I am confused by what is sold as Athearn Blue Box engines. I see reference to Super Powered, Super Geared, Super Drive, Hi Fi Drive, etc. What is the difference? How can you tell? I know Athearn has been using the blue box for ever, so is there any way of telling what is newer and what is older? I have also noticed that some dummies come with plastic wheels and both trucks are the same- ie both front or both rear. Other dummies come with the normal front and rear trucks with metal wheels and bronze bearings. How can you tell the difference without getting your hands on the item? Thanks
the bb has been around for a long time…in the past (I started using BB’s in 1977} it was the way all athearn rolling stock and locomotives were sold…reciently they have come out with the athearn genesis and ready to run equipment…I’m trying to understand the question but bb locmotives came with the standard can motors, flywheels, and worm gear drive for the front and back trucks and are heavier than the dummy units, you don’t have to look in the box either…all bb equipment has what is in the box written on the side of the box…the athearn genesis line is more detailed than the standard blue box …i can’t tell you what type of motor is in them because i only own one genesis locomotive and have had no reason to tear into it yet…for the money, the blue box athearn locomotives are good locomotives…chuck
Not all BB are the same. My BB engines probably go back to early 70s, maybe earlier. The motors in those old engines where grey, egg shaped, open frame. New ones today are a bronzy sort of can style. The universal couplings were different, and the worm gear retainer has changed. Earlier versions had no flywheels, later versions had lead flywheels and todays versions have brass flywheels. My question is how can you tell the difference if ordering from a retailer for example. All it says on the box is Model —SD45, Road Name and No. and a Athearn part number. It does not tell you that it was built in 1970, 1980, 1990, or 2005.
For example, I had two SD45. At the time I bought them they did not have flywheels, however the instruction sheet say flywheels maybe included at some future date. Lead flywheels were included at a later date. If you by a new SD45 today it will come with brass flywheels, and a different motor.
There is a lot of old BB stock sitting around in hobby shops and selling on eBay. One hobby shop bought out a failed shop in another city and ended up with a pile of BB that may have been sitting on the shelves for years. How can you tell what is what?
What is a hifi drive? What is a Super Drive?
Oh, Chuck, the Genesis motor is completely different. I have had mine apart.
“Hi F” drive is Athearns’ name for their early diesels that had rubber bands running from a drivehshaft on either side of the motor to the trucks. The first Athearn powered engines. not the greatest. They used this system on their plastic RDCs until they were retired not too long ago.
“Super Power/geared”, etc. referred to their F units that had large body filling weights that gave the geared engines more tractive effort - mor pulling power. The only thing “super” about them was the added weight.
Bobboudreau
Thanks, Bobboudreau. That helps considerably. Now if I could find a way to sort the BBs from the BBs, I would be all set.
I’ll start start with oldest first.
The Hi-F drive was one of Athearn’s first drive systems, introduced in the mid 50s. A motor drove 2-4 rubber bands (depending on the engine) that went from long shafts to large plastic drums on the axles. They were very popular because they were cheap and ran smooth for their time.
The Super Geared drives came out not long after the Hi-F drives. They’ve also been called “tower drives”. The motor was in the center of the frame with shafts going to each truck. On top was a large gear which drove another large gear on the bottom, which drove a shaft with a worm on each side, which drove the axles.
The Super Powered, or super weight, drives came out in the early or mid 60s and are only available in their F7s. It uses the standard F7 drive, but has a very large weight on top, giving it a huge amount of traction.
“Super Drive” probably just refers to the geared drives.
Tried posting some links to diagrams, but they didn’t work.
The diagrams can be found in the Literature section at hoseeker.net.[:D]
[:D][:D][:D]
Thanks Darth;
That hoseek web sight is great. Now I know, or at least can find out the source of all the spare parts I have accumulated over 50+years. But ***, they all came in a Blue Box.
Actually, Athearn started producing the blue box kits in late 1967 or in 1968 and continued selling them through the 1990’s. You can view pictures of Athearn Trains produced over the last 50 years at the link below. More pictures of the bb engines will be added soon.
http://hoseeker.net/swapgallery/maingallerypage
You can also view reference information and diagrams for Athearn at the links below.
http://www.hoseeker.net/lit.html
http://www.hoseeker.net/athearncarinstructionslit.htm
http://www.hoseeker.net/athearnmicellaneous.html
Direct linking to the diagrams pictures is not possible at HOseeker.net. I had to set up the website this way to resolve a bandwidth issue.
Thanks for the compliments. It gives me a little incentive to find and add more information to the site.
Larry
Um, I don’t know if you knew, they still make them to this day. Am I the only one who knows this? I swear, everytime I turn around there’s another guy saying “yeah, back when Athearn still made kits”. Never stopped pal. Just check http://www.athearn.com/Products/HO/Default.aspx for their complete list of BB kits produced today.
I never said Athearn stopped selling kits. I said they continued selling them through the 1990’s. I stopped keeping track of Athearn in the late 1990’s after forty and more years of buying their products. Back a few years ago I bought a RTR Coca Cola tank car. Printed on the boxes was this: Manufactured in China and Marketed by Athearn. After learning this I assumed the new bb kits and replacement parts were also being made overseas. Now comes the most recent news that Horizon Hobbies purchased Athearn. My personal opinion is the old Athearn is gone. Yes , the new Athearn still markets train kits and some parts, but this is in name only. I apologize if I caused any confusion about the dates.
I signed my last message by my real name and perfer to be addressed by that, not Pal.
Larry
http://www.hoseeker.net/
Larry, I’m sorry if you thought I was being hostile towards you. I was just posting some info I thought you might not have known. And when I said pal, I wasn’t reffering to you, just indirectly to everyone who think’s Athearn stopped making kits. The Blue Box kits are still made in the USA, but as you stated, the RTR and Genesis items are made in China.