athearn engines - troubleshooting

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Does anyone have any experience with Athearn Engines troubleshooting? I have a relatively new RS2
with a MRC decoder installed. When I run it in one direction, it works fine. Reverse direction, I get a start and stop effect…almost like its not getting the pick up. I have double checked all the connections and they look fine.

2

If everything appears to be fine then you might want to look into sending it back to Athearn, or to local hobby shop that can repair Athearn trains.

3

I suspect this is a ‘RTR’ Athearn RS3 that is DCC Ready? If you remove the MRC decoder and install the DC plug, does it run OK on normal DC voltage or at address ‘0’ on DCC? If so, the problem is with the MRC decoder. If it still acts up, you have an engine problem. If this is new, take it back and get a good running one.

I have worked on several engines with MRC decoders, and everyone has been ‘junk’. Lot’s of cold solder joints or solder bridges across the pins. Even when they run normal, they usually do not have very fine speed control. The Athearn ‘Genesis’ series of engines with DCC/Sound installed have MRC DCC/Sound decoders and I have not been very impressed with the sound on those as well. I would think that a ‘premium’ engine should have ‘premium’ DCC/Sound as well. I guess the folks at Horizon(owners of Athearn) are more interested in a ‘price point’(maybe they are getting a ‘deal’ on the MRC DCC/Sound decoders).

Jim

4

If you have a “relatively new” engine, you are covered by a warrantee - under the conditions of same. If you ‘modify’ anything you void the warrantee.

They’ll fix anything they are responsible for. I would recommend calling the Service Department. (They can extend warrantees). ‘Phone answerers’ cannot.

5

I’d call foul on the MRC decoder.

David B

6

Some things to check,

  1. Some Athearns have so much grease on the bearing surfaces that they don’t have good electrical pickup.

  2. I have an RS3 that had a lot of slop in the gears of one of the trucks, it would run ok at very low load and bind horribly with additional load. Swapped out the gears and it runs much better.

  3. If you have an RRampmeter you can see if it’s drawing too much current or not getting current.

Are you running it on DCC or DC?

7

Some of my friends have the RTR Athearn locos with MRC decoders factory installed. From what I’ve seen and heard I’m not favorably impressed. Mediocre sound, spotty performance and some really sorry looking workmanship on the decoder installation. I have a RTR AC4400 that came as DCC Ready. Five minutes into the break-in run the light board burned up and the front truck shorted out.