After being out of model railroading for @40 years, I want to get back into it again. Other than my steam locos, I have 10 Athearn F7’s A and B units with rubber band drives. My question is, does anyone know of any company that makes a gear drive that will fit the Athearn plastic bodies or anyone that still make the rubber band drives? I would appreciate any info on this matter. Thank You Very much. 
Wildest
Athearn drives should fit. As will A-Line and Proto Power.
I’d just grab a bunch of Super Power F7 chassis’ with drive and drop them under your bodies, of course, I can get those for $30CDN so they’re dirt cheap. The current RTR and Blue-Box F units use the same basic chassis & body as your old ones, just with a Much better drive.
If you want to go all the way, Stewart sells F units chassis with a Kato-quality drive, but they’re not cheap and that’s likely overkill given the old bodies you have.
Unless you are really fond of the old Athearn bodies (or have superdetailed them), just buying new ones in the same roadnames might be an idea, as there is a plethora of excellent F units on the market, and even the current Athearn BB/RTR F units are much better quality of paint & drive than their 15 year old siblings. It’ll probably cost about the same as repowering for BB Super-Power F’s.
W E L C O M E A B O A R D.
You may wi***o consider replacing instead of up grading. Toda’y’s units are much
higher quality and in-expensive such as the P1K units advertisied in MR by trainworld.
For $20 to $25 bucks a pop. Think about it and then come on back.
Here is another angle. If your locos have sentimental value and you want to keep them in your consists, you may consider a few new ones like was suggested above and just remove the drive units from the old ones and run them as “dummy” units behind the new ones. ???
Thanks, one and all. I shall take your advice and purchase new ones. I thought the cost would be way too high, but after lnquiring, it isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. [:)] [:)] Thanks again.
Come on back and see us again, after all you have a round trip ticket.
After you narrow your search post your selections for recommendations.
Again, thanks for riding with us.
Best of Both Worlds:
Athearn F-7’s with ‘Hi F’ drives sold originally for $9.98. Today’s Genesis F-7’s sell for $100 - 10 times that - but so does gold when compared to the ‘then’ price of $35 oz.
The difference is the Genesis is more that 10 times better and your dollar is worth even less.
The 50 year old Athearn shell is still being made and available with a better drive for about $40. You can find USED Stewart F units (with KATO drives) on EBay or other flea marketws calling themselves ‘Swap Meets’ for around $55. With those, you can use as-is or pop the drive into your Athearn shells. If you want to spend a little more money, A new Stewart drive can be had for around $75 and an Intermountain one for about $20 more. The Intermountain chassis has room for two headlights for Athearn A’s. BOTH are excellent.
If you’re locked into 1960 dollars, you should look for a source of Rubber bands.
ME? I think I 'd get some new A units - Genesis, Intermountain, or Stewart - including shells - and convert my B’s to dummies by (removing motors). You’ll know what do do from there.
Thank You All, for the help
Wildest ,Just for fun and information…Athearn still makes the rubberbands for those drives…I would go with the newer Athearn F7s( Blue Box or Genesies) or one of the above named brands…
Seems to be the day for people re-entering the hobby. Good luck with it and welcome back.