i have recently bought 4 athearn diesel engines
3 out of the 4 have had light problems, i am just a beginner and i am in dc
i was just wondering if its the train or is it something i am doing?
one is a athearn genesis gp15-1 the lights went out i returned it got a new one the lights went out i would just like to know what to do to fix it
norfolktom - Welcome to trains.com! [C):-)]
Hopefully someone can get you some advise soon but it does make me worry about the power coming from your track…
[:S]
Norfolktom,
Hey great to have you in the hobby.
Athearn is notorious for bulb issues. They use 1.5v bulbs which will inevitably burn out. The shelf life of these bulbs is difficult to determine–could be 5 years, could be 5 minutes. Athearn believes that bulbs are more prototypical looking and that LEDs give a blueish hue. But I believe that LED technology has come along way in the last few years. For me, I prefer to buy locomotives that have LEDs factory installed and upgrade those that dont come with them to LEDs when the original bulbs burn out. LEDs last an extremely long time typically, and outside of being particular to polarity and voltage supplied to them (ie they usually require resistors to be installed with them), and no longer have the blueish hue they used to.
I hope Athearn will one day soon put LEDs at the factory in their locomotives.
Back to your question…The more power you supply to your track on your DC layout (ie the faster you run your trains) the higher the voltage is supplied to the bulb and therefore the higher the likelihood your bulbs will burn out sooner. No one can predict when the bulbs will wear out, but they will, and they will wear out sooner than an LED. You can relatively replace the bulbs by taking off the shell and replacing the bulbs. You can buy replacement bulbs from Miniatronics. You can also replace them with LEDs almost as easily and never do it again. Its all a matter of how much you enjoy the hobby and if its that important to your enjoyment. You may have a transformer that is giving off alot of voltage to the track. Perhaps you can hook up a voltmeter and check it.
I know youre just getting started in the hobby and this is alot of info, but I hope it helps.
thank you for all that info
i am starting to think about going to a different train company
what would you say are the best and most reliable companys
If you’re looking for affordability and good running and don’t mind skimping on details Bachmann and Walthers Trainline. I’ve got some locos from both companies and they’re good runners. Bachmann recently came out with models that have DCC and Sound for under $150 if I’m not mistaken. Many of their regular DCC diesels run under $120. The Walthers Trainline locos are affordable but the ones I’ve seen don’t have any electronics and require a decoder to be hard wired.
Tom:
Before you start considering different locomotive manufacturers you really should check the voltage that is being applied to your track by your DC source. An inexpensive voltmeter can save you a lot of grief and also help in troubleshooting those problems that will crop up in the future.
Joe
Yes indeed confirm the voltages, especially since you have problems with most of the locos as I understand it. My favorite companies are MTH, OMI, Kato, Atlas, Intermountain and Proto–I hope I haven’t left anybody out.
BTW, the older Athearns used 12 or 14 volt bulbs.
Richard
i just tested it out with my voltmeter and it said it was 320 volts
since i am a beginner i don’t really know what this means
No way, unless you live in a country with that high a voltage on the power mains.
What type of “transformer” are you using. 320 Volts should cause the locomotive motor to burn out as well as the lights.
What type/brand of voltmeter is it? You might have it set on the wrong range for reading your voltage.
Based on your user name, my guess is that you live in the U.S. where our power line voltage is normally only 120 Volts AC. At that voltage your motor would smoke and the train would take off like a rocket.
i am sorry i miss read it
it said 120 volts and that’s what my athearn power pack says
320 volts? That has to be an improper setting. I just checked the voltage on my own track. It reads 11.2 volts and that’s twelve DCC locos sitting on ‘hot’ track. If you’re using DC the meter should be set on DC voltage or DCV. If using DCC it should be set on AC or ACV.
Some thing isn’t right. Either you are reading the meter wrong or the meter is badly broken. Electricity can be complicated but for model railroading we can use the plumber’s analogy to understand it enough to make the trains run.
Thing of a wire as a piece of waterpipe. Apply some force (pressure) to the water in the pipe and the water begins to flow. Apply more pressure and more water flows. Now think about a wire. The electric force we apply is measured in volts. The amount of electricity flowing is measured in amperes. Apply more volts and more current (more amperes) flows.
For HO and N DC we apply 12 volts or less direct current (DC) to the track and we expect an HO locomotive to draw something less than one ampere. Your track voltage might be somewhat high, but no one believes it will be THAT high (320 volts). The 12 volts was chosen years ago to run trains because you cannot get an electric shock by touching voltage that low.
Most meters are equipped to read AC voltage, DC voltage, DC current, and resistance. There are rotary switches or pushbuttons to select what the meter is supposed to do. If the meter is set wrong (set for resistance for example) when you mean to measure voltage, you will get a strange answer. In fact if the voltage is high enough, you can damage the meter. They taught us to always set the meter back on volts before setting it down, just in case you or someone else carelessly touched the meter to voltage without checking the meter setting first.
Tom (I am making a guess here) which Athearn’s do you have, the RTR (you can see then engine whit it is still in the box) or the older Blue Box Athearn’s. (lids are solid and you cannot see the engine)
If they are the RTR engines they will have a light board and the headlight wires are held to it with plastic clips. They do not hold the wire’s very well and the wires will lose contact. Best way to fix this is to solder the wires to the board. Use a alligator where the mounting point goes to the main part of the board to act as a heat sink. It sounds harder than it is.
Athearn as a whole, using DC I am fine with all there engines. When i started having problems with them was when I went DCC. Motors drew to much power for the decoders and I BBQ a lot of them.
With you being new, you might not have a soldering iron yet, but you will! [:-^]
[#welcome] to the site.
Cuda Ken
i have the newer athearn were you can see the engine in the box but i have a athearn genesis
and when i take it apart i will see what i can do
and i do have a soldering iron
When you did your voltage test, a few comments:
Make sure you’re testing the track, not the input to the transformer
If you had 120 volts, it would have to be near 0 amps or you would be hurting physically
When you test make sure the meter is set on DC and try the leads with red on one rail and black on the other–get a reading. Switch the leads/rails and get a reading. One of those two readings should be a negative voltage if measuring DC.
I get as much as 20plus volts on my DC with no load.
Make sure the track is wired(both wires) to the variable DC output of the transformer. Many transformers have 3 sets of output–variable/track-DC, fixed DC and AC
Richard
i just contacted athearn and they are going to send me a set of lights for free
i just dont know how to put the new ones on, if you could help me that would be great