Hello everyone. New to the forum and kind of a newbie to HO railroading. I had a nice N scale layout in the early 90’s but had to sell everything. Now I’m back into the hobby and modeling HO.
My question concerns the removal of an Athearn SW1500 loco shell. I am having a heck of a time removing the screws from the couplers, so that I can remove them. They seem to be loose, but will not come out. Is there something I am doing wrong? I would like to install an NCE decoder in the loco, but I don’t want to break the couplers! I’ve tried to gently pry the screws from the coupler, but they don’t seem to want to budge.
Does anyone have any videos of how it’s done? I’m kinda at a loss…
I’ve looked at several diagrams of Athearn SW1500’s (I googled “Athearn Parts Diagrams”) and these show that the couplers are mounted with a clip on the coupler pocket, not with screws. You should be able to carefully pry off this clip with a small flat tip jewelers screwdriver.
Is this unit new or did you get it from a previous owner? If you got it from a previous owner they might have modified the coupler mountings.
Since you are installing a decoder you’ll need to remove the shell. To do this carefully slide the small flat tip jewelers screwdriver between the frame and the shell and lift the shell away from the frame where the mounting tabs are.
You should be able to see the position of the mounting tabs through small slits in the lower part of the shell. Work one side and then the other in small increments until the shell clears the mounting tabs.
Once the shell is removed you can see what’s going on with the couplers. The couplers should not prevent you from removing the shell.
If this doesn’t work e-mail Athearn (athearnhelp@horizonhobby.com) and see if they have any suggestions. In my experience their customer support is top-notch and they should be able to help.
That’s the old blue box model. The DCC-ready SW1500 from the RTR line has draft gear boxes mounted with screws. Sometimes the screw gets hung up on the coupler box and refuses to come all the way out. You should be able to pull it out with needle nose pliers or, better yet, a tool like a “screw sticker” that’s designed to hold small screws so they don’t get lost.
Once the screws can be pulled out, you can remove the coupler boxes through the pilots and take the shell off. Nothing else secures the shell.
I would recommend trying to use a magnet to get the screw out. Magnetic screw holders, or screw drivers with magnets to hold the bits in work well for this.
Thanks, everyone, for giving me some ideas. I will try and work with the screws today and let you know how it came out. I actually tried to remove them once they were completely unscrewed, with needle nosed pliers, but didn’t have much luck and again, did not want to break anything in the process. So I will take all your suggestions and give it another go!
Again, thanks to everyone! With a little carefull wiggling and pulling, I managed to get the screws out, get the decoder installed, put everything back together, repaired a few of the railings that had come loose, and tried it out on my test track, and voila! everything works perfectly! You guys are the best!