Athearns New Challenger


A

aviserated

Member
Why no talk of Athearns new Challenger. I just purchased this nice steam locomotive #3710 and love it. I figured there should be lots of new post about it. Lots of these are in stock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0G-vDMf9tI
 

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aviserated said:
I am new to railroading hobby, so I missed out on the first runs. Hopefully this version is best version so far. :eek:
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welcome to the forums , as you will find out if its articulated then most of us already have them:cool:
i have 2 athearn challengers myself ,they are nice but i also have big boys & 2-8-8-2's

as most of the guys here but if you dont post a pic it didnt happen:)

so post up a pic of ur union pacific beast :cool: * edit sorry i see you posted a video *
 
aviserated said:
I am new to railroading hobby, so I missed out on the first runs. Hopefully this version is best version so far. :eek:
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It almost has to be better than the first run with the MRC sound decoder. That was something I think both Athearn and MRC would like to forget.
 
If I may throw my .02 in. The latest Tsunami equipped challengers are a HUGE improvement over the first and even second release. They now have LED's for both the front and rear lights and out of the box they can actually pull a decent train. The speakers/enclosures leave something to be desired. For little to no effort 2 HB speakers make a remarkable improvement in the sound. I have programmed 2 so far for club members and as usual not all of the "cool" features are present. Most are though.
 
OK here are pictures. The silver metal (circled in Red) as shown in Athearns picture is not on my #3710. ..why? Maybe it is error in picture?
 

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My railraoding terminology is not good. What are the big metel steel plate shrouds mounted in front next to boiler used for. To direct wind flow? I think these are cool looking
 

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They're called smoke deflectors and are meant to lift the smoke higher so it doesn't obscure the vision of the crew.
 
I'm not sure the exact terms, but IIRC they were called "elephant ears". And, yes, their function is to cause an upward flow of air to push the exhaust stream upward, so it won't lay along the top of the boiler and be deflected into the cab.
 
The elephant ears worked pretty well until the train was running through a tunnel which the UP had plenty of. Then they were no better for the crew than locomotives without the smoke deflectors. UP designed the cab forward articulateds to deal with the tunnel smoke problem. The cab forward also gave excellent forward vision rather than trying to look beyond those long boilers. Some train crews did not like the cab forward saying it offered no collision protection.
 
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NH Mike said:
The elephant ears worked pretty well until the train was running through a tunnel which the UP had plenty of. Then they were no better for the crew than locomotives without the smoke deflectors. UP designed the cab forward articulateds to deal with the tunnel smoke problem. The cab forward also gave excellent forward vision rather than trying to look beyond those long boilers. Some train crews did not like the cab forward saying it offered no collision protection.
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i think you mean SP with the cab forwards.
 
aviserated said:
OK here are pictures. The silver metal (circled in Red) as shown in Athearns picture is not on my #3710. ..why? Maybe it is error in picture?
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The silver metal you asked about is the paint on the smokebox, which should match the paint on the firebox. Paint may be a bad term as these two areas were always at a high temperature, and paint wouldn't last long on them, before it was burned off. What the prototype used, in most cases, was a mixture of graphite and oil, which was applied to these areas. This mixture would last a longer time, in some cases a real long time, and would protect the boiler from the elements. Not all railroads used this on all locos as depicted in "artist's rendition" of the model. But it does look like the smokebox behind those ears is painted the same color, based on the last photo in the original post quoted. I see some of that smokebox grey on the stack. That would indicate the color is there, you just can't see it behind the smoke lifters too well.
 
As speed rises, the smoke wants to adhere to and follow the contours of the boiler on steamers with low back pressure, which the best modern ones had. The smoke lifters did not lift the smoke, but they increased the laminar flow ALONG the boiler at speed. This denser laminar layer prevented so much penetration by the smoke. It was meant to keep the smoke from licking around all the appliances, domes, and piping to the point where it effectively obscured the vision through the forward glass by both the engineer and the fireman.

If you watch youtube videos showing UP 844 at track speed, there is lots of smoke drifting back, laid flat along the top of the boiler at times, depending on conditions. However, you virtually never see the smoke drifting down the sides of the boiler and going past or through the cab windows.
 
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