Need some help with this engine. First I like to know who made the engine and what it is a model of.
At first after looking at the motor mounts under the engine and pooping the shell and seeing the flywheels I though it was a Athearn. Looks like a old Rocket motor. Then tonight I was looking at the underside.
There are no brass bearings for the wheels and axles are way thicker than any Athearn I have seen.
Next the problem, mounting point for the rear coupler is off.
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Picture is not great, sorry. I received it for my cowoker Jeremy.
Thinking about tapping the broken chassis and then the body or using super glue. Problem with that is the mounting point looks like a Proto where the clip goes on top, not the bottom like a Athearn Blue Box. If I glue it to the body I will have to be dead on with the right coupler height.
Looks to be a very old Athearn wide body engine. The standard Athearn frame should work. I see plenty of them at train shows around St. Louis in junk boxes.
Fo’ shizzle it’s a GP-7, except, like later Athearns GP-7’s I think the dynamic brake fan is O’size for Phase 1. (I think) As far as the broken coupler mount, I’d like to put in a good word for JB-Weld. Auto parts stores usually have it and it’s a good old fashioned slow drying 2 part epoxy that’s really strong.
Yepper Ken, early blue box Athearn right after they transitioned to gear drive from the rubber band drive. NWSL has nickle silver wheel sets for those old metal trucks. I try to put those trucks under all my old Athearns, they add needed weight and seem to track better at the the local club over the newer design with plastic side frames. Neat old engine, hope to see you get her running again. JB Weld will fix that coupler pad. Just let it dry for a couple days. If mounting a Kaydee box to it with a screw, I would drill and tap it prior to welding it to the frame again. Mike P.S. The couplers do mount ontop of the pad on the Athearn GP7 diesels. Not all Athearns are alike between models for coupler mounting. A Kaydee number 5 with the back of the box hacked off works great with a self tapping 2-56 screw.
Like the others have said, this is an old Athearn unit. I have a PA, DD40, and F7 with the same basic truck designs. Athearn only used this design up until the early 70s or so (although the DD40 kept it until the end, when Horizon bought Athearn).
I don’t see where the coupler box is broken from. It almost looks like it snaps into the steps, but I could be wrong. If it really is broken, super-glue should work, but epoxy would be stronger. All of Athearn’s Blue Box GPs used a top-mounted coupler like this one, but I don’t know why.
I took this overhead shot of an old Athearn like yours on the left and a new P2K on the right, long hood to long hood. The Proto engine is a much more accurate model.
I have both a belt-drive and a gear-drive model of these, from the late 1950s, early 60s. Unfortunately, neither of them runs very well. I gutted the belt-drive engine and now it’s available for dummy service. Compared to the P2K, though, it’s not a very good model, so it usually sits in a box under the layout. The gear-drive engine sees most of its service as a weight when I’m glueing down track.
Definitely Athearn. The oversize hood was to fit the motor, as the one they used back then wouldn’t fit under a scale width hood. Athearn also fell into the same trap as other makers and called it a GP-9 when it had dynamic brakes and a GP-7 when it didn’t, however based on spotting features like the battery box louvers, they’re all GP-7’s. Looking back in similar era magazines, it seems they all made the same mistake. I guess they just didn’t care about row after row of identical diseasles, they only worried about steam locos.
I must correct one mistake I made, this one does not have flywheels. After going DCC I have not touched any of my old Blue Box engines in years. It being a Athearn is good news, I have some replacement motor and gears that may work. We where given 2 other that trucks sort of look like the above.
Do you think this could all so a older Athearn?
I think this is a Alcoa PA, am I right? I remember the person that designed the engine (in real life) use to designer toaster and home appliances. It all so only have one diesel engine and they broke down a lot.
Trucks look some what the same, but the coupler mounting points are mounted to the trucks. Motor is missing, but looks like Athearn motor mounts (still in the engine) , truck mounting clips / worm gear covers all so look like a Athearn. Again, I have never seen this kind of coupler mounting points on a Athearn.
Later today I am going to break out the DC power pack and start cleaning these engines up and see what we have.
Yup, it’s and ALCO PA-1 diesel. My first Athearn diesel was a D&H PA like this one, and except for the stock motor, it’s always been a pretty good runner. I put a newer gold motor and flywheels in, and switched the wheels for better ones. It’s a great runner now.[:D]
The only Athearns that used this design of coupler mounting were the PA and DD40. The rest have frame mounted couplers.
I believe you’re thinking of Henry Dreyfuss? He didn’t design the PA, but he did do the designs for the streamlined 20th Century Limited and Mercury steam engines. Otto Kuhler designed the ALCO DL-109, which came right before the PA, so some of the ALCO designs may have been based off of that one.
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