I recently found in my collection of equipment I had stored some old Athearn GP-7’s. Several of these units are the old rubber band models, I am debating whether to try to repower them or find some kind of O ring or rubber bands that I could use to replace the original ones. I took one of them to my local Hobby store and the kid behind the counter had no idea what I had or where to look. I tried contacting Athearn’s but they haven’t replied back with help on either repowering it of finding rubber bands. I am open for suggestions, I even have thought about the idea of gutting them and finding dummy trucks and making them dummy units to add to some of the coal trains and express freights I run on my layout.
Dollar General sells bags or rubber bands that are just the right size for that application. However I would take the time to repower the units or find a type of chassis they would fit on. I did the same with an Athearn SDP40F body. I mounted it on a slightly cut down Proto 2000 E6 chassis. Most don’t notice it but some catch on as the trucks are a bit different.
I had a couple of old Athearns, too. I did my best to clean them up and I replaced the belts. The engines barely ran. I figured I would need to replace the motors and the old sintered wheels to get any kind of reasonable performance. Instead, I removed the motors, upgraded the couplers and now run them as “honorary” engines, a nice word for dummies.
In comparison to the P2K geeps I bought, these are pretty weak models. The shells are low on details, and they have no handrails. So, the old geeps sit in a box under the layout, and really only come out when I need dead weight to hold down track when I’m gluing it down. Really.
I did take a belt-drive F7 and add a sound decoder and headlights, though. No motor, but it lets me run the AA or ABA consist in either direction and still have lights on the lead engine.
You don’t have to replace the trucks in order to make them a “dummy” unit. Just leave them in place and use a piece of rubber hose cut very short and placed over the “nub” that sticks down through the trucks themselves. The extra weight of the trucks makes them track very well.
If you were to get yourself one of the Trains Unlimited body shell assemblies you can easily install them on the old Athearn chassis which would not only give you a much more detailed shell but also one with the correct width hood dimensions, something to consider.
The only alternative for a relatively smooth and powerful rubber band powered versions would be if you could find some of the old Pittman conversions that were made many years ago. These have a gear reduction and are extremely powerful and beleive it or not actually make very smooth running engines when this is done. The problem is of course that these are very hard to find these days so converting them to dummy units is probably a more reasonable alternative.
It’s looking like the idea of coverting them to dummies is becoming the prime idea. I know they didn’t pull that great in their day but I thought they would make a good local freight or road switcher doing local work.
Fixing them up isn’t totally out of the question, but you should only do it if you enjoy taking on projects of this nature. If you put your CFO hat on, it’s not a cost-effective option, and for detail level these engines don’t even come up to the low-end Bachmanns.
Still, this is a hobby, after all. There can be great satisfaction in doing something just for the sake of doing it. Sure, you could buy that Bachmann on-line somewhere for less than the cost of a new motor, wheels, lights and decoder for the Athearn, but then again, anybody could do that.
Dang it. Now you’ve got me thinking about finding some replacement wheels…
As I see it there is one big problem with using the Athearn GP7/9 shells, they look retarded next to most anything else such as Proto, Atlas, or even the new Bachmann versions.
Back in the 1960s I took my new Athearns and used Tenshodo bodies on them as the Tenshodos had a lousy chassis but a correct width shell, the Athearn had a very good chassis but that body…yech!!
I still have several of the old Athearn Tenshodo units and other than the fact that the details aren’t up to the standards of the engines produced today at least they don’t stick out like a sore thumb when mixed in with the newer units.
Those old Athearn shells should be sent to the “recycle” bin, they looked retarded when they were new and haven’t improved with age.
Quick suggestion: If you replace shells on your old units, why not have a loco rebuilder/ recycler as an industry on your layout and use old shells as scenic details there. Can lead you to an article on a diesel loco recycling yard, if you’re interested. TTFN…Old Tom aka papasmurf in NH
When my sister got braces in the early 1960s I used to use the special rubber bands she got for my Athearn F7 and Hustler. Of course at that time Athearn also sold replacement rubber bands really cheap. On my Hustler I remember putting a piece of rubber tubing on the metal shaft – it had a better grip on the rubber band and increased the tractive effort considerably. For some reason I did not do the same with my F7.
The Athearn GP7/GP9 (they could never clearly decide which one it was, and called it a GP9 as I recall) has the major flaw that the body is too wide – deliberately so to accomodate the motors of that time. Athearn kept their EMD diesel bodies too wide for years thereafter even when thinner motors became available just so they’d match the Geep. I know their SD40-2 had the correct width but whether that was the first correct width EMD in the Athearn line I no longer recall. The GP35 is also too wide.
The truck sideframes that Athearn used on the old Hi-F (rubber band drive) engines were rather crude – not as nice as the plastic ones they used with their old dummy Globe F7, nor as nice as the metal sideframes for the geared models which in turn were nowhere near as nice as the [really really nice] plastic sideframes they later introduced and which could be retrofitted to a geared Geep
I have seen Athearn Geeps (geared drive) that were painted and super detailed by very proficient modelers and they look just fine – UNTIL they are placed near an accurately scaled model. But even then you notice it mostly when the models are static, not to much when they are running.
Unless your model already has an investment in it of detail and paint/decals that you want to use, one thought would be to model an elderly retired Geep that is being scrapped. Sometimes the shop crews would remove the EMD trucks and have ordinary freight car trucks under an engine being scrapped just so they could move it around.
I have seen Athearn Geeps (geared drive) that were painted and super detailed by very proficient modelers and they look just fine – UNTIL they are placed near an accurately scaled model. But even then you notice it mostly when the models are static, not to much when they are running.
Dave Nelson
Dave,The guys I know that supped up those old Geeps isn’t concern with the wide body since their idea of having fun was dressing up those geeps…[;)]
The majority cut,slice,patched,sanded and detailed those old geeps to a point where one would need to look close to see it started life has a Athearn GP7 and not a Atlas or P2K…They rehashed those old geeps farther then I would.
Ah those were the days! My Dad was the day operator at the B&O’s East Salamanca yard office in the 60’s and he brought me a set of rubber band drive Athearns. They were used, and I had to replace the rubber bands with something suitable. I think I used some extra traction tires that were in a small bag of parts I had. They never really performed all that well, but They were my first B&O diesels. I think your best bet is to retire them to a shelf and get some nice P2K Geeps.
Back in the day when I had 2 of these rubber band drives my Dad changed out motors to a Pittman double shaft motor and used small rubber O rings(seals?).
They ran ok and pulled well but,my dad never like the rubber band drive so,he bought 2 Hobbytown GP7 replacement drives…
Not a rubber band drive, this one was originally a dummy. With a new Mashima can motor and some extra weight, she’ll easily drag several dead (no power to their motors) P2K geeps up any of my 2.5% grades. [swg]
I think I am going to make them dummies and locate them at my engine yard as “helpers” awaiting service and let them enjoy a quiet retirement this side of a shelf or “circular filing cabinet” a.k.a. trash can. These were units I got in the early 80’s at an estate sale then and during my career in the service they got lost in the shuffle until just a couple of weeks ago when I was going through some boxes looking for parts for one of my Rivarossi’s. I might also make them dummies and put them on the end of a train as “helpers” for the look on couple of my coal drags, but for the money and the hassle it’s not looking like it’s worth the effort to revive the engines to service use.
I guess this will be the “one” subject were we will disagree, to me these old tubbs are just that, old tubbs. I still have most all of my old Athearns, including several with the old Globe drives in them, but starting in the 1980s I started replacing all of the bodies, including the Tenshodo bodied ones with the then Front Range shells, now Trains Unlimited. While they may not be at quite the same level as the Proto engines they are light years ahead of the old Athearn shells, in dimensions as well as details.
As was mentioned earlier, they look fine, until you park them next to an Atlas, Proto or any of them with the correct hood width. Then they really stick out. But of course when these were made they were pretty much all that was available, except for the Tenshodos. It wasn’t until Front Range started that scale width hoods started showing up except in brass.
I also have a few that have really outstanding custom paint jobs on them, they are in a little case with my other oddities and antiques such as the old Varney “super” mikado from the 1940s.
Years ago I modified a number of Athearn GP7 shells to look more like the GP9 .Painted them in New Haven black hood red cab . Did some in the B&M Bluebird scheme I put them on Hobbytown chassis .They look good to me and of the Hobbytown chassis performs extremely well.I am not sure if the narrow hood shells would fit but I am in no rush to find out.
An interesting repair shop or engine-being-scrapped model could be made by putting one of these inside a gutted GP7 shell, and either “opening” the maintenance doors on the side or partially cutting off the shell to reveal the diesel inside.
If you make it an operational dummy, consider putting in a SoundBug. There’s lots of room inside for both the decoder and a well-baffled speaker.
