I have owned several newer locomotives, both sound equipted and none sound equipted. Whiles its nice and really kewl to see in HO scale. It tends to get on my nerves after the first 15 mins of an operating session. Call me old fashioned, but I prefer to run my old pair of Athearn diecast trucked SW7’s and use my imagination for the sound. I can hear the chant of thier EMD prime movers the whole time in my mind, the tick tick tick of the air valve on the tanks to keep moisture from building up in them, and the Leslie 3 chime horn as I approach a crossing. With years of use a being kept in proper tune, they both run as smooth as most modern power, and while the handrails arent quite to scale and the details not quite as fine, I am not breaking things when I have to pack them up for the trip home from the local club, or when I run interchange to a friends layout at his house. Both units are custom painted, one is in dark red, lettered for the Turtle Creek Central from MRR magazine fame, sports a working clear double pulse strobe on the roof and a few other brass details I added. Her running mate is in the process of being painted for the EJE or The “J” as its fondly know as. It will be in what I call the Christmas tree green paint scheme with a working single pulse red strobe on the roof. Both units are hand me downs one from The “J” and the other from the IHB. Thier simple drive systems are easily tuned and repaired, parts are cheap, face it, the old athearn drives are bomb proof! I use an old Troller Autopulse power pack that allows nice slow speed control of the older drives. I also have an old Atlas/Roco SD35 painted for TCC, but its out of service right now awaiting a tune up in the shops. About the newest drives I will own anymore are the Atlas/Roco and Atlas/Kato drives. Thier smoothness is still at the top, even to this day. I alway canvas shows for older metal trucked Athearn locos for par
Most of my favorite locos are old Athearns (most are pre 2000). I’ve fitted most of them with inexpensive two function DCC decoders (mostly Digitrax and Bachmann with a couple more from NCE and Lenz) so I can run them with my Digitrax system. About 60% of my fleet are old Athearn’s with another 4% being newer BB Athearn’s with the new motors and drives. About 1% are the new rtr (Ready To Rebuild) Athearns. I’ve had to rebuild almost all of them due to problems with trucks, soldering, motors, etc. The rest of my fleet is made up of locos from Proto 2000, Bachmann, Atlas, Kato, Mehano and a couple that are of questionable lineage. As for sound, I won’t have it. I’ve had a grand total of 1 sound loco. I ran it twice and gave it to one of my friends who was ready to sell his soul for it. With my hearing problems it was as irritating as fingernails on a blackboard.
I have some blue box locos that I run on my home layout. The locos and the layout are DC. I’ve got some GP7s, a few SD40s, an F7A, and a Trainmaster, all with the newer flat can type motors and brass flywheels.
I used to have SW7s, but I got fed up with them stalling in switch frogs and I replaced them with Life-Like GM switchers.
I dont have problems with my older metal trucked SW7’s stalling on turnouts, I use both Peco power routing and a few Atlas custom line and snap track turnouts. I have noticed that the older metal sideframe SW’s tend to run better, just a little extra weight helps. I also ditch the stock headlight as it puts pressure on the front truck and doesnt let it track freely like it needs. I put seperate grain of wheat bulbs for both headlights, in brass tubes lined up with the lense, and my working strobes on the roofs. I will get a pic up of the TCC SW unit shortly, its in the paint job getting finished up finaly. I started on a 55ft soothside grain hopper and a wide vision caboose for my TCC. They just got thier color paint today, so it will be a few more days before they emerge from the paint shop. My older SW units have the black “ring” motors with steel flywheels. I have considered repowering, but she runs so quiet and smooth like she is. And ya can beat the smell of ozone when I fire the old girl up after a long rest. Cheers Mike
Shun new for old? Hell no, I just like the older ones. I don’t make any decision not to buy the newer stuff, but I buy what I like and I like the blue boxes. Simple as that.
I don’t have stalling problems with my two switchers either (Athearn SW1000 and Proto2000 SW1200) as the wheel pickups of both locos are wired together so they pick up like one loco. While crossing turnout points neither loco can become isolated as it’s always getting power from it’s partner.
If your having issues with short wheelbase engines stalling on turnout points, its not the engine, but the points themselves that are at issue. Longer wheel base engines can bridge a set of dead points and hide the problem. Many of the turnouts at the local club have a jumper wire soldered to the movable point rails to solve this issue as many times getting the points to reliably make electrical contact to the running rails is not possible. The one turnout that prevents 90% of this is the Peco turnouts with thier sprung movable point rails. Unless debris or ballest glue gets on the inside/outside of the mating points, they normaly have no problems with loosing power. And I say long live the Athearn Blue Boxes!!! I need about 4 more SW units to finish up my desired power pool. I try to find clean, metal side frame models with a simple paint scheme on them, like the Southern and B&O units. A quick respray into my lines basic red with silver accents and white handrails is all thats necessary. Mike
climaxpwr,
I started being “serious” in the hobby in 1990. I was 15, and my father has been a model railroader since the early 1950’s and converted to HO in the 1960’s so it was something that I grew up with (doesn’t everyone have trains in their basement?). We joined a model railroad club that year (I as a junior member).
Dad was never one for scenery, other than making building kits. So our layout was a 4x8’ plywood layout with fiber tie brass track, assembled kits, grass mats, and cardboard roads (see: “The Railroad That Grows”). His equipment was a mix of train set types (Life-Like, Bachmann, AHM, et al) with a few Athearn and Mantua locos thrown in. Nothing really ran that well, and banging the table was common to get 'er to go. But Athearn locos were the best we had, even if they were decades old, and I thought they were the bees knees.
Joining a big time club was a real eye opener. There, I was introduced to ground foam, Kadees & Atlas. Since then, I have never really thought the same about Athearn BB’s.
All those old Athearn’s are in long term storage now, if we even still have 'em. F-units, RDC’s, PA’s, GP9’s, etc. are all things I have that I’ve not installed DCC in. They sit in a display case or in the basement. Meanwhile, I have P1K RDC’s, P2K PA’s & GP9’s, & a bunch of Atlas locos that I run weekly.
These days, I avoid Blue Box locos. Same goes for almost my entire 60+ member club. Sure, lots of Athearn RTR items, but few (if any) straight BB’s. Same goes for old Rivarossi, Mantua, Tyco, etc. The only locos from before 1990 that run on our club layout is brass, Stewart, or Atlas. That’s not a club rule, it just is. Probably the single biggest owner of BB locos is the club itself, mainly because it got these locos custom painted and d
I sold off most of my HO including some Athearn and Atlas locos…I kept 12 BB locos,24 Athearn RTR and 14 Atlas locos and 150 freight cars for club use…
Paul,If you was to drop by one of the clubs I am a member you will see a lot of old brass steam,Penn-Line,Hobbytown of Boston RS3,Blue box engines that dates back to the 60s,old yellow box Atlas…Drop by on DCC operation and you will see the newer locomotives…
I know of another club that looks like a museum.I think a lot of their stuff predates Moses.[:O] They still use brass track.
They sound I’ve imagined has always been more realistic than what comes from models with supposed prototype sound. At the present technology, I don’t see any necessity, although whistles, horns, and bells are worthy for simulating prototypical operations.
Mark Pierce
The black ring motors are the Jet series motors. The road engines were fitted with the Jet 400 motor and the switchers were fitted with the smaller Jet 600 motor. The only difference between the Jet motors and the new flat can type motors is the magnets. The oval black ring on the Jet motors is the magnet. The flat can motors have two small curved rectangular magnets inside. The only reason why Athearn changed the design was so they could make diesels with scale width hoods.
In terms of performance, I can’t tell the difference between a Jet motor, the Athearn flat can motor, and the Athearn style flat can motor that is used in the Life-Like Proto 2000 GP7s and GP9s. The big difference between an Athearn blue box loco (new or old) and a Life-Like Proto Geep is the drive train. Athearn blue box locos have large couplings and the gears aren’t the greatest, but with some tinkering and breaking in they can run just as good as the Life-Life Proto stuff.
Some times the BB stuff gets bad press…But for the money, it’s really hard to beat!!
Detail may be lacking by most standards these days, but I’ve got BB GP’s and an SW “cow and calf” that have been running since about 1960.
Actually, I’m in the process of bashing a pair of Hustlers (OK, they are getting a gearing upgrade) that will be working Sawyer’s Mill.
Enough said…
Y’know, earlier in the week I pulled my old F7’s out of their below-layout cardboard box, along with the string of old Mantua passenger cars, and I ran them around a bit. I’ve been trying to give all of my locos some running time, even the ones I don’t normally have on the tracks, but as I was sitting there watching these 2 old A units and their matching dummy B cross the Moose Bay Bridge, I thought, “Gee, I just love these things.”
The trailing A unit is one I picked up at a show for 13 bucks. The leading A is one I’ve had since I was a kid, and it’s got to be 50 years old. It was the only one of my childhood engines that still ran well enough for a decoder, but it’s great to see it in action.
Mike, since I don’t own any Athearns of any type I can’t comment on them. Most of the engines I have are sound and there are many times, when running them, I turn the sound off as it gets a little irritating after a while. As Mark said, I find sound most useful when doing operations with several other people, especially the bell and horn or whistle. But please… please… don’t turn the bell on and leave it on! [:)]
Jarrell
Jarrell,One of the guys at one club had a slight problem…His locomotive horns wouldn’t shut off…He finally took the engine off the layout after several unsuccessful tries trying to get the horns to shut off.
I agree sound does become irritating.
You can get some good prices on Athearn blue box locomotives if you are buying. My most recent purchase of Athearns was 2 GP7’s for $10.00 each.
The Athearns on my layout include 4 GP7’s, 3 GP35’s, 2 SD45’s, 1 U30B, 1 SW 7, 3 Baldwin switchers, and several F7 A and B units. All are reliable and do not have problems with stalling or derailing.
Brakie,
I believe you, but I have to say that our club is quite different. For example, every night is DCC night. [:)]
Also, Penn Line and Hobbytown locos are something we only see in old magazines, or in the junk bins at local train shows. Ten years ago at our old club, we might see a Hobbytown loco here or there, but none have made the transition to DCC (those few members who owned old stuff like that, maybe 4 guys who are anti-technology, either quit the club or became uninterested in ever running trains). The closest I’ve seen is a Tiger Valley model that the owner is “this close” to actually painting.
Old brass, yes. Old Atlas, yes. But old Athearn? Nope, folks just aren’t that interested. We have approx. 750 locos registered at our club. I think there may be a dozen BB Athearns on it.
markpierce,
I have found that the sound effects makes me operate more realistically. Ramping up the diesel before moving, coasting, stopping before changing direction at even the slowest speed, etc. If I’m in a hurry, I mute the sound. But if I’m all alone running, I like the sound. It’s not the be-all and end-all, but to me it’s a “force multiplier”, just like DCC is. The sound, while not 100% realistic because of the size of the speakers, is better than nothing (to me). I don’t want to pretend to experience sound, I want to actually hear something.
aloco,
The major difference between the gray and brass motors is in the flywheels as far as performance goes. Also, the brass motors may be skew wound, but I don’t know if that’s true. I’ve never taken one apart that far to find out (removing flywheels is a pain).
colvinbackshop,
“Detail may be lacking”??? [:D] Is that like saying that the ocean may be wet, or the sun may be hot?
I have about 100 diesel locos, starting from 1959 or so. More than half are Athearn BB’s and 3/4 of them are “stock”, with nothing more than a very occaisional cleaning/lube job. You can’t kill those old locos!! My new purchases have all been DCC, mostly all with sound. Some day I’ll add chips to most of those old BB’s, but get rid of them - NEVER!! - even though some have “sound” that is not the result of add-on electronics!!
They are not as smooth running as my new Atlas or Genisis locos, and the detail may be lacking, but who can count rivits when the loco is moving? I don’t know about you, but at 66, a scale foot or two of body width is not very noticeable! Don’t get me wrong, these locos have not been in daily use since day one, a couple of divorces and moves has given me several “vacations” from running them, and a few were several years old before they had more than the hobby shop test run. The only thing that I really hate about them is the “glowing cab” headlight!! My[2c]
Not so much a “shun” as a “can’t afford.” I started with model railroading back in the '60’s and I have a few Athearn blue box locomotives. Most of my old stuff still running well on my current layout are (GASP) Tyco, both steam and diesel. These are the pre-Consolidated Foods era so they run better and longer than the imported junk from the '70’s. In recent years, I’ve added some Bowser, Hobbytown of Boston, and Bachmann, as well as the old names under the Walthers banner. I’ve built my own speed controls that have excellent voltage regulation and put out up to 4 amps, and I can make those old Tycos or the newest can motors run smoothly. I’ve had visitors at the club shows come near to calling me a liar when I informed them the Alco C430’s running on the layout were stock Tyco mechanisms. I reworked and repainted the bodies so it wasn’t as obvious as running the plated “Silver Streak” engine.
I’m still working on the layout room, so changing over to DCC isn’t in the forseeable future. I saved bags of switches and reels of wire, so standard cab control required little or no investment in new parts. I have isolated both rails and dropped feeders to each section of track, along with the use of terminal strips at the control panels, so DCC conversion, should I decide to go that way, would be a simple matter.
Most of all the older loco’s I have are Athern. They work well, are fairly cheap and reliable, and as I have the extra cash, I’ll keep buying them as I can find them! Save for the 2 Kato SD40’s in my stable, I’d say the old Atherns will always have a place on my layout.[tup] I’ve found some of the newer locos on the market a bit high and a little out of my price range.[xx(]