersrails]

that but refering to the above statement

[icmr]

Women?



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[waltersrails]

athearn needs

[icmr]

Why dont more companies make IC death star scheme locos?



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[Anonymous]

I'd like to point out that I love Athearn. But I will not but an Athearn RTR ever again. BB? Absolutley. Genesis? If they release a F3 or F7 in CGW I'll buy some.

[icmr]

QUOTE: Originally posted by zgardner18
Can't we all just get along?

Yes, please, get along.



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[zgardner18]

You know, it’s starting to sound like we are getting a little spoiled here, or should I say lazy. Let’s take cars for example: I drive a Ford. I love my truck. Sure, it’s not a Land Rover or anything like that, but it does me fine. Some like Chevy's and some like Dodge. Some might say, “You get what you pay for." My Ford was cheep but with a little TLC this truck is going to go a long ways. I get my oil changes and engine serviced every time that it is due. Some people need to feel like they have money so they buy the BMW's and so on, but does image really matter or does the way you take pride in your procession? Atlas and Kato's are the BMWs of model railroading, if you have the money great, but for us Blue Box Athearn (Fords,Chevys, etc) guys, we know that we don't have the topline equipment but we can still make them run great. We find the tricks (I just put a K&N filter on my truck, man was that a good investment) to make them great.

I'm sick of every one saying that Athearn's crap, I know that mine are compared to others but that's not going to stop me from enjoying them.

Can't we all just get along?

PS. Disregard all of the other times that I dogged on Athearn.[:-^]

[coborn35]

QUOTE: Originally posted by rockisland4309

Wow!!! With all this talk about how bad the Athearn RTR's are I'm almost afraid to take my SD45T-2's out of their box! Is this a common problem with the RTR's or just a isolated problem with some guys? Matter-of-fact, it was the SD45T-2's which made me comeback and buy Athearn after almost 10 years of not buying their models.

I have a DMIR SD45T-2, and it does mildy grind, although it operates at slow speeds, it is a switcher, and does run fairly good on a larger layout.

[Anonymous]

EVERYTHING MAN-MADE WILL FAIL AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER, THEY ALL HAVE FLAWS OF ONE SORT OR ANOTHER, BUT THIS IS ABOUT LIKE STARTING A FORD/CHEVY POST.ROLL WITH THE PUNCHES AND ENJOY LIFE!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

rock, this is a VERY common RTR problem and I've only heard of ONE that didn't grind. I will never buy another RTR unless I decide to try a F7. I haven't heard of any F7s w/ the grinding motor , tho, but every other one seems to. I don't know about the new SD40 and -2. tho.

[rockisland4309]

Wow!!! With all this talk about how bad the Athearn RTR's are I'm almost afraid to take my SD45T-2's out of their box! Is this a common problem with the RTR's or just a isolated problem with some guys? Matter-of-fact, it was the SD45T-2's which made me comeback and buy Athearn after almost 10 years of not buying their models.

[icmr]

That is a very good point.



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[Anonymous]

I can`t complain! I am on a very limited budget and I buy everything on ebay or at yard sales. For as cheap as possible! Them I learn how to rebuild, repair and maintain!
I recently purchased 10 buildings on ebay, 5 were nice and only needed weathering. Five were total junk, and with the advice of the wonderfull people here, and the weatherers network, I am rebuilding them!
Be happy that you can afford Athern or any new train for that matter!!!!!!

[waltersrails]

ok

[icmr]

Along with the action in the hump yard.



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[waltersrails]

I'm a cn or NS my self

[icmr]

I like seeing the UP action also.



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[waltersrails]

i love wacthing the athearns in action. they are great.

[icmr]

After seeing the action on the way down there.



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[waltersrails]

ok i'll get me an athearn

[icmr]

Everything if it is close to saturday.[;)]



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[waltersrails]

Whats this have to with this [(-D][;)]

[icmr]

Hows the woman?



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[waltersrails]

kitbashing is good for them to me if its the same engine i have or a dummy athearn. to me any way.

[icmr]

Thats how I am. If it runs, run it unless it is blue box them I wont run them but I will display, keep as a part source, or kitba***hem.



Victor

Happy Railroading.[swg][swg]

[waltersrails]

almost all mine work. expect one i have to clean every few months. Me personally like to work on my engines. I love any thing that runs and if it doesn't i make it work.

[BentnoseWillie]

I've never seen a problem with a "blue box" or RTR Athearn that couldn't be fixed easily, usually without replacing parts. Even when parts are required they're relatively easy to get by salvage or purchased new - ever try to get replacement parts for some Bachmanns?

The traditional Athearn design isn't perfect, but it has long ago proven its worth as a simple, reliable, maintainable drive that lends itself well to modification. Its biggest vices are electrical - namely the live frame and the metal strip that passes power to the top motor strap. The latter is the real weak link, but it's easily fixed by replacing the strap with a length of wire - I think it was the first soldering I ever did.

I had one of the aforementioned SD70s with the truck problem - it was a defect in the initial run of trucks. When I emailed Athearn asking for advice on how to fix it, they voluntarily sent me new trucks - which I had (in Nova Scotia) three days later.

My experience has been that Athearn locomotives are a snap to maintain, and parts are easy to get - not so for several of their competitors. I'm not certain what the beef is with them aside from an apparent expectation that they be maintenance-free indefinitely[?]

[Budliner]

I never liked Athearn


yuck

[jeffshultz]

I won't say that this topic inspired me, but I just built a small circle of track (very temporary) out in the garage, and I've got a BB SW1500 doing a "death march" around it.... for the next 10 hours at least.

Let's see if I can grind those gears in - I'd like to put DCC in it and use it on my current layout.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jbinkley60
Just installed a DCC decoder in my Athearn RTR Dash 9 tonight. Nice grinding sound and stalls on clean track. It's been in the box a couple of years. I'll set it off to the side for now and work on detailing my Kato Dash 9.

jbinkley:

Some Athearn mechanisms are lubricated with light machine oil. Unfortunately, light machine oil evaporates rather easily over long periods of storage (a couple years certainly qualify), so you need to relube your Athearn. I would do a complete disassembly of the trucks to do the relubing, and also take the opportunity to ensure all the electrically-conductive parts (wheels, square brass axle shims, bolsters, contact strips, etc.) are not rusted.

This is not unique to Athearns of course... I had some P2Ks and Atlases that also needed reconditioning to get them to run right when bringing them out of mothballs.