I have some old athearn shells (GP-9) that are painted for Detroit & Toledo Shorelines. They are very well done and have a little weathering on them. however the frame is another story, they are old athearns with metal trucks. So I would like to purchase some of the new Genesis engines and put my old shells on them, can it be done? If not what are some other ideas so that my old engines could be revived?
The older BB GP7 has a wider shell then the Genesis and completely different so,no the shells won’t fit.
My solution would be to buy the BB GP7s from the 80/ 90s with the detailed side frames and use that drive. These can be found at train shows and on e-Bay.
What Larry suggested is a very good plan! You could even look for some locomotives needing repair. I watch for clunkers and rebuild them. The Mashima motor works great in a Blue Box locomotive, very powerful and only draws a ½ amp even with added weight. I add 6 to 8 ounces to my locomotives for more pulling power.
I’m partial to the Athearn BB locomotives, they’re a super simple design, great runners, very easy to maintain and parts are readily available on eBay.
The BB 90s motor will run at little less then one amp full load, I have several with one amp decoders and I’ve never fried one.
Mel
Modeling the early to mid 1950s SP in HO scale since 1951
My Model Railroad
It may depend on how old “old” is…as noted, Athearn GPs for many years had a wider body so they could fit a large motor in there. I’m not sure exactly when the body changed, but I think it was probably in the 1980’s or 1990’s. So an “old” GP from say 2002 should have the prototypical width hood, whereas an “old” GP from 1977 won’t.
Anyway, I would think the Genesis chassis would work with the more recent GP body - although, since the motor is narrower than what was in the very old GPs, it may be the newer chassis would still work with a wide body. (The opposite, trying to fit a newer narrow body wouldn’t work on an older wide chassis.) I have a BB F-7 that has a Genesis motor/chassis, and it fit with no modifications.
Stix, As you may already know the BB GP7 shell has never been retooled since the 50s in fact a 1950 era shell will still fit the drive. The truck side frames was improved with more add on details back in the 80s.
I knew a Walthers GP9M shell will fit the Athearn GP7 drive with very little modification. I made a stand in GP10 with “frog eye” headlights and a Horst air filter.
But,a BB GP7 shell fitting a Genesis GP7 shell? WOW! Never dream that would be possible! Your F7 is proof the GP7 shell would fit the Genesis GP7 drive.
Gotta love this hobby…Always something new to learn.
Well the Athearn F-units are kind of a roundabout story…The Highliner F-unit shell kit was originally designed to fit the Athearn BB F-7 chassis as a replacement / upgrade. When Athearn created the Genesis F-unit line, they used Highliner shells (don’t recall if they bought the co. that made Highliner shells, or worked out some agreement to buy them from them or what) and created a new motor / chassis for them. Since the Highliner shell was designed to fit the old BB chassis, any new chassis designed to fit the Highliner shell would also have to fit the old Athearn BB shell. [:S]
The old BB GP shell was the same overall width (i.e. measured at the sides of the walkways) as a scale shell, it just had narrower walkways to allow the main body to be wider to fit the old Athearn motor. Therefore, I would assume a newer chassis and motor designed to fit into a scale-width (narrow) body would have plenty of room to fit inside an older wider-body GP shell. I don’t know if it would snap in place exactly the way the F units do, but I would think it would be doable(?)