I was talking to a fellow model railroader who is quite a bit older than myself, and he says that you will never wear one of the newer Atlas/Kato engines with the flywheels out. He then preceded to tell me about a museum who ran a Kato engine for a ridiculously long time and retired it, still in working order. Now, I am a very busy person and I don’t have all the time in the world to run trains. I’ve had to replace the motor brushes in an Atlas engine with flywheels. It is around 14- 15 years old. It runs as good as new. So I was wondering if a person didn’t abuse one of these engines, is it likely to ever wear out? I understand that some people could tear up a steel ball. Anyway, Paul said he had never seen anyone wear one out. I wondered if anyone else has seen one worn out with normal use? All of my Atlas/Kato engines with the Kato drive are still running fine and some are 14 or 15 years old.
as some point anything electrical such as a motor will wear out, even with proper care. WHat exact time frame that would be is hard to predict.
At the moment a trio of Kato SD70MACs and Genesis SD70 MACs are turning in one heck of a torture performance over at the 1,400 sq ft HO layout at the Chgo Museum of Science & Industry
I have a few HO scale Kato diesels that still run great after 15 or more years, and I’ve run them a lot. I didn’t have any Atlas engines until recently, so I can’t say anything about longevity there. I have some 15 plus year old Athearns that still run great, too.
The only Katos I’ve come close to wearing out are a pair of N scale Con-Cor PA-1s that I bought in 1978. I ran the nickel silver plating off the wheels, but they still run well otherwise.
The following is a quote from David Harrison, of the Chicago MSI, which runs the BNSF layout seven days a week. Thanks to the Atlas Forum for this information.
"
The quick answer is Kato, Athearn Genesis, and Athearn RTR. Our three main lines are powered only by models of contemporary six axle BNSF prototypes and those three manufacturers make what we need. Of the three, the Katos last the longest and are the easiest to service.
There are three trains on each of the three main loops. The locomotives pulling those trains are in trios of like model and manufacturer. There are 13 trios to cover those nine trains. Three trios of Kato SD70MACs; two trios of Kato AC4400s, one trio of Kato F40PH; four trios of Genesis SD70MACs; one trio of Athearn AC4400CWs, one trio of Athearn P40s; and one trio of mismatched Atlas Dash 8-40BW and Athearn C44-9Ws. So we do run other locomotives besides Katos…its just that like the bunny wabbit…,LOL!
Six of the 13 trios are having their
I have had a pair of Kato SD40-2s for five years, and they run like new!!! i love em[:D]
Wow. Even the losers in the Chicago competition look like they can survive more running than any of use will ever subject them to.
Yeah, that is the thing “…they can survive more running than any of us will ever subject them to.” Sure any mechanical system will wear out…etc. … Second Law of Thermodynamics etc. … It is just that with the limited time I have to run trains and the number of engines I have, I may well wear out before some of my engines do.
And that is not necessarily a bad thing!!
I once had a pair of Atlas RS-3 (DRGW) with Kato drives that I purchased used from a LHS… They ran them on thier demo layout which was basically about an 80 foot continuous loop and they usually ran a 20-30 car train (level track work)… These locos had MANY REAL miles on them when I bought them. I ran them for 5 years before I decided to dump all the DRGW stuff and to my knowlage, the third owner is still running them. I can’t really speak on the newer atlas (classics) stuff, none of mine have more than about 1 hour of run time… I Will say that one of them took a 50" nose dive off of the layout one day (actually I accidentaly knocked it off trying to fish it out of one of those hard to reach places)… Smashed the coupler to bits but it still ran fine.
Jeff
[:D]
Wow! What an increadble Topic we have here.
Allan.
I just started to be a N scaler, but have ben in HO for about 11 months. My Grandfarther gave me some 20+ year old tycos they hadent had reguler service in 10 years. even when they wear running the wear only onn a small loop of track. I will soon be retering the engines they are just dying from lack of maintnece[:(!] My old layout was a wreck, patialy because i started with old brass track, and rushed to get it set up. I might look into repowering the Pennsylavania switcher though. [:D][:D] Tim
HOW MANY OF US
… has ever HAD to replace brushes or axle wiper’s or bearing’s (I didn’t say motor’s) on our engine’s? ???
- even BRAKIE with his recently mentioned 55 year old GP-7.
I dont replace brushes or wipers. I had a LL train set F unit run for 25 years with no maintaince until it finally stopped. I suppose with a fresh motor it would be good for another 25 years. But why bother?
The technology of the new engines are pretty good. I am currently exploring purchase of my first new desiels in a long time and expect them to last at least 10 years if not more.
I don’t know but what a stop and start forward and back peddler locomotive doesn’t endure more punishment than a constantly running locomotive on a through. Has anyone done some sort of test like that?
Don,That Geep is 30 years old and I had to replace the brushes once as I mention before times.[:D]
brings up the important question “who ya gonna leave them trains to when your milage is up?”
personally i have no-one . mine are not anything special except to me but im thinking about where they might could go and be enjoyed.
thanks, John
To me a Model Locomotive is just like a real one. Something breaks down,put it in the shop and have it fixed ASAP. Once fixed,put it back on the Road.