I built and painted a 1980’s MBTA commuter train a while ago. As a result I have a fair stock of old beat up Athearn RDC models. For my now project I want a B&M version of the Buddliner. The Athearn models are not bad, a little short, but I look at that as selective compression, making things a little smaller to fit on the layout. As you can see I have a sixpak of shells to work from.
And also a bunch of chassis to work from.
Of the batch, only one had a motor that turned when power was applied. That make selection of a chassis obvious.
The original rubber bands for the drive were long gone. Following a tip I got off the Internet somewhere, I bought a box of girl’s hair elastics at a drug store and they work just fine.
3 in 1 oil for the motor bearings, clean the commutator with Goo Gone, and install the rubber bands and she runs. Take care that all the insulated wheels wind up on the same side of the chassis.
Things yet to do. Kadee couplers. wire hand rails. Replace missing window glazing. Add lights, both headlight and interior lights. Detail interior. Paint chassis. Dark wash on roof ventilator grills.
It can be satisfying work to restore and/or upgrade these models from an earlier time.
I had a couple of those Athearn RDCs, one powered and the other a dummy. While they ran somewhat rocket-like, they were solidly-built.
After riding in a real one, (at almost rocket-like speeds), I decided to upgrade the powered one with one of NWSL’s, at that time, recently released, PDT powered trucks.
It was powerful enough to pull the dummy unit up all of my grades, but was also capable of smooth, controlled starts and running reliably at low speeds.
Sorry, but I have no photos, as they were sold when I back-dated my layout to the late '30s.
I’m looking forward to following your rebuild of these classics.
Great start to a project with some great potential. I earnestly look forward to seeing further progress!
Looks like a nice alternative to buying one of them $300 Rapido RDCs! That is if you’ve got time, skill, patience, and aren‘t a rivet counter like me who could never deal with the fact the car is too short. I commend you for your efforts, wish I had that skill and patience!
It would be cool if you could show some pictures of the previous set of RDCs you did! Just curious!
I would imagine that every model railroader back then had at least one of those Athearn HiFi Drive locomotives, mine was a War Bonnet F7. Can’t remember what happened to it but it’s been gone a long time.
Just figured out how these Athearn “Rubber Band” drive locos work from the OPs image. That can’t be a good running system, the low speed must be TERRIBLE! You can’t rely on just fiction like that! Glad they don’t still make stuff like that!
My 1980’s MBTA commuter train. These ran for years around Boston. By the 80s the RDC cars no longer ran under their own power. Story I heard was that T maintenance folk had stopped bothering to put engine covers back under the engines and the spray and gunk kicked up onto the engines during the Blizzard of '78 killed half of the engines. Hence the F unit to pull them.
Thanks for the picture dstarr, looks nice, I’m assuming that’s custom paint? Very nice! Is is just me or is the second RDC too short compared to the F unit and the other RDC? Irregardless very nice!
Custom paint. I am flattered. I painted them all my self, with rattle cans and masking tape. Both of the RDC cars are Athearns, I haven’t measured them to be sure, but I think they are both the same size and length. I didn’t do any trimming or splicing to make 'em longer or shorter.
I had an F7 and a Hustler. If I wanted the Hustler to go really fast, I disconnected one of the bands; slow accleration, but went like a rocket once it had some momentum
When I changed from AF S gauge (operated at prototype speeds) to HO in my teens, my first HO loco was a Hi-F Pennsy (the LHS didn’t have a Santa Fe Warbonnet) F7. The hobby shops usually had an AA, AB, or ABA on the point of a train in the window or somewhere in the shop, and pulling a train was a little breathtaking. They ran quietly, with only a little brush noise, and smoothly, even starting a train nicely–and the weight of the train kept the speed down if you weren’t over enthusiastic on the throttle. Very soon after they came on the market, someone had an article in MR on how to slow them down a little: carefully wrap electricians friction tape around the oversized axles, making sure the beginning and end were properly aligned to avoid out of round trouble. Then someone (Pittman?) brought out a replacement assembly with gearing between the motor shaft and the upper rubber band shafts. BTW, I think the Hi-F units cost $5.95!
I bought my first Athearn, a GP7, HiFi drive fro, Bob Rule’s hobby shop in Lancaster PA back in the early 1960’s. If memory serves it only cost $10.95.
I made a plastic insert to fit around an Athearn Switcher truck which is of the same wheel base and have a Canon single ended motor powering the one truck. Not quite to a Proto (which I do have) or (I imagine) a Rapido (which I do not have) but fairly good running just the same.
If I had a newer truck, I could use the Budd sideframes but as it is I have shaped down the cast trucks I did have to a close to the outline and it would take a fairly reasonable eye to pick it.
I like the Athearn units from the point of view of the travelling around curves … even in the compound areas where there are 32" radius in part of the curves, the overhang of the Proto units still does not look right to me.
The newer Stanton Drive from NWSL is much better over the original PDT drives. But for anybody going that route, act fast incase nobody buys out NWSL and keeps them going. I have a NJ Custom Brass RDC and it is so much longer looking than the shortened Athearn ones. But the plated finish is much more realisitc for the stainless finish of the prototype. Good looking RDC’s guys. Mike
Ernst produced super gearing sets for many Athearn locos. They also made kits to convert the RDC and the Hustler from rubber band drive to gear drive. IIRC, for the RDC it only powered one truck. You can still find them at train shows and on eBay.
I had a set of Ernst gears in an Athearn S12 I had. Did all of the tuneup stuff to the motor, use Pearl Drops to break the gears in, then cleaned and washed them all and put it back together - with the worrms off, each truck, even with the extra gears of the Ernst set, would roll rather than slide when tilted on a flat board or pieceof track. That loco was as quiet as anything. I did lose traction by putting on the NWSL nickel silver wheels, but it was much better for electrical pickup. I tested it at the club, by stacking weight all over the outside, and it was able to pull the same train as 3 standard Athearn road units (unmodified ones). On the steepest grade on the layout. At least until some of the weights started to fall off.
SOmeone once brought an AThearn rubber band RDC. Yes, slow speed was horrible. Top speed would have made a bullet train jealous. But the most fascinating aspect of it was the snap back if you killed the power. Talk about whiplash…and I don’t mean Snidely.
I think the AHM MDT switcher I had was even faster though. That loco would act like a Lionel - go too fast around a curve and it would tip over and roll off the rails. It was like driving a slot car on tracks, had to slow down to keep it n the rails. Get it just right and it would go zzzzzzzzz…zing…zing…zing…zing…zzzzzzzzzz as the inside wheels lifted and it lost power. That’s how it ran - straight out of the box.
Done some more work on the Buddliner. I want to install constant brightness lighting for both headlights and interior lighting. Will use the classic four diodes in series with the motor circuit. I use a Radio Shack full wave bridge rectifier assembly to get my four diodes in a compact package. I cut a piece of perf board to fit just inside the roof top radiator blister. I will use sticky tape to keep it in place.
Found an old microconnector in the junk box. Soldered longer leads to it. This will bring juice from the motor up to the constant brightness board. These things had twin automotive style headlamps on each end. I ordered some 1/16th inch clear plastic rod from Walthers to make the headlamp lenses. Hartmann’s, the last hobby shop anywhere near me is gone, owners retired, so I have to mail order everything now a days.
Looking good Dave. For those that have a Hobbytown USA near them, they have started carrying some of the old Radio Shack line of electronic parts, mostly the stuff that pertains to hobbies like trains, science fair projects and RC stuff. I dug out my old brass RDC2, removed the single chime horns and replaced with Nathan P5’s with all bells foward on each end. Drilled out the headlights so they can be lighted, still need to do the red markers. Then she can go to the painter to become Susquehanna M5. Mike the Aspie
