athearn locos: good or bad? is there any one i should really avoid? i was thinking about buying one from the LHS, its a big undecorated deisel, dont know locos so couldnt tell u the model, but it looks nice, a six axle if i remember correctly, and is large, the guy said if its not DCC already it should be easy to convert. and how hard is that to do btw, assuming the engine is not set up for DCC at all? what is involved?
I have never converted any to DCC but it’s supposed to be easy. Blue box Athearns can be a bit noisy but they seem to get better the more you run them. Athearn’s GENESIS line has been just as reliable as the BB’s and the ready to runs (RTR) have been just as good performance and reliability -wise.
If it is an Athearn Blue Box locomotive it is not hard to convert to DCC as long as you are happy with a soldering iron and are willing and able to dismantle the drive train. The motor needs to be removed and isolated. There is a description on the following link of the procedure, which is basically the same on all Athearn Blue box loco’s
http://www.midcentral-region-nmra.org/DCC-and-Myths.html
If it is from the Genesis line, it may be DCC ready and simply require the plugging in of the decoder.
IMO, Athearn BB locos are a good value. They are not as detailed as others, run a little noisy and have very basic lighting. But they are well made, reliable and good value for the money. If you are buying undecorated, then they are a great canvas for painting and super detailing.
I think Digitrax makes a no-solder wiring harness and decoder for the Athearn blue-box locos, don’t they? I’ve never used one, so cannot comment on if they work or not…or if they are really “solderless”.
I have converted a couple of Athearn blue box locos to DCC without using a harness, and it was pretty easy.
Absolutely…That will be DH123AT.All you need to do is isolate the motor by using electrical tape.
I converted an SD40-2 with the Digitrax harness. There are a couple of traps to watch out for. First, be very careful when you remove the spring clips that hold the motor brushes in place. There are coil springs underneath that can go flying across the room. Second, put a piece of electrical tape inside the bottom of the frame where the motor sits to make sure that the motor is isolated. Third, the wires will break off of the Digitrax clips very easily. I ended up re-soldering them and making strain reliefs from shrink-on tubing. I may want to revamp the lighting in the future.
Athearn locos are good. As for decodor insallation check out this link…
www.trains.com/Content/Dynamic/Articles/000/000/002/386vdfwa.asp
You’ll probably need the Digitrax no-solder wiring harness thing. The trucks are made of some sort of stainless steel that can’t be soldered to very easily. I tried soldering to an Athearn truck once, but the solder didn’t stick to it. it didn’t work.
ok well ill get the loco then, and as for the dcc instalation i could go either way, with soldering a decoder in or using the digitrax harness, which is better, or is there a difference, because if not, the only deciding factor will be the price. THX mucho guys
I would say go with the harness on the first loco you install a decoder in. The only reason I say this is it comes with a nice diagram saying where each wire goes. It’s a lot less confusing then figuring our where the each wire goes. After you install the first decoder then you can use the first decoder as a cheat sheat for the next one. At my LHS I think the price diffrence is a few bucks between the decoder without a harness.
Andrew
The athearn BB engines are good runners and durable for their price. I have 2 GP-40-2s. Just dont run them on track laid out on the floor if you have dogs i ruined one this way. Of course that will happen to any engine run on the floor. As for DCC in BB engine there is an article about this in Small Railroads You Can Build 2nd Edition by Kalmbach publishing. If it is a newer athearn (RTR or Genesis) i am pretty sure there are drop in decoders for these that DCC conversions quick and easy
There is an old 4 axle diesel made by Athearn in the early 60’s you’d want to avoid. It’s called a GP30. It had very poor detailing and the nose was almost as wide as the body.
If you get an older Genesis diesel than you will have to replace the whole PC board for DCC.
well i got the loco its an AC4400 its BIG. i like it its pretty [:)] im gonna paint it with some crazy fictional line that i have yet to dream up… its really nice though, i ran it and its fairly quiet, except when i run it backwards it makes a clicking noise like a truck was derailed or something, i havent really inspected it al that much though, (i probably should) but it looks and runs nice. its a Blue box btw, so im gonna go get that wiring harness and the digitrax power module, (the Zephyr i believe is the one reccomended to me). thanx for all the help and if theres anything anyone knows about this particular locomotive model that i should know then please keep me posted! [:)]
KombatKarl
I think that big AC4400 is either an RTR or a Genesis unit. I’ve criticized Athearn’s in the past but I will be the first to admit that they are TOUGH units and will last years. Be careful when removing the body as it can be a challenge at first.
Clicking? Check and make sure it isn’t derailed. If it continues to click there may be a minor gear problem. Remove the body, run it slowly forward and backward while looking at the moving mechanical parts and listening at the same time.
An old auto mechanic trick is to put a short rubber hose between your ear and the model as the annoying sound will become much easier to pinpoint. (Worked for me back in my old hot rodding days!)
A cracked axle housing within the trucks is often the culprit in Athearn and Proto 2000 locomotives with “clicking trucks”. This happens even in brand new units. Fortunately it’s an easy fix and the axle housings sell for about $1.30 each. A lot of modelers keep several on hand for situations like this.
Cheers!
I have an Athearn C44-9W that does the same thing in reverse. It’s just the gears making that noise, and that has never caused a problem with mine. The C44 is the same engine as the AC4400, but it has a smaller box behind the cab.
Nope, the AC4400CWs offered by Athearn so far are all Blue Boxes. They just released 9-44CWs in the RTR line though, so AC4400CWs shouldn’t be far behind.
Athearn released a RTR AC4400CW 1 or 2 years ago. It looks pretty nice. It has a windshield in the proper place instead of behind the windows, and a snowplow.
nope mines a blue box athearn, i really like it. i figured out what the clicking was, the brass contact that connects the light to the main retaining clip slipped out and was resting on a joint of the drive train, and when the loco would reverse, itd move it just right onto the joint so it clicked as it rotated against it. i isolated the motor last night, is that all, just cover that brass contact on the bottom of the engine? what is that anyway, a ground?
The only locomotives i have are athearns.
there good price durable and easy to use.
and easy to convert to DCC.
Theres no bad Model Companys , just not very good ones.
really cheap and no attiention to detail.
The drive shafts in my C44 were making a lot of noise and vibration, so I stuck some Kleenex in the sockets and that quieted them right down.
One half of each truck on Athearn Blue Box engines puts power in the frame, and the motor picks up the power from the frame with the brass contact.