Rock Don't feel left out at age thirty. I restarted my set of downstairs rails five years ago. I am now 72 and just getting started with Athearn and DCC and Sountraxx. Carl
I have a "favorite" Athearn memory... My first HO Athearn car was an undecorated 40' flat car! Why? you might ask... well, as a kid, I walked into the hobby shop with only $2.00... the decorated kits were $1.99 + tax; the undecorated $ 1.89 + tax. So there was really no choice, and off I went with my first "prototypical" HO kit. ( The first of many Athearn cars that I would acquire before switching to N scale) Harold
One thing that has not been mentioned because in HO thisis not an issue mainly due to Athearn is readily available models at reasonable price and good quality. As an N scaler I am looking forward to Athearn entering the N scale market. I believe Athearn will provide off the shelf models that can be purchased at any time rather than limited runs that have plagued N scale for some time.
<font color="336633">I have always had a soft spot for Athearn, as these was the first decent locos I ever got (my first locos was Model Power). one of the first ones I got is still my fave loco, an SD40-2, it is a fantastic runner as good and as quiet as any of my Kato and Atlas locos..... although I know its rare as I have had some poor runners. Another good thing about Athearn is the locos are good starting points for kitbashes as they have a farliy large range and are cheep enough to not worry about ruining them.</font>
I love the Athearn rolling stock, but their locos don't thrill me like they used to. My biggest complauint with the Athearn locomotives (this does not apply to the Genesis power, though I have issues with them too) is that you can hear them all the way across the room. SOomthing about the gearing gives them that distinctive grinding sound. I know it's possible to rework the gearboxes, but it's not somthing I've ever tried. The onther, and I'l admit significantly less critical, issue is the sintered steel wheels they Athearns have. They tend to get dirty much faster than the Nickel Silver wheels many manufacturers are using now. THe Genesis line used the NS wheels, but they also have semi-scale flanges and don't stay on the track worth a damn in my expierience. The biggest pluses for Athearn locomotives is you can tear them down and work on them without tools, they're cheap (Though this is changing ) , and they do run forever.
hello again, I, again just new to the hobby, have found there to be a following of people that love the "grinding" sound. I remember my first gp50, it had what I thought to be a loud noisy grind. Well I tore it down cleaned this cleaned that, and removed flash. When I was all done, it was 10 times louder and would not go around a corner w/o shaking the house Anyhow, it still does not get used and I am looking to gut and replace the trucks. The point is I suppose is, that I am now aware some loco' s are quiter than others and test them before i buy.......
I love my athearn freight cars. I have bought several over the years. I usually change out the wheels and the couplers, as I like kadee couplers and metal wheels don't attract as much dirt. I also have a few Athearn locomotives which I have upgraded varying degrees over the years. Since I have gone DCC, I am slowly converting my athearn fleet. I have upgraded the motors and wheels, before putting the decoder in them. I don't plan to put sound decoders in any athearrn; some of them are noisy enough Have a couple of athearns work a heavy train downgrade and it sounds like they are in full dynamic braking. If it wasn't for Athearn I probably would not have gotten into this hobby. I started out with a trainset and a cheap locomotive. But then one day shortly afterwards I got my first Athearn locomotive and I was hooked on this hobby. Then I got my first Athearn freight car kit. I have never looked back. The kits were inexepensive and easy to put together and ran a lot better than any cheap trainset freight-car. There are locomotives and freight cars that run and look better than Athearn, and I own a few. Even though these newer freight cars look better with more detail, you can buy 3-5 Athearns for the price of one of the newer rtr cars. This is a big factor when you want to run long trains. Also, if you run a lot at an open house where "hands and fingers" people are present, there is a lot less grief when a $4 or $5 dollar athearn car hits the floor vs a $20 to $30 one.
I started buying Athearn cars & engines back in 1961, I'm not real "handy" when it comes to putting things together so their kits were great as far as I was concerned because even I could put a a boxcar together in a matter of a few minutes. Although I haven't bought an engine in about 5 years (I'm an ALCO fan) I do still maintain a car fleet of over 400 Athearn frt cars and 6 of my locos are Athearns from 15 yrs ago still operating on my layout, can't beat them for the price!
