Repower old Athearn engines?


Beachbum

Beachbum

Member
I have 8 older Athearn engines. They served well, but they've been sitting in boxes for a couple years and now they're really growling and buzzing with the exception of one. With all the advances and improvements in engines, I wonder if it's worth my time to try tuning them or even repowering them.

I'm really leaning toward buying new Atlas engines (assuming they have what I want) but I hate to toss anything. Maybe I should add an NRE spur to my layout and "cut 'em up for scrap"?

Any opinions? (I'm not DCC yet - not in the budget right now - but maybe I'll go DCC with sound sometime.)
 
Absolutely if you like the locomotives. This NP F unit was an undecorated unit that I custom painted over 20 years ago. I wasn't impressed with how the locomotive ran and re motored it at the time with a quality can motor (NWSL) and it is still an exceptionally smooth running locomotive. At the time, there were no properly decorated F units for the NP so I ended up having to build my own.

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If you are happy with how the unit looks, you can cave yourself a few bucks by repowering.
 
I would say it depends on the motor in the unit(s) If they are new enough to have the flat can with flywheels a good cleaning and lube job will do wonders.If they have the old round gray motors with cast flywheels I would at least upgrade to the newer Athearn motor with flywheels.
 
I have done dozens of Blue Box repowers. A-line makes repower kits that are good. To really upgrade you need to replace the wheels (NWSL or Jay Bee) as well as the motors. I also use LED Directional lighting in my repowers. DO NOT SCRAP THEM. Cost is over $50 retail to do a good upgrade (you can find ebay parts much cheaper) but if you have invested in detailing the shells in might be worth it.
 
I agree to repower, the truck/gear design is solid and with proper break in time those run fairly silent. Most of the old Athearn noise was the motor and flywheels that were not ballenced. A new can motor, even if it has the gold case motor as those can be noisy as well, and a proper pair of flywheels works wonders on old blue box units. Mike
 
malletman said:
I agree to repower, the truck/gear design is solid and with proper break in time those run fairly silent. Most of the old Athearn noise was the motor and flywheels that were not ballenced. A new can motor, even if it has the gold case motor as those can be noisy as well, and a proper pair of flywheels works wonders on old blue box units. Mike
Click to expand...

I'm really new to all of this re-motoring talk. Could someone post a diagram of the various parts of the innerworkings of these? I'm not sure what a flywheel is when talking about model trains...lol
 
If you decide to go the Atlas route as replacement power, you can always demotor the Athearn units and make them dummies. Alternatively, as others have suggested, repower them.

Do the maintenance first and see if that helps. That's cleaning the armature, wheelsets, hard wiring the motor if that hasn't been done. Oiling the copper bearings at the worm gear in the tower and greasing the gears connecting the wheel sets with a plastic compatible grease.

Given the cost of new locos, repair and replacement of parts in Athearn BB locos is a viable option. Let us know how it goes.

Photoman475
 
Personally I would rather spend the money on new and improved designed locomotives than to repower an old blue box.

In the end less head aches for me and the detail of a new locomotive is miles ahead.

I do build my own stuff most of the time but sometimes trying to get a old loco to run smooth and quiet is a complete pita
 
photoman475 said:
If you decide to go the Atlas route as replacement power, you can always demotor the Athearn units and make them dummies. Alternatively, as others have suggested, repower them.

Do the maintenance first and see if that helps. That's cleaning the armature, wheelsets, hard wiring the motor if that hasn't been done. Oiling the copper bearings at the worm gear in the tower and greasing the gears connecting the wheel sets with a plastic compatible grease.

Given the cost of new locos, repair and replacement of parts in Athearn BB locos is a viable option. Let us know how it goes.

Photoman475
Click to expand...

As photoman475 says do everything you can to see if they run any better - failing that turn them into dummies
 
Imackattack:

I considered Beachbum's comment about "DCC is not in the budget" to be the operative part in responding with my post. If he does not have the $$ to go to DCC now, then it makes sense to try working on the locomotives already on hand. I don't have the money to go DCC and also, just as important, no interest to do so. He may be in the same position.

Since we don't know the size of Beachbum's layout or track arrangement, and the locos have been sitting around for a while, well, do the maintenance first and see what happens. If he can get a couple of locos back working again, then he can run his layout again while getting the $$$ together for DCC equipment.

Just explaining my reasoning.

Photoman475
 
malletman said:
I agree to repower, the truck/gear design is solid and with proper break in time those run fairly silent. Most of the old Athearn noise was the motor and flywheels that were not ballenced. A new can motor, even if it has the gold case motor as those can be noisy as well, and a proper pair of flywheels works wonders on old blue box units. Mike
Click to expand...

I'm glad that Don mentioned replacing the wheels with nickel silver wheels. When I remotored the NP unit posted, I also did a number of other locomotives using all of the items listed. At the time, there wasn't a lot of choice of locomotives on the market. All of the ones I did had been custom painted and detailed, but all are still in service 25 years later and still running as good as any new locomotives that have come out in recent years. They all run almost completely silent and there's no way I would do away with them. A few years after there were reworked, Atlas came out with some excellent running Alcos which I ended up getting a number of and custom painting and detailing for my freelance railroad. The repowered Athearn locomotives run just as good as the Atlas, which are outstanding performers. At the time I did repower, there were no kits on the market for this, but the job wasn't hard at all. The kits now on the market will make it a breeze.

The main thing is that If you really like the locomotives and want to keep them, repower them. Like it was mentioned, most new locomotives on the market are now well detailed and for the most part, are excellent running units. Do you want to spend the money for a new locomotive or do you like the ones you have. It would be cheaper to remotor. This is the question you will have to answer.
 
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