My hat goes off to the folks at Athearn! Some time ago I was having serious issues with an Athearn Greyhound Challenger. Athearn helped me with issues that were simple parts swaps in very timely manners and when I finally gave up on some mechanical issues they took the loco back and repaired it 100% back to factory original UNDER WARRANTY! You can't ask for better service than that. One lesson I did learn. Run these units light. I really don't think the complexity of these articulated engines can stand the heavy loads with the intricate valve gear and side rods. If the drive axles were all geared, that would be another thing. I thank Athearn for their service and hope to enjoy this "little" gem for years to come.
This unit has never done well with heavy loads especially with a 2% grade. Right now it is in a break in run and can't pull 3 Micro Trains Heavyweights up the grade. When I tried pulling heavy loads with it before I was constantly throwing side rods and pins were working out. I am going to try and increase the length of my grade this weekend but not today. I plan on getting out the sander, shop vac, and straight edge. My previous run Challenger is a stump puller. The unit in this discussion is from the last (3rd) run. I may see if I can pack some weight in it to get it to pull better.
