I have a pair of RDC’s that were rereleased by Athearn in the late 90’s, the ones with the rubber band drives. I just recently pulled them out of storage to run with mh proto 1000 rdc’s and realized just how much smaller they are. How out of scale are these models?
They are not really out of scale, but shortys like Athearn passenger cars. It is possible they were made to run in the same mold base as the passenger cars, hence the same length.
Athearn made some passenger cars shorter in order to run on a tight radius curve. Its possible they did the same thing with the RDC
Athearn RDCs are about 13’ too short, made to run OK on 18" radius track.
Bob Boudreau
You mention rubber band drives. I thought all Athearn RDCs had these outdated drives. Is there a new crop that have non rubber band drives? I’d love to change out my old RDCs with new ones.
All Athearn RDCs were made with Rubber Band Drives. However the Same people that make the Earnst Gearing kits for Athearn Diesles have a kit to convert the Athearn RDCs to Can-Motors, Flysheels and Worm Gears. I think it also includes trucks. with a way to use the Athearn Side Frames. I only have one. Im gonna keep it rubber band powered. So I havn’t looked into it much.
James
Athearn stopped making the RDCs some time ago, reports were that the molds were damaged and not worth repairing. They had been making them for probably close to 50 years, so they must have got their money’s worth!
Life-Like Proto 1000 (now Walthers) offered RDC-1, -2 and 3 models in the correct length with a modern can motor driving one truck.
The Ernst regearing kit for the Athearn does not include trucks, but parts to make one truck operated with a gear train. It requires removing metal from the chassis around one truck and a fair amount of other fiddly work. I have the kit but never could get enough interest in trying to install it. With Trainwold offering the RDC-2 and -3 for $19.95, and the RDC-1 for $29.95 it just wasn’t worth the effort.
Bob Boudreau
The Athearn RDC is a scale 72 feet in length. Not prototypical, but as mentioned above it’s designed to be able to take tight radiuses.
However, the prototype Budd company did manufacter the 65 foot long RDCs that ran or may still be running in Australia.
One cool potential about Athearn RDCs is that for imaginative modelers they can be kitbashed into “Freelance” transit or commuter cars. A few years back well known modeler Dean Freytag did just that. His layout has appeared in MRR several times. He turned an Athearn RDC into a realistic looking electric MU car for his layout’s transit line.
I had a Athearn RDC and the rubber bands where had to replace. To me the Photo 1000’s RDC looks good, but runs bad.
SilverChampion,
P1K RDC run bad? Did you see one run and it happened to have a mechanical glitch?
I have a New Haven P1K RDC. Heavy like a brick and a super smooth runner. Slow speed momentum is great!
Makes a small amount of noise but nothing like the growl of a typical Athearn. I plan on taking it apart to see if polishing the truck gear will quiet it more.