Taking a couple of rubber bands off an RDC makes it start like the real thing and it sounds good just sitting there humming. Another source of rubber bands is orthodontests or kids with braces. My kid always made sure I got some after every visit. With what the orthodontest charged he should have sent me an engine every week.
Although I did turn my old rubber-band drive engines into dummies, or “honorary engines” as I prefer to call them, I admire your attitude.
I gave them a chance, though. I cleaned them up, replaced the bands and even put in decoders. But, they just didn’t run well enough to justify further work. I looked at replacing the motors and wheels (for better electrical pickup) but then I found I could get brand new Protos in the same road name for less money.
The budd cars can be improved by removing one set of rubber bands and placing a flywheel on that side of the motor and also adding weight improver electrical contact and traction
I still run my F-7’s for nostalgia reasons at times. The versions I have are from around 1963 and they still run strong. I have bought plenty of spare parts at shows very cheaply but have not needed to replace anything.
One thought: The type I have has a round hole through the frame that the shafts from the motor goes through (versus a slot) and over time the hole tends to wear oblong from the tension of the rubber bands and lack of adequate bearing surface not to mention the saft gets grooved. I found that redrilling the hole and fitting a piece of copper tubing in it to act as a bearing sleeve and realigns the shafts back to a parallel position to the frame.
I keep a small amount of Labelle teflon grease on the shaft and bearing surface to keep wear to a minimum. The drastic reduction in RPM’s of the motor I installed helps cut down on wear as well.
All rubber-band-driven locomotives should be deposited here, thank you.
The “grave site” is located along Highway 395, several miles south of Mono Lake, CA.
Mark
Oh come on, how could you dump a Lionel HO section gang car there? When I was a kid I used to call it the “bumper car” because, well, basically that’s what it did, bounce bacn and forth between a pair of bumpers. We had it halfway up our mountain. Initially had some problems, then my dad realized the track spikes were contacting the wire screen in the mountain and causing the short, so the track was glued down instead.
Then there is th advantage to the Athearn ones I mentioned - they are 8 wheel pickup, which beat the gear drive models of the saem vintage and still beats many brass diesels - why is it brass makers can;t figure out how to insulate the axles to allow for all-wheel pickups? Speakign of brass - there’s always the brass locos with the spring belt drives! There are also modern power trucks with belt drives that are very effective. Also Bachmann has been doing belt drives in steamers so there’s no motor and worm gear showing underneath the boiler.
–Randy
As Moriarity (Gavin MacLeod) said to Oddball (Donald Sutherland) in 1944 France, “it’s a piece of junk.”
Mark
Always with the negative waves, Moriarity!
Ah, yes! Good ol’ rubber band/Hi-Fi drive! What, tell me, would the hobby have been without it?
Shortly after Christmas, 1962 one of these came close to being my second HO-Scale locomotive – the only loke I owned was a plastic bodied Varney F3 which, by the way, I still own – and it likely would have been had not the hobby shop proprietor there in Moses Hole . . . . . er, ah . . . . . Lake – old habits die hard – told me about the rubber band drive and I, naturally, shyed away from such exotic technology. It was one of the GP9s and he pulled the shell off the frame and showed me. A couple of years later when I was on a tour of duty in Massachusetts a number of people in the club I joined had some of these and they ran pretty good if I thought just a little on the fast side.
Roll the clock forward to 1981; I am working in a hobby shop and Uncle Irv reintroduces his RDCs. One of the steady customers is eyeballing one in the display case and I nonchalantly comment that they run fine until the rubber bands stretch and then they hardly run at all. Rubber bands? Get real!!! So I pull the shell and show him!
You know, he bought one, I suppose, because he just had to have one!
. . . . . and by the way, an old timer told me that a nearly perfect match for these rubber bands can be found at Orthodontist supply houses.
[:)]
SteamFreak wrote:
“There are hair bands made by Goody you can find at any Wal-Mart that are more like a stretchy vinyl, and don’t rot like traditional rubber bands. I’ve had some on an old Budd car for a long time without any deterioration.”
I’m headed to Wal-Mart right now to look for the Goody stretchy vinyl bands for my Athearn Budd RDC and Athearn F3.
[:)] [:)]
See if you can locate the clear ones. I’ve since swapped the purple bands for clear (which are a little more flexible), but the purple was dark enough that it didn’t show through the RDC windows.
Yeah, but I would love to have a fleet of those Tiger’s right now, and a few Panzer IV’s too.
[:)]
I have a package of the clear Goody hair bands. Installed four of the medium size on the RDC and had to stretch them to get a reasonable tension. They seem to work so far. Now I have to clean and lube the squeaking bearings and re-connect a broken wire.
And then on to the F3.
Thank you, SteamFreak, for the tip.
[:)] [:)]
See those really WERE pieces of junk - they weren’t Tigers at all, but Soviet T-34’s painted to look like Tigers. The Shermans were real - they were still in use by the Yugoslavian Army at the time!
–Randy
I have three of the rubber band drives from the early 60’s. The bands are fairly easy to install. These models still work well.
Hallmark of Irv Athean’s design - simple, rugged, and reliable. Simple enough to maintain and be low cost, rugged enough to be suitable for younger modelers as well as experienced ones, and reliable enough to just keep running year after year, instead of breaking down within a couple of weeks and causing the prospective model rail to loose interest in the hobby.
–Randy
Kevin,
I have been trying to find a way to put a gear drive in my Athearn Hustlers and the Ersnt set is no longer made, nor is the Accurate Lighting unit. Can you post or send me any photos of how you used the 4 wheel Athearn truck gear set? I would love to get these little critters to run better and slower. Thanks,
Bob
This was a fun one to read. I have just recivied a rubber band drive Bud car. Looks to have been re motored and it hauls.
Cuda Ken
Yes, fresh rubber bands and some new dilithium crystals, and those belt-drive Athearns would travel at about Warp 8. They are actually fast enough to launch themselves off the tracks on curves.