I have a pair of Athearn RTR RS3 engines, both of which run fine. But, one runs absolutely silent, while the other whines as it runs. I applied some good quality gear lube on the front and rear gears but the whine persists.
At first, I thought about the cracked gear problem, but there is no thumping, so I am perplexed.
Has anyone experienced a whining problem on the Athearn RTR RS3?
Any syggestions on how to deal with the problem?
Thanks.
Rich
I do not have your specific locomotive, but have had a couple of locos that made high pitched whine from the motor bearings. Can you disconnect the drive train and see if the whine is in the motor? On the older blue box engines you could put a dab of oil on the bearings which would help quiet things.
Not to go off topic, but the thought of a whining locomotive is just too good to pass up… so what does it whine about? “This track is lumpy!” “This is too many cars, man!” " Aww, no, not another grade? How come I always have to go uphill???"
George V.
I think you were lucky to get one that didn’t whine. Most Athearn locomotives have the famous whine, call it cheap factory sound.
Athearn is nutorious for whining sounds. if the loco is older thatn about 5 years, the whine won’t probably go away. also, if you are running DCC on your layout, there might be a wire rubbing the drive shaft. those are really the only two problems that ive had with Athearn, otherwise you might want to bring it in.
[:-^]
Maybe that is prototypical. Last week I was in a lumber yard along side the CP rail yard. There was an old GP-20 working there in a lash-up and you should have heard all the strange noises coming out of it. There was whining, banging, squeeling, and air leaking, then the occasional loud snap. I had a hard time believeing that it could have gotten off the bad order line. Certainly not one to be proud of. But when one of my locos make a little noise I am not going to worry about it. I’ll just chock it up to seniority (long time service).
In a lot of cases incresed run time can lessen the growl. But do google “Athern motor servicing” or such as there is alot of things you can try from Pearl Drops tooth paste, which is hard to find any more to alignment problems, flash on gears or u-joints. Lots of ideas there.
Johnboy out…
A few thoughts here:
I have three of them, they all run great and don’t seem noisy to me at all. Not as noisy as a BLI steam loco in reverse! Admittedly the OP may have one with a slight problem.
Before anyone makes any more “all Athearn locos are noisy” comments, you might want to consider the fact that this is not a “Athearn” built loco like all those BB or Ready to Roll locos you heard making a little noise over the years.
This is a MDC loco, with a retooled drive built in China, most likely (but I don’t know for sure) by the same people making the Genesis line. Having had mine apart it does not look like any other Athearn drive I’ve seen in 40 years, nor does it look like the orginal MDC product.
So, maybe it does have a “problem”, minor or major, and maybe carefull inspection will find a simple cure or maybe it should be returned. But in any case to just say “they all do that” is far from fair or correct.
Sheldon
You will have to do some diagnostics to find out where and why the noise is being heard. First completely remove the shell and run it. No sound than the shell is either vibrating or something is rubbing on the drive train. Then carefully look at the flywheels and run it slowly back and forth, watch for wobble or for and aft movement. If the motor shaft is moving back and forth than either a re motor or pulling a flywheel and shimming is in order. If the motor is good than disconnect one truck drive shaft. Run it back and forth. No noise than disassemble the trucks and clean and grease. Lube the little bronze blocks with just a drop of oil and reassemble them. On a lot of my old Athearn locos the worms would walk back and forth. I had to shim them with some Kadee truck washers. While you have the trucks off polish the bearing surface real good on the frame with some fine sand paper. When all this is done you should have a good running and quiet loco.
P.S. I forgot to mention the drive shafts. If they are the hex shaped end a little polishing with emery and rounding off the flats a little will help. If they are the old 2 pin type then a little drop of plastic compatible oil will help. And check for flash under magnification. Just a little flash will bind them up.
Pete
Both of the RS3’s that I have are quiet runners, but I do have a Athearn RTR GP40-2 that sounded like a miniature coffee grinder after it got up to a certain speed. I fixed that problem by lubricating the motor bearings and it’s a pretty quiet runner now.
This video has some great tips in it -
George,
Thanks for that advice. I will disconnect the driveshafts to determine if the whining is in the motor rather than the gears.
As to what the loco is whining about, you were close. The whiner is actually complaining about being strip searched (shell removed) on several occasions and having its innards examined and lubed.
Rich
Oh brother !
I did as you suggested and Googled “athearn rs3 noisy”. Looks like I am not alone. Lots of problems with noise. The consensus seems to be bearings that need lubrication and misaligned gear parts.
I will dig into this and report back on my findings.
Rich
A lot of great ideas here Pete. Thanks. I will do as you suggest.
Excellent video. Thanks.
After close inspection of the problem engine, it turned out that one of the wheesets had a bad gear causing the wheels to slip. Fortunately, I had a bag of replacement gears that my LHS guy sold to me several years ago. I replaced the gear and reassembled the wheels and bearings, and the noise went away.
Rich