I have bought a athearn engine about 2 months ago which I came to find out it was made in 07 and I also hard wired a athearn sd45 from the 70's. I'm using the NCE powercab just so you know. And I use the 28 speed steps. Here's my 1st problem the 07 engine- if I keep the speed under 8 it runs fine but when I go above that it seems to lose power randomly around the tracks. I thought it might be the track n wheels were dirty so I cleaned them both and it actually ran good no problem for about 10 minutes and then back to slowing down again. I tried the engine just by itself- pulling no cars and still same thing.(I usually have it pulling 20 cars) I turned on the dynamic brake sound. That automatically sounds when you slow the speed down and where it seems to slow down the brake sound goes off. I'm thinking it could just be the decoder but I'm new to DCC so I really don't know. 2nd I have the opposite problem with my hard wired sd45. It stalls out if I go under 7 or so but if I put it around 11 and up to 28 it runs great nice n smooth but the led headlights flicker a little. I read some where that athearn wheels are no good and after market nickel silver is my best bet. So I was thinking of doing both engines with those wheel sets but they are a little pricey at around $28 a set so for me $56 off eBay. Any advice on what I should try or can do. Thanks ps I have did resets on both engines on both the main and the program tracks and it still remains the same Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 5000
Hi AW, The old Athearn engines used a wheel set referred to as stintered metal. They were porous and picked up all kinds of junk in use. I used to pull them off the unit, soak them in alcohol and scrub them every so often. Before I left the hobby for an extended vacation (the kid out grew trains), I had started changing the wheel sets out to NS. I still have some of the old wheels as well. As I bring those locks into dcc use, I will upgrade them. Another thought, especially with the old SD 45, you might want to think about re powering it. I'm not any kind of expert but I think the newer motors will draw less power to run. Maybe someone with better experience than I can speak to that. Hard-wiring the units are by far the best way to go. You might also consider a good take-apart and cleaning the gear sets as well and lubricating the motors. That's all I got for now. By the way, I've got a Walthers Dash 8 40B from the late 90's that I need to do the same things to. The only good thing is that it does not have those porous wheel sets. I tried something you might try. I cleaned the wheels with a paper towel wetted with 70% alcohol, I put it across the track, wet it, then held the loco in place over it and ran it. You would be surprise how much junk came off. Have fun,
I have a lot of NWSL N/S wheels for Athearn locomotives that I no longer have any use for. If you are interested in some, send me a PM. Twenty plus years ago I picked up a number of Athearn locomotives that I custom painted and remotored. One of the first things I did with them was to get rid of the sintered iron wheels. They're impossible to keep clean for any period of time.
In addition to upgrading older wheels.. and while you're hard-wiring old Athearns (and old P2Ks), go ahead and by-pass the truck bolsters for the "left" wheel pick-up, by carefully routing and soldering a wire directly to the truck side-plate..
I keep the old sintered wheels; I just clean them more frequently. You can purchase the nickel silver wheel sets with or without gears from Athearn. I certainly concur with hard wiring. Try to hard wire all parts of the engine that you can. There was a thread on TB, and a link to a You Tube video, about polishing the old sintered wheels in a lathe and generally upgrading Athearn Blue Box engines. I can't find it right now. In fact, a search will give you a lot of websites and a lot of ideas on upgrading old Athearn Blue Box engines.
Thanks guys. I went ahead and re cleaned my tracks even tho they looked shiny and clean and wow they were dirty despite how shiny they looked. I cleaned the 70's sd45 and I used a wash rag instead of paper towels and after 10 minutes of cleaning the wheels it still wasn't clean but It was good enough of a clean that after I could actually get it to crawl at 1 speed step. As for my 07 it also helped but didn't completely fix it. It just is able to go higher on speed steps before it seems to drop but it also doesn't drop all around the tracks like it did. I really wanna take the time and scrub the heck out of the rails and wheels. I use rubbing alcohol to clean both. I have a 1x1 block of wood about 6-7 inches long I wrapped a wash rag around it and where the rag over laps I nailed it to the stick. And spray the rag with alcohol and basically rub it all around the rails like a bright boy. Any suggestions on a better way of doing this? A different textured rag? Or felt or something. Let me know. Sorry I took awhile to write this response. I didn't know I had replies til I came on right now. I work full time so I usually work on my layout during my days off. I appreciate all the advice and knowledge. I'll be back later Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 5000
Here's my layout in progress. I like to get a few tall cans and drink slow and go to work on it. I have done all that you see including building the bench within the last 3 months. Before that my set up was on power loc track on the floor with a mrc 4 260. I got my income tax and went all out, Nce DCC all nickel silver. Took all the power loc track and throw it in a box. Ready for eBay lmao. Spent close to a G on this layout. And I plan on income tax season to be my Christmas. I'm married and have a LIL one so actual Christmas is for them and tax time is mine Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 5000
I wanna get a smart booster. I only have 2 engines that are dcc (the ones I mentioned) but I see that power kinda drops just a little bit when I start to run the 2nd one. It's only noticeable if your looking and waiting for it. Otherwise you can't really tell. I'm just one of those guys that likes MORE POWER!!!
Yea according to my local train store where I was blown away by dcc and the nce power cab the salesman stated that I could run up to 3 locos with sound anything beyond would be booster required. They are not that expensive. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk
AW84, You don't mention what kind of decoders are in your locos, but I suspect they may be corrupted, which can happen, especially if you ever tried to run them on the Tech 4 DC power pack which uses some pulse power at lower speeds. Have you tried to reset your decoders to factory defaults ? Do you have adequate feeder connections between the tracks and your power supply? If a section of rail doesn't have a feeder wire attached to it, are all adjacent rail joiners soldered connecting it to a rail that has a feeder? Feeders are cheaper than boosters, especially if you need them in any case. As for wheels, the new replacements available from Athearn (SKU #40029, $11.98 for 6 axle sets including the gear) are no longer sintered, but actually are quite nice looking. And if you replace your old wheel sets, be sure to save the old gears for future repairs, because they sometimes split and cause rough running. Athearn wheelsets are also the same and interchangeable with Proto 2000 wheels, early versions of which are notorious for cracking and splitting. Athearn wheelsets are also less costly than replacements from P2k/Walthers. If all you need is the axle gears for either a Athearn or P2k, then order Athearn part #60024, Drive Axle Gears for SD40-2/SD40-T2, 6/pk, priced at about $5. Don't be fooled by the SD40 notation, they fit pretty much all Athearn Blue Box and P2k locos. Good luck, Bill in FtL
I have a mrc dual decoder in the 07 and a hard wired nce decoder in the 70's. all feeders are within 6' of each other. I was told and heard that they should be about every 6 feet so I did them about every 4-5 feet. I have them hooked to my straight track but not the curves. I don't have a problem with the curves at all , so if I ain't broke don't fix it lol.
Oh and I've tried to do a factory reset by setting the cv to do it and in the nce power cab menu and it doesn't fully work. The dude at athearn said since it is a dual decoder I'd have to reset it using a DC power pack to be able to get a full factory reset and I haven't got around to doing that yet. I think it's bs to have to do a real reset with a DC power pack. I went DCC for a reason and now I have to break out the power pack that I packed away just to get it back running correctly.
