I have been seeing some of these on ebay. Here is a link to one for sale right now. Is is a regular Athearn with more weight? Is the motor altered? Will it pull more than an regular Athearn engine? More than a Helix Humper? Thanks for the help.
at this link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Athearn-HO-...227988?pt=Model_RR_Trains&hash=item25798f5ad4 there is not anything that looks any different than a standard athearn powered chassis even going back to those manufactured decades ago. unless athearn has come out with a different speed motor, like atlas, i do not think that the wording means anything at all. but, then, i am now modeling N Scale so i mgiht not be aware of new technology and what is provided as the electrical motor in these locomotives. to be sure, all i am saying is they look exactly the same as all athearn locomotive i have had and have in storage. respectfully Gary L Lake Dillensnyder
That's a reference I have not previously read. Or perhaps the seller has made some sort of modification?
in addition the only thing that seems to be listed on the athearn website is a "super weighted" locomotive which would give it more traction and pulling power if it weren't too heavy for the motor to provide such. Gary
"Super Power" refers to the large metal weight and possibly the flywheels. The non-flywheel powered versions had two smaller weights. The very first locomotive I purchased was a Southern Pacific "Super Power" F7A. This was in the early 1990's.
Back in....1963 or 1964, my buddy had "Super Power" Athearn F units. I don't recall flywheels at that time, but they did have the huge honkin' weights. Dave
Sounds like you guys need an old grey beard to set the record straight. "Super Geared" is what I recall Athearn calling them. Thinking back, Athearn's first F type units were all hi-fi or better said belt driven. Like traction tires the belts were always breaking. The hi-fi, although it never played music or had any modern whistle or bell sounds, was a decent but halting running locomotive. The Super Geared, never ran that well and took the equivalent of a full throttle to get down the track. Over weighted, under powered and NO...NONE flywheels... it was a bad experiment. Flywheels at the time could be purchased only as a add on but there wasn't room for any in the first batch. The only sound it made was grinding gears. Upside it was Athearns first all wheel gear driven locomotive. I was never more disapointed in a locomotive then when I bought my first one. It was the first gear driven and worst running locomotive Athearn, ever produced. There wasn't enough power in my 2 AMP MRC transformer to power it let alone a trailing powered B unit. What a disappointment. Ending up, where else but on the floor. A friend of mine managed to run it off a siding that ended at the table's edge. He was trying to loosen it up and managed it quite well. We learned quickly what the "Flying Diesel Corp's" was all about. Never happier... to see it in pieces splintered all over the floor. We had a little ceremony and appointed him commander of the "Flying Diesel Corp's" You are seeing all kinds of $#!+ showing up on e-pay and my advice is to pass and go out and buy a Stewart, Intermountain, a NEW Athearn. Don't waste your time and money on the old stuff. There are just some things that belong in the trash. Let the present day owner deal with it. Allow me to let you in on something that a few of us here on TrainBoard do. A lot of us hung on to this old stuff, maybe for sentimental reasons, maybe because we did work hard as kids to be able to earn the money to buy it. Whatever the reason most of this stuff holds little to no value. I'd rather give it away to someone that might want it for parts or plans to put a new chassis in it. Quite often we exchange this stuff between us NO CHARGE. Personally, I'd rather see this stuff taken out of circulation and never heard of again. Allowed to die with dignity....if you get my drift.
Sounds like you guys need a "young'un" to set the record straight. "Super Powered" is the heavy weighted Athearn Blue Box F unit like the one listed on ebay that Flash linked to. That is all it was, was additional weight. With some work they can be pretty good models and absolutely pull the wall downs. I don't see why avoid them for the right price.
Looks like the old grey beard is going to have to eat crow...sort of. What I said about the Super Geared is correct. Let's just say I engaged mouth before checking on the full details. I hate that when I do that....:uhoh: I went back and looked at the link and this is Athearns later version of the Super Geared. Less weight, a better runner, but still came in as inferior... compared to todays standards. Yes, I bought an ABA set of these and they ran well together but noisy. A much needed improvement but...I was never happier...then when Stewart came out with their F3, with a Kato Chassis aka Mechanism. You'd still be better off................ with any of the newer models out there.
Ipana Toothpaste. We used to swab the gears, run them in until they got quiet, cleaned them all out and re-lubed them, all was well. I never had any problems after that, with either single cut or "herringbone" gears. You wanted dead quiet, you bought HiF drives! Dave
Bought this Athearn Super Power DC unit from a yard sale, cleaned it up and converted to DCC with a LokSound micro select and it pulls like a beast. Great engine.
I still have one of those, 'rubber-band drive' Atherns. Don't use it but it makes an interesting display item. One thing I can say about it ... it would do about mach I.5 better than it would go slow at a scale speed.
An Athearn SUPER POWERED engine is an Athearn F7 with a weight in it. The extra weight will allow a single engine to pull more cars. It has the same Athearn motor that other Athearn loco have. These would be Blue Box F7s. The newer Ready to Run units also have the weight in them, but it is screwed to the chassis.
I have two Athearn F7As that look like TexasRailroad's unit on the inside (but with a bit less age). They have a much quieter motor and mechanism than the usual Blue Box locos, very nice detailing, and run like a charm. That weight turns the engine into a real ox in the pulling power department - rivaling my Proto FAs and C-Liners (though the latter are the best, their longer frames allowing even more weight).
Odd but my viewpoint hasn't changed since the last time I posted here. I wasted my dollars and time with those early rubber band drives and the super geared F7's. Frustrate, frustrate, frustrate. I needed a power supply with more then 3 amps, to drive the super geared. They were pullers but that's about all. Not worth the dollars and time I spent on them. Eventually finding the bottom side of a trash can. Much happier with today's offerings. As already stated.
If I may... One of the main attractions (to me) of this older stuff is how easily they can be repaired, modified, and worked on. I like to "tinker", so I enjoy picking up the odd vintage piece, knowing that it will require some work to bring it up to snuff. Example: I paid $40.00 for this, knowing in advance it didn't run. An hour or so of "finagling" and it now runs like a top: smooth, quiet and will easily pull 15-17 older metal freight cars. No high end electronics, no sound modules, just a basic, well-designed model that looks nice and parts are still available if you're willing to look for them. I have nothing against the new stuff, but I don't think that the older models we grew up with need to be ignored or worse yet, tossed aside. Just my opinion. Mark in Oregon
I have a couple of Super Power engines. I was a little fuzzy on what that signified. I assumed it meant all wheel electrical pickup and flywheel drive, but I think the Super Power tagline was later than the advent of that. They have that weight. It slides inside the frame rails tight enough that it doesn't rattle (much), it muffles the sound from the frame motor (somewhat), and allows (to a degree, pardon the pun) cooling air to get at the motor. There's no way to fit a roadswitcher hood over it. Those engines are heavier than their units with longer frames, like their FP-45s. They do haul well, and allowed the old power hogs to tow a lot of dummies so you didn't have to burn out your power packs feeding four of those old motors. Not just your opinion. I'm much better at making an engine that looks right run well, than I am at making an engine that runs well look right. Enjoy it more, too. I agree with you completely.
I have a couple of the old F units that I think they are referring to. As pat mentioned, there is a large weight in the shell that could be used as a boat anchor. I remotored mine around 30 years ago with can motors and they are still in use, extremely smooth running locomotives with the motor transplant and could probably pull a tree out by the roots.
