Athearn Blue Box Power/Maintence

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A

astrocling

New Member
Hi Guys,

I bought a couple of Athearn Blue Box kits at a swap meet, one that had a motor in it and one that didn't. That leaves me two questions. First for the one without a motor (Just missing motor everything else appears in tact) - is there any place to purchase a motor at a reasonable price for these kits?

Second for the one with a motor. It doesn't run all that great, but is there any maintenence that I can to (oiling etc...) that might help the motor run better?
 
astrocling said:
Hi Guys,

I bought a couple of Athearn Blue Box kits at a swap meet, one that had a motor in it and one that didn't. That leaves me two questions. First for the one without a motor (Just missing motor everything else appears in tact) - is there any place to purchase a motor at a reasonable price for these kits?

Second for the one with a motor. It doesn't run all that great, but is there any maintenence that I can to (oiling etc...) that might help the motor run better?
Click to expand...

Depending on what model this is, you can probably find a replacement can motor advertised in one of the model railroad magazines, or possibly in the Walthers catalog.

A couple of things to look at in the one that "doesn't run great":
1. Clean the wheels
2. Check the motor commutator for oxidation. You can clean the commutator by holding some VERY fine #500 sand paper against it as you run the motor. (I use #5000 which is vey fine, indeed.
3. Check the metal clip that runs over the top of the motor and rubs on the contacts that run up from the trucks. I generally clip these short and solder small lengths of wire to the contacts and the other end to the metal clip.
4. Lightly lube the gears using an appropriate grease from LaBelle.

Hope this helops.
 


blvdbuzzard said:
I found this awhile ago. It is a pretty good write up on the BB engines.

http://www.mcor-nmra.org/publications/articles/athearn_tuneup.html

Should be able to find this some place.

http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATH84087

Buzz.
Click to expand...

I found the NMRA Tuneup years ago when it first came out & it's my Bible for HO scale trains. It's not only for Athearn. You can use it for any make & any scale to fix loco's. I use to pay someone to fix my trains. Then I started to do my own after reading those articles. I've even made some changes on my own since that came out. All it takes is Persistance & you can almost fix anything that breaks.
 
astrocling said:
Hi Guys,

I bought a couple of Athearn Blue Box kits at a swap meet, one that had a motor in it and one that didn't. That leaves me two questions. First for the one without a motor (Just missing motor everything else appears in tact) - is there any place to purchase a motor at a reasonable price for these kits?

Second for the one with a motor. It doesn't run all that great, but is there any maintenence that I can to (oiling etc...) that might help the motor run better?
Click to expand...

You said everything else is intact. How about the driveshafts? Is the motor tied down to the frame or loose? Are the Trucks powered or have the gears removed so it could be used as a Dummy? If all of these things are good in that engine, send me a PM. We need to know what kind of engine it is. Large or small or a switcher.?
 
Thanks guys for the excellent resources. I knew that stuff had to be out there somewhere, I just wasn't finding it.

Larry - As for the unit without a motor it is an Alco PA1, everything is intact except the drive shaft. All the gears are in the trucks still intact. It doesn't have driveshafts though. I think that someone tried to take the motor out and make it a dummy unit but then left the trucks in tact.

I kind of bought them as a project to learn a little more about how all the stuff goes together and fixing stuff.
 
astrocling said:
Thanks guys for the excellent resources. I knew that stuff had to be out there somewhere, I just wasn't finding it.

Larry - As for the unit without a motor it is an Alco PA1, everything is intact except the drive shaft. All the gears are in the trucks still intact. It doesn't have driveshafts though. I think that someone tried to take the motor out and make it a dummy unit but then left the trucks in tact.

I kind of bought them as a project to learn a little more about how all the stuff goes together and fixing stuff.
Click to expand...

Can you post a photo of that engine w/out the motor in it w/out the shell so I can see what it looks like. I might have a motor for you. It might be an older frame w/out the flywheel motor.
 
astrocling said:
Larry - As for the unit without a motor it is an Alco PA1, everything is intact except the drive shaft. All the gears are in the trucks still intact. It doesn't have driveshafts though. I think that someone tried to take the motor out and make it a dummy unit but then left the trucks in tact.
Click to expand...
I am guessing that it is missing the worm gear also. Otherwise it would not roll.

Sometimes instead of drive shafts I use flexible tubing to connect the motor to the worm gear, but it depends on the distance. I'm guessing a PA would need a pretty long piece of tubing, so it might not work in your case.
 
Larry - I was actually misleading, upon taking them out of the box again I noticed the driveshafts are indeed in place. Everything but the engine and flywheels are there.

Here are the pics, hope I uploaded them correctly.
 


If the world ever starts getting Athearn parts again see their parts:

ATH40028 and ATH40029

They are complete Nickel Silver wheel sets that one can just drop in (after checking gauge) to the P2K gear problem units and lots of Athearn's stuff too.
They are lower price than NWSL.

Dick
 
broken bolster said:
If the world ever starts getting Athearn parts again see their parts:

ATH40028 and ATH40029

They are complete Nickel Silver wheel sets that one can just drop in (after checking gauge) to the P2K gear problem units and lots of Athearn's stuff too.
They are lower price than NWSL.

Dick
Click to expand...

I do understand the lower price option here, but have you found these to run better than the NWSL? Assuming that money is no object to the OP?:D
 
Only issue I have had with NWSL wheels and Athearn gears is when inserting the axle into the gear I've had two (two different batch of wheel and gear) go in at angle on the side of axle that has small cut-out. Bottom line is the wheel backs were not parallel to each other when gauged.

I not had either the Athearn wheel sets or NWSL wheel/gear combo long enough to have accumulated some mileage on them to compare tread wear. At this point I would take the Athearn based on cost and ease of installation. I've not found one of 54 Athearn sets purchased earlier in year out of gauge.

Dick
 
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