Athearn Dual-Geared Geep

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Always heard of these, seen pictures in instruction manuals, but today I finally got one in my hands.

Man, what a piece of machinery.

The gearboxes are all metal, screwed together, oillite bearings on the axles, worm gear shaft, and worm shaft.

The frame is something to behold.

Heavy!

Motor is at least twice as big as anything I’ve ever seen in an Athearn before.

I am taking it apart piece by piece, filing flash, cleaning out old grease, re-lubing as I go.

I have an old GN shell that fits, all done with handrails.

I will post when I’m done, but the gearboxes turn so smooth by hand…what a deal this is.

These were made in 1957, makes it exactly 50 years old.

TOC

2

I never knew there was such a beast. Post some pics of that chassis when you get it back together.

3

Well, got it de-flashed, glass beaded the chassis, painted the chassis, cleaned and re-assembled the parts, cleaned the wheels and ran it.

Quieter by far than a gear-drive Geep we have from the early 70’s.

Pulls like crazy.

My guess is this was too expensive to build in the face of cheaper plastic stuff. It is reminiscent of the old die-cast Varney F-3 drives.

The photo shows the chassis above, with one truck, the second truck in pieces, and the HUGE motor off to the left.

4

So how does it “shift” gears? Did it look like this before you disassembled it:? I didn’t realize they were dual geared.

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5

What model gp is it, and where can I get one!? [dinner]

6

I’ve never seen one before. Are those metal or plastic gears? Looks like a tuff little beasty.

7

Frame, tank air and fuel are GP7/9. Is that your shell?

8

Hi Bob. Thats quite a find. I imagine it has smooth accellerating and decellerating action. I had a similar Mantua find a few yrs ago that I used to kitbash a military set loco for my son. That set runs better then it ever had before.

cooltech.

PS. Been away for awhile. Do enjoy the site and will contribut as often as possible Vince

9

That was back when they offeredn them two ways - gear drive or rubber band “hi-fi” drive. The rubber-band drives have one advantage over that gear drive - the ruber-band units pick up power on all 8 wheels. Those gear drive models only pick up from 2 wheels in each truck.

–Randy

10

WC ran some GP7’s! Now if I can just find myself one of those beasts.

11

I had several of those drives in the early 60s…Advanced modelers would re-power Athearn with a Hobbytown of Boston replacement drive.

The reason that was called a “duel gear” is it was 8 wheel drive unlike most 4 wheel drive locomotives of that era.It was a marketing gimmick.

12

Yeah, dual-geared is two gear towers.

The spur gears off the main shafts are plastic or Delrin (did they have Delrin 50 years ago?), but the worms and shafts are metal.

Stock GP-7/9 shell snaps right on it.

I have this thing for old stuff. I’ve restored my Uncle’s engines, one a John A. English Pennsy A-5 0-4-0, one a Varney cast Docksider, one a Die-Cast Varney F-3 with multiple-sheave pulley drive (like an old drill press…you can change gearing ratios by moving the belt), all from 1947-1949, then I did our old Mantuas, a Version 2 Mikado (gearbox bolted to the frame), a 4-8-0, a “Booster” (die-cast), my last engine in H0, a Mantua “Big Six” from 1970, and a PennLine D-2 Mini Diesel switcher.

Finally a MDC “Yardhog” with gear-reduction drive.

Every one original open-frame motors, run just fine.

On top of that, a whole bunch of our old Athearn diesels, F units in “A” and “B”, some tower-drive, one full Hi-F (just to show folks they do work), a 1971 GP-7/9, and just getting ready to do the handrails on an SW whatever.

Funny, those things get passed on to other family members, and then their kids, and they were in BAD shape.

Found an old “A” shell, horribly painted, cut the front apron off to section in on one shell with a broken apron, and the pointed roof lip to fix another.

Only thing I really need is about 2 or 3 long X2F couplers for the nose of a Hi-F or early dummy “A” unit, the ones that fit into screw-on plastic boxes with little coil springs inside.