I’m kind of an old school model railroader so I thought I’d ask for some help here. I have a LifeLike P2K EMD BL-2 (remember those?) I believe this was the first in the series followed by the ALCO FA-2. My BL-2 has about 2 or 3 hours total running time on it and has a broken gear in one of the gearboxes. After examining this gearbox I discovered that it is identical to Athearn’s Blue Box F-7/GP-7 etc. in fact when I bought this thing i noticed it had the wrong truck sideframes on it which I replaced with Athearn GP-7 sideframes for a direct snap in replacement. I’ve recently tried to purchase brand new Athearn GP-7 power trucks ( I happen to know they are a direct replacement, contrary to what some people will tell you). Horizon Hobbies (Athearn’s owners) say no way, the power trucks arent available and Walthers/LifeLike are even less help. My question is, does anyone here have any ideas on who might have these parts? Years ago when I worked in this business Athearn always claimed that most of their parts were available all the time and all US made. I am fully capable of repairing my own stuff if I can get the parts and taking a model locomotive apart doesn’t bother me in the least. I used to disassemble and paint brass steam without breaking a sweat. It really does p–s me off to have a beautiful nicely re-detailed model that is completely useless. Sorry for the rant but customer service seems to be a dead item these days. Even my favorite fast food restaurant has pictures of the food printed on the cash register because the employees can’t read well enough. A symbol of our decaying society I guess. My apologies. Rick Martin
You don’t need to replace the entire truck, you just need to replace the cracked gear. If Walthers won’t send you free replacements like they have in the past for P2K models, you can use Athearn gears because they are exact replacements.
The Athearn part number for the gears is 60024 and they come 6 to a package, which will be enough to fix the BL2 and have 2 gears left over.
When you go to Athearn’s web site click on “parts” near the top of the page and scroll down until you find the correct number.
Postage is going to cost more than the gears but it’s still a cheaper fix than buying complete trucks.
Thanks will give them a try. Sure hate to have a nice model just sit and collect dust. Once I get it fixed will see about going DCC with it. Got a friend here in my area who can help me out with that item…Rick
Speaking of P2K parts, I am looking for a P2K RS-2 shell but cannot find one anywhere. I have tried ebay, walthers and all the other online resources. Any ideas?[:(]
I’ve installed decoders into two P2K BL2 models and it was not difficult at all if you have the proper tools and know how to solder.
If you still want to get Athearn power trucks, do a search on eBay for “Athearn power truck” and you should be able to find some. Some are used, some are new.
There are a few online shops that also sell them. www.1stplacehobbies.com comes to mind.
You had a post from 6 years ago about looking for P2K BL2 shells. Did you ever find any? I picked up a repair kit on ebay a while back and it had four different shells in the box.