Has anyone else been experiencing this ? I’ve now had my second Athearn RS3 arrive with cracked axle gears ! Three out of the four were cracked on both, and I don’t trust the last one to last long.
I’ve come to expect this with older Proto engines, but now Athearn as well ?
Mark.
Mark,
Probably from those 100+ car freight trains,you have been pulling,Hehe…First I have heard of it though,maybe they got a bad batch,of casting mix,I’ve heard of that before…
Cheers,
Frank
LOL - Nope … this was brand new out of the box. Hadn’t even pulled themselves yet ! I just wrote the first one off as a fluke - if there’s a bad ANYthing in a batch, I seem to find it, but two in a row ?
Mark.
Mark,
Remember? The discussion not too long ago,about a poster,that had problem’s with all five brand new engines he bought??I don’t recall if he ever came with a solution though… I recall I said about the same thing…All Five???He said YES,All five…I notice that there are quite a few RTR,problem’s popping up lately,with a lot of Models…Have Fun…
Cheers,
Frank
Mark, that is very surprising since the Athearn gears have traditionally been used to replace cracked Proto gears.
Call the Athearn Parts Department on Monday and relate your problem to them. The guys who man the phone in the Parts Department are extremely knowledgeable and helpful.
Then, let us know what they have to say about this problem.
Rich
My thinking also. I’ve used the gears from Athearn SD40-2’s and F7’s to replace cracked gears in Proto units. Can the same be done in this case?
Sadly Athearn had a lot of QC problems with their old supplier. Athearn has changed suppliers maybe the QC will improve.
It would be best to contact Athearn and advise them of the gear problem.
Yes, I had a GP 35 BB which eventually cracked 2 axle gears. The engine did not tap, tap, tap like a Proto The problem was the axles would not hold gauge.
Athearn’s quality control is hit or miss right now. I had issues with five new ones and I just purchased 4 more Genesis gp38’s and they were fine.
I recently painted one of the undec Athearn RS3s for a friend and found all four axle gears were cracked. Replaced 'em, I did, with SD40-2 gears.[C):-)]
This is obviously not an isolated situation. I wonder if Athearn would come through with replacements like LifeLike did when they were discovered ?
Sent them an e-mail - we’ll see what they have to say …
Mark.
The RS3 is rumored to use the "Life Like Proto drive used in the Proto 2K FA 2 and FA1. Not sure that is factual, but my fleet of 4 Athearn RTR RS3s is grounded because of electrical contact problems, and inconsistent performance. They are sitting until I get around to breaking them down and re-assembling them. I have also heard that this particular series has issues with the axle gears cracking, like the P2K engines. Mine never ran enough to break a gear.
Contact their parts department and see what their policy is… then please pass on their response.
Incidentally I recently acquired a couple of Athearns, a Genesis GP15-1 and a RTR SW 1500, and I’m happy with both.
Joe
Got the following response from Athearn today …
Thank-you for your inquiry. We regret to hear about the problem that you
have encountered with your locomotives. We would be happy to exchange
axles gears with you. Please send them to:
Athearn Trains
1600 Forbes Way Suite 120
Long Beach, CA 90810
Attention: Repairs
Be sure to include a note on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper describing the
problems along with your name, telephone number and shipping address. We
recommend that you ship them via UPS or any other carrier that offers a
shipment tracking service.
Sincerely,
Athearn Trains
That’s all well and good I suppose, but for me to package up the cracked ones, and send them back UPS from Canada would be more hassle and cost than to just go to the hobby shop and buy a package (they have them on the pegs here). For those who live closer, and in the US, this might be a viable opton.
Mark.
Oh good, you got a response. Sounds like they’re going to handle the problem.
Doing business means shipping. They can’t change where you live.
Mark,That’s being done for a reason…
Sadly there are those that took advantage of Life Likes free gear replacement since LL never ask for exchange of parts or proof of purchase.
These abusers then boasted about getting free gears(one boasted he got 17 sets) from LL on various forums.I knew a guy that bragged on getting three free “replacement” motors from LL…The problem was he didn’t own any P2K engines.
A few abusers killed the trust.
If it were me, I would box them up and ship them back to Athearn. They are pretty quick with turnaround. I recently ordered some powered pick up trucks for an F7 and then later ordered some new lens caps and each order arrived about one week later.
Rich
I would have to say,I believe,I would fix them myself,just for cracked axle gears…Seeing as how He’s in Canada,He will save time and money by doing it himself,sad,but true…
Cheers,
Frank
Frank,
By “doing it himself”, do you mean picking up new ones at his LHS?
How would he “fix them himself”?
Rich
Rich,
Of course,that is what I meant,He said His LHS,has them on pegs,in the store,silly…LOL…
Cheers,
Frank
Ah But ,Rich a lot of us old time modelers keeps parts in stock so,we can fix problems ourselves without the need to send anything back or rushing off to the nearest hobby shop hoping the needed part is in stock.
One would be wise to stock basic parts…