No more Athearn

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

I have been back in the model railroad only since April this year alot of things have changed.

My problem is the quality of Atheran, seems like it has gone down hill

.I have 4 Atherans 1sd 60 mac, sd70 Genesis, RTR sd 45, And a Gp9 older all DCC .

Two of the four have fell apart the front trucks wont stay on the track going in one direction , Then theirs the lovely Handrail you can’t even touch it without it breaking.

I have replaced the Truck on the sd70 still no luck The quality is just GONE.

I am going with only Atlas, and Kato the problen neither make alot of new Rio Grande

Does any one like or dislike any other brands that look nice and you can at least remove with out breaking.

AVOID ATHERAN!!

2

Well I am not the biggest Athearn fan but with the bigger Diesels I would look at your track work a little closer. I have 4 Athearn RTR, 2 SD 50’s, Dash 9 and a SD 40-2, they are no picker about track work than my Protos and BLI big Diesels.

Far as the handrails falling off, I started gluing them on my SD 50’s. But other engines like my BLI RSD 15 BLI have the same problem.

My biggest complaint has been with the poor running of quality of the Athearn RTR engines. I switched from Digitrax decoders to NCE. It is like I installed new motors in them.

But, like you I don’t look at Athearn like I did when I first found about the Brand.

Far as the most durable engines out there, Proto and then PCM.

Cuda Ken

3

Haven’t purchased much Athearn in the past several years. Got started on the Kato SD40-2 mid range production Santa Fe’s and have ended up with a large number of them, not a one has failed in any way. Also I am fond of the Atlas in HO also, along with P2K. These make up the bulk of my 350 plus diesel roster.

Bob

4

It seems there might have been a trade-off with durability over details. The folks who were keen to buy items that Athearn marketed kept clamouring for more refinement in the details, and added details. Athearn listened and did much of that in their Genesis line. Unfortunately, those finer details are that much less robust. So, in an effort to improve “quality” for one group, they may have caused another group to feel that “quality” has been reduced.

I have two Genesis SD75M’s, one from both runs. They have about the same looks, which I would judge to be very good, and once I sorted out some wheel gauge minor discrepancies and raised the outer rail a couple thou on some curves, they stayed in the rails and now run very well. There have been some split plastic gears in one or two issues of other engines, but Life Like’s Proto 2000 diesels had a much worse and protracted issue with that same problem.

I had to replace a handrail on one of the SD75’s as well. Maybe they should be made of metal, but then they would bend and stay bent, or at best wavy.

You can’t have it all.

5

Yes I have some Athearn RTR’s as well, they are OK I guess. But they are just too damn loud. The Genesis line they are quieter. The best runner I have from Athearn is the Veranda Turbine, it runs nice and quiet and the handrails are not flimsy.

In any case, I would like to know why Atlas, BLI, Kato, P2K they don’t offer any D&RGW locomotives? Athearn seems to be the only one who offers these? What’s the dealio with that?

6

I for one don’t have a problem with Athearn. Never have.

Never heard of an Athearn falling apart & I have BB’s, RTR’s & a Genesis.

Sure I’ve had a few poor runners out of the box, did some minor maintenance to them & haven’t had a problem with them since.

Athearn BB is the only “modern” locomotive I don’t have a problem letting my 5 yr old handle without having a stroke.

Sorry to hear that you’ve had problems, I haven’t & will continue buying them.

Gordon

7

I agree. Of all of my 14 locomotives (so far). 10 of them are Athearn RTRs and Genesis. I have had no problems with any of them except for two that had bad motors. They were quickly replaced by the fine folks at Athearn’s parts department.

8

I have a lot of Athern, both R-T-R and Genesis. I’ve only had problems with the MRC decoders. but other that that. I haven’t had any problems. Rember, you can’t handle the new stuff like a BB loco. Have you contacted Athearn and gave them a chance to fix it? [^o)]

9

I run Athearn SD40’s and SD40-2’s and for a while an Athearn AC4400 on 18" radius HO Scale with no problems and my track is nowhere near the best. And the locos I usually run aren’t on the small side earlier. A SDP40F with an Athearn chassis and another SDP40F with a P2K chassis. I’d be taking a real close look at the track in the case of constant front truck derailments.

10

Hi, welcome back to the hobby. All of your Athearn’s must of been built on Friday. I have a dozen Athearn RTR’s and they run great. The upgraded blue box turned RTR’s run better than the DCC quick plug locomotives. My best locomotives are my Atlas ones. I have had terrible luck with Proto 2000 and am down to only two now. I prefer Athearn because I run a lot of GP38-2’s. Every modeler has their opinion, but I have an Athearn SDP40 that is 35 years old and it runs great. I only run DC so I don’t know how they would do in DCC mode. My two cents

Todd

11

First let me say that I don’t own any of the specific locos mentioned by the OP, most are way outside my era and I have no interest in them.

I am really only responding to this thread for two reasons - to remind or suggest that judging a whole poduct line by one, or even two or three products that you had a probelm with is likely a foolish move.

Every company in this business makes a few items they could have a done a little better with.

And most all of them make some really great stuff that is perfect, and a lot of the rest is somewhere in between.

Now for my rant - these are models, highly detailed scale models in 1/87 scale. That is small, they are delicate. If that is a problem maybe you need bigger toys, like those made in O gauge by MTH and Lionel.

I get so tired of these complaints on here - “I touched it and it broke”, that’s funny, I’ve been at this since I was twelve years old, for 40 years now, and on the few occasions I have broke something, I knew every time it was my fault, not the model’s fault.

Diesel hand rails are not to be touched by ham fisted giants from the nether world. Again, if you need rugged toys, check out MTH. I have no problems with the plastic hand rails on my Proto2000 GP7’s or my Athearn RS units, or my SD9’s.

I have a number of Athearn Genesis F units, far and away the most detailed F unit ever made in HO scale - I wold not change one thing about them to make them more “durable”. And none of the trucks have fallen off any of them.

After we have come so far in model quality and detail, it would be a shame to “dumb down” the hobby to make the models more “rugged” and/or “handling friendly”. It would be like going backwards to days of the no detail Varney F3 or Mantua Mikado - find some of those, there are no details to break off.

These models are intended to be run and looked at, not handled any more than necessary.

But that’s just my view, what do I know…

Sheldon

12

I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that you never contacted Athearn customer service, correct? Because if you had I find it hard to believe that they did not take care of at least a few of your issues. I have several Genesis locomotives and they had an issue with bad power trucks and cracking axle’s for a while but Athearn stepped up to the plate and not only retrofitted all of my loco’s with new power trucks and in one case a set of axles but picked up the entire freight tab as well.

As mentioned it’s not fair to judge an entire product line by several locomotives with some issue. I know from where I speak, I have a pair of Spectrum J class locomotives that are nothing more then dust collectors do to their poor excuse of a draw bar mechanism. Did it sour me on Bachmann, at first yes I felt all of their stuff is junk and would never purchase another thing from them. Putting my complaint in proper perspective this particular engine is a worthless piece of dung but not all of their engines are. They are what they are and one can not expect the same out of an engine that cost under $200 in most cases as they can from one that cost well over $500. When you make the switch to Kato or Atlas and experience problems with their products where will you go from there?

Granted Athearn is not the upper crust of model railroading when it comes to quality but they are a decent product at a decent price point. One thing you will learn once again about the hobby is no matter how much something cost nothing is bullet proof and eventually all things have some little issue here or there pop up. They only become big ones if you let them become that way.

13

I only owned one Athearn Genesis loco, an MP15AC switcher. I found it to be nicely done, with a lot of detail, which required a little care when handling the loco. The only issue I had with it was the cheapish MRC sound decoder Athearn installed some time ago, but they have changed to a better quality product due to customer complaints.

Regardless of wht brand you will buy, handrails will always be an issue. They are delicate and fragile details.

14

I’ve seen an RTR derail the front truck before. Take a look when it does it, make sure the brake cylinder isn’t binding on the chassis. Not all of them do it, but some have had that problem. Easy fix is to pop-off the brake cylinder, otherwise you’ll need to notch the underside a bit. Regardless of that though, I love the Athearns I have. And will continue to buy more as I need want locos.

Correction: One SD70, I have given up all hope of getting the handrails to co-operate with me, and step-rungs into the holes. But those are minor details, I want an engine that runs, and pulls, and it does. Qite nicely, even on DC with a partner DC SD60 from P2K. Just plop on track and go.

15

Hi!

Athearn is one of the basic HO building “blocks” of our Hobby. Without them, I would bet the RR that more than a few of us would not be in the hobby, and off getting into trouble somewhere.

That being said, Irv’s company of the '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, and early '90s is not the same company we have today. Gone is the “made in California” kits, and the locos have now split into the “regular and premium” groups - most of which are made elsewhere.

But I wouldn’t be too quick to dis the company on quality. The fact is - sad though it may be - the loss of quality control has hit many of the other MR companies as well. Having locos built across the water by people who have no clue as to what the end result should be, and then having the item stuck into a container and travel thousands of miles - being loaded on huge ships, offloaded to a RR car, offloaded to a truck, unloaded at a distribution center, resent to LHS and/or wholesalers, and finally to your home - well that’s an awful lot of bumps and bounces, isn’t it?

OK, what the end result should be is that if you get a problem item - and we all have - contact the manufacturer and I believe they will make it right. Over the years I have done this with Athearn, MDC, Atlas, Bachmann, Broadway Limited, Proto 2000 (Lifelike & Walthers), and MRC. ALL did their darndest to make me a satisfied customer, and they all succeeded!

Give Athearn a call, and they will take care of the situation!

16

Oh was I ever in the boat with you! My first Athearn (I usually stick with Atlas first, then P2K or BLI) was this RS-3

It’s a RTR and out of the box it was anything BUT ready to run. It had electrical contact issues, would run about 1 foot and stop. Rock it back and forth side to side and off it would go… for another foot. Sent it back to Athearn, they did their thing and when I got it back, same problem… except it would run for 2 feet instead of one. Parked it on a spur and forgot it. Got tired of calling it everything but a child of God. Couple of months later, on a whim, cranked it up, pulled out on the main and the sucker has run like a Swiss watch ever since, one of my favorite little engines.

Go figger!

Would I buy another Athearn… hmmmm, not sure. If Atlas made the same engine, then no. If Athearn was my only choice, then probably.

Jarrell

17

I have 1 Athearn dash -9 and when I got it, it was loud and did not seem to run worth a darn. It did suffer a head on crash and fell to the floor and parts went everywhere. I put it back together and it now runs like a champ and is a lot quieter. It is very picky the quality of track but I would say the frustration of it jumping the track has helped me find the imperfection in track so I can get it corrected. When ever I get another Athearn I think the first thing I will do is to take it apart and put it back together so everything is in nice and tight.

18

Roadie.

Most model trains are quite delicate and you need to handle them with Kid Gloves, NOT Boxing Gloves. I am in N Scale and I have more than a dozen Loco’s of various manufacture. In the past 10 or 12 years since I retired and got into MRR I have broken just one small detail part, (the bottom rung on a diesel step). The part was broken due to MY clumsiness and NOT any fault of the manufacturer.

As for derailments, as has been noted, most derailments are usually caused by faulty track laying or by out of gauge track or wheels on your Loco’s or rolling stock. Get yourself an NMRA Track Gauge and learn how to use it properly and it will turn out to be your best friend.

NOTE: The Fast Tracks web site has a good video by Tim Warris on how to use the NMRA Track Gauge.

Good luck.

Blue Flamer.

19

One more thought, based on a lot of the responses. A lot of people have reponded with comments like “I usually stick with Atlas” or “My Kato’s never have any problems”, and that is all well and good - IF, AND ONLY IF - Atlas and Kato make the locos you want and/or need for your modeling era, likes, taste, whatever drives you to choose what you choose.

But some of us are modeling specific era’s or locales or railroads not covered by the prodcuts offered by those companies - so their relative quality of no importance.

I’m not buying a SD70 whatever, or even a GP40 from anybody, they are way out of my era.

So those types of comments are only relevent if both brand X & Y offer the same item.

OR, maybe some of you just buy trains, randomly, regardless of railroad, era, etc. So then it becomes easy to just buy brand X or Y that you have had good experiances with. That would be collecting model trains made by X or Y. I don’t collect and would never restrict my purchases strictly on the basis of brand.

I buy like this - my layout has a plan, era and theme. Let’s say that plan calls for one of the scheduled trains to be pulled by an ABBA set of EMD F units. So I say, “self, I need another set of F units”. I look at the products available, their prices, features, availablity, quailty, track record - and then I pick one and buy it.

When new products come out, I say “self, does this new loco from X fit into my plan and theme and would it fill a purpose on the layout and in the schedule”. If the answer is yes, than I usually buy two or three or more. I the answer is no - than I don’t own one.

Sheldon

20

Does any one like or dislike any other brands that look nice and you can at least remove with out breaking.

AVOID ATHERAN!!

[/quote]

Roadie…

You indeed are NOT alone in the experience with Athearn QC issues - they are definitely real and have been plaguing their products for about the last 18 months or so.

The main models that have been affected are the Cowl units and the recent runs and re-runs of the EMD diesels.

First, I’m trying to be objective as I can - because I like Athearns products and I roster a ton of UP and SP locomotives.

It is my believe that a lot of this problem has stemmed from the builder in Hong Kong, trying to produce too many projects at too fast a pace.

Based only on what I have learned from industry personel which I’ve spoken with, a lot of this was supposed to be corrected by now. But I fear that it is not.

I recently purchased a few of the Genesis GP15-1 models which IMHO, is a very well done replica of this engine and has been a long time coming to HO in a high caliber version.

I also bought a latest run of SD70MAC and 2 Cowl ATSF units - and not one was without an issue.

As you have clearly pointed out, your experience was with an engine having a truck fall off. This seems to be a real issue and has been a complaint by many hoby shop owners I’ve talked with in the past year - one, sent the entire order back because 7 of the 10 ordered in, had this exact problem -out of the box.

I also saw this happen on a new SD70Mac in BNSF scheme - rear truck loose and hanging by the pickup wires.

Its possible this could be happening during transcontinantal shipping but why only certain models would be affected?

I don’t buy that.

This is sloppy Quality Control -stike that comment - there IS no quality control.

As far as the handrail material that Athearn comm