I have a (HO) Roundhose (MDC) ALCO RS-3 kit loco and an Athearn RS-3 Ready-to-Run RS-3, and they both make varoius grinding, clicking, clunking, and “gear” noises; is this inherent in the motive power, or is there something that can be done to minimize these noises ( like adding Vaseline to the gears?). Both locomotives have very little operating time on them ( less than 4 hrs each) IS this just a case of needing some lubrication or am I stuck with the noise, because it is what it is? My other locomotives are much quieter.
It’s not uncommon for Athearn “blue box” level engines to be a bit noisy. Sometimes the noise will go down over time, as flash on the gears gets worn off etc. As you noted sometimes taking the engine apart and lubricating it and making sure everything is meshing together right helps too. (Replacing the sliding metal electrical connections with soldered wiring can help the engine pick up power more reliably while you’re at it.)
I bought a blue box F7 a year or two back that was very quiet and smooth running so it’s not like every single one is noisy as some folks have said. But overall for quiet smooth running your best bet is Atlas or Kato power.
Are the Athearns ‘blue box’ locos? There have been a number of posts on this same topic over the last couple months and I own what I affectionally call the ‘Athearn Grinder.’ It was an SD40 in which I had installed a decoder - which had nothing to do with the noise - but it never quit grinding and was always worse going forward than in reverse. I completely disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled it without any change in the noise. I did discover that if I slid the flywheels about a 1/16-1/8 of an inch toward the gear boxes the grinding was less of an issue - but it never quit. So, I just shelved it and went on to other projects with the hope that one day I will look at it again. Good luck because I found it to be a frustrating problem.
Quieting the noise in Athearn Ble box and RTR locos has been the subject of much discussion. You can find some helpful hints on minimizing the noise on a couple of sites. Just Google “Athearn Tuneup” and it will get you started.
I was able to make a substantial noise reduction on my Athearns. First make sure nothing (like flywheels) is rubbing on the shell. Make sure the motor is fully seated and the motor shaft is level. Sometimes the rubbery motor seating gasket doesn’t seat right and the motor winds up tilted fore and aft. This makes the U joints run at stiff angles which they don’t like to do.
Remove any flash from the U joints.
Then take the drive completely apart. Remove the springy clips from the bottoms of the trucks and the gear tower will come apart. Clean the inside of the towers and wipe each tooth of each gear with a pipe cleaner. This will clean out tiny bits of plastic flash that have been clinging to the gears and making noise as they get ground between the gear teeth. Remove any flash from the working parts. Re assemble and it should run quieter. The gears are made from slippery engineering plastic that doesn’t really need lube. However I put a dab of Vaseline on each gear just in case.
There is a gear polishing procedure involving filling the gear towers with an abrasive tooth paste or polish and running them in. I have never done this but you can google the procedure.&n
If your locomotive is “clunking” or “thumping” as it moves, check the plastic geared axles for any cracks or wheels that slip easily in them. I recently upgraded several Athearn locos, and two of them were thumping (and bouncing) loud enough that I could hear them upstairs. After replacing the wheelsets (as well as putting in new motors), they run nice and smooth.
If you need to look up part numbers to find replacement parts, check out HO Seeker where they have lots of parts diagrams for locos from several manufacturers.
One issue that’s been the biggest noise source in many of my Athearns is the flywheels. They’re often not balanced properly, and even the smallest amount of vibration can cause quite a bit of noise. To fix it, I run the motor alone with the flywheels and very lightly hold a fine Sharpie to the side of the flywheel. The line made is thickest at the point where it’s off-balance. Then I use a drill press with around a 3/32" bit and drill a small amount of material out at a time at the center of the line, checking the balance after each drilling. When I don’t feel anymore vibration, I know the flywheel is balanced, and the noise gets cut way down. I’ve done this with my C44-9W, FP45, one of my F7s, and most of my A Line flywheels (A Line seriously makes the worst flywheels I’ve ever purchased), and they’re all quiet runners now. In fact, the F7 is almost as quiet as my Atlas 8-40B.