Athearn DCC ready locos

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4

402drvr

Member
So I have been told that the Athearn locos that are DCC ready have some issue with the wheels. Basically that because they used a cheaper metal the wheels actually cause small sparks and lead to damage to the track over time.

Anyone have any experience with this?
 
402drvr said:
So I have been told that the Athearn locos that are DCC ready have some issue with the wheels. Basically that because they used a cheaper metal the wheels actually cause small sparks and lead to damage to the track over time.

Anyone have any experience with this?
Click to expand...

I have a few RTR on the layout and they run fine. I see more sparks off the older Athearns than on the new stuff for sure at times.
 
402drvr said:
So I have been told that the Athearn locos that are DCC ready have some issue with the wheels. Basically that because they used a cheaper metal the wheels actually cause small sparks and lead to damage to the track over time.

Anyone have any experience with this?
Click to expand...

This is a holdover from when Athearn used sintered iron/steel wheels. I have seen Athearn wheels sparking for many years, and have never heard of them arcing enough to damage the rails. Sparking was cut down greatly by either keeping the wheels and rails clean or replacing them with nickel silver wheels from companies like NWSL.
 


So its not really a fact any more? What kinda wheels are they using now? My whole thought was that there is a store in CT that sells these pretty cheap. And a decoder is especially easy to throw in them so it would be a reasonably cheap way to put together a fleet of locos. But if they are so cheap as to be no good I don't want to waste my time or money
 
Mine runs great. 1st loco I have ever purchased...been running it for about 5 months. Never seen a spark. I may not have much experience, but what experience I do have, have not seen that.
 
Athearn was once the bulwark of the hobby. If you were in model railroading you had Athearn. They have always been ruggedly built and are outstanding runners. You won't be wasting your money. You can always replace any sintered wheels with plated ones from BeeJay or NWSL.

Their newer stuff doesn't have the sintered wheels anymore.
 
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