Athearn Big Boy Rivarossi Style Drive Rod Blow Out!

[Nato]

  My expierence so far with Challenger & Big Boy locos. My three Challengers have been run for two to three hours a stint  at two train shows No failure problem although I was kind of expecting maybe the sound module to blow as I had heard of this happening. When my friend Bob Gilmore shortened the draw bar on my Rio Grande loco he found wires being pinched which could lead to shortingand maybe failure,owners should check for this. My first Big Boy was operated for about three hours at the last show I attended "The Hostlers Show" at the Utah State Railroad Museum in Ogden,Utah.No problems with it either. Break in for me is running the locomotive at different speeds forward and backwards for at least an hour maybe longer,similar to what was recommended for Con Cor/ Rivarossi Premiere Edition Big Boy locos then I add cars to see how many can be pulled, with the Athearn locos I also test the sound functions out since I run CVP Wireless DC I cannot access the DCC ones. Then the locomotive will usually be out on my layout for a month or more coupled to a train and operated on one of my two mainlines when I feel like it, but thie last Big Boy got only briefly run before Bob took it to shorten the Draw Bar so the condition I expierenced did not happen untill I got the loco back fro him to begin breaking in.             Nate Goodman (Nato). "Starter of this THread !"

[dclyde]

I realize that this thread was pretty much dead however, I wanted to add an update to my experiences with my Athearn Challenger(s) and Big Boy.

My Clinchfield Challenger is finally running the way it should after 3 trips to Athearn.

My Grayhound is still at Athearn since I sent it in for it's second trip about 3 weeks ago.

I got my Big Boy back after a three week vacation from it's first trip to Athearn.  After a couple minor repairs (one of the handrails had poped out of it's mountng point and a pin in one of the pivoting pieces on the front of the engine had fallen out), I made two trips around my rather large layout at which time it derailed on absolutely every switch on my mainline.  So, in less that 24 hours it was sent back to Athearn for it's second trip.

I still can't believe that I just happened to buy the only three lemons that Athearn produced.  I'm more inclined to believe this is the norm and stand by my statement that I will never buy another Athearn product again.

Dave

[ljudice]

Don't forget guys, if Intermountain brings to N-scale steam, what they brought to N-scale diesels these problems will fade to insignificance...

Seriously, I feel for you steam lovers, it makes the problems we diesel fans put up with seem minor.

[Alcuin]

Stuff like this will keep brass prices from dropping .

Yeah, at least brass is reliable. It NEVER runs well!

A bit off topic, but apropos. An Overland brass AC4400 was up for auction on ebay recently that I was tempted to bid on. I have no experience with brass and just assumed that they were as exquisite on the inside as they are on the outside. After some investigation, I was amazed to see what crappy mechanisms they have. They look not much better than the motors on my old Tyco models! Thanks, but no, I'll stick with Kato and Atlas plastic.

[Nato]

  My expierence with Brass;"You Pays for the Ticket and takes Your Chances." It depends on the individual models not necessairly the Importor or Manufacturer. Way back when in the early days 1970's for all you new comers, when the late Bobby Hall imported N scale diesels made in Korea by Samhongsia these locos ran really gerat that is untill the nylon plastic gears began to develope cracking problems and then you were in trouble. Only good thing is that Halmark arranged to get replacement gears out of a better plastic,but there is still no way of knowing if your loco which has run good all these years on original gears will develope this problem. On the otherhand I have a Santa Fe Pacific 4-6-2 loco from Pecos River Brass that is one of the smoothist slowest running locos in Brass or Plastic I have ever encountered,wish I had bought a 2nd one on close out sale like the first was. Probably the most highly detailed Challemgers ever modeled in N were the fairly recient release from Oriental Limited who was getting back into N locos . I took a chance and purchased two a black and a Greyhound ,man what absolute pieces of C*** two months later of work by myself and friend Bob Gilmore we got them to run after figuring out where all the electrical shorts were and other bugs,so like I said earlier"Ya Pays the Price and Takes Your Chances !"                                                                                                   Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.

[dclyde]

An update to my absolutely delightful experience with Athearn:

1)  My BigBoy is still at Athearn on it's 2nd trip.  No word from Athearn as to it's status.
2)  I finally got back my Greyhound after it's second trip.  I put it on the track and have absolutely nothing.  No sound, no lights...nothing.  I sent an email to Athearn requesting a refund as they finally won and I give up.  I've had the engine for 7 months of which it spent about 3 hours actually having electricity applied to it.

It should be interesting to see what response I get.  I have absolutely no confidence in Athearn's products and/or repair support.

Dave

[wm3798]

N scale steam seems to be a crap shoot no matter what.  As good as the Bachmann consolidation is, people still complained about spotty quality control, and the newer Mountains have been picked or panned for various reasons.  LL Mallet's look lovely, but can barely pull their own tenders.  And now these much balleyhooed Athearn releases are developing feet of clay...

I think the best solution is to do what the prototype did and Dieselize!!

Lee

[Dave V]

N scale steam seems to be a crap shoot no matter what. 

What he said!

I've been very fortunate that I've been able to tinker my N scale steam into performing better than out-of-the-box.  But in fairness, two of the three steamers I've kitbashed use well-known good pulling mechanisms (the Kato Mike and the Spectrum 2-8-0).  The PRR M1 4-8-2 I bashed from the Spectrum light mountain pulls more than twice it's out-of-the-box performance via bearing block shims, balancing and requartering, valve gear adjustment, and more weight.  She runs quite smoothly now.  But even so, the 11 boxcars or 18 empty hoppers she can now haul is pitifully short of the prototype's brawn.

As enthusiastic as I am about N scale, I must admit (even as a so-called N scale PRR "steamhead" as the great Max Magliaro says) that one place N scale really falls short of HO is in the steam department.  Yet N scale diesels routinely perform as well or better than their HO brethren.  It must be that the mechanics of steam somehow don't scale down as well as the simpler diesel mechanism.

So, much as Lee suggested, I'm dieselizing.  Slowly, but surely, I'm developing a circa 1980 Conrail roster.  It's partly driven by nostalgia, partly by a desire to keep my tiny layout interesting for years to come, but in a large part driven by the fact that my 1956 PRR era should be steam-heavy, and I just can't rely on a large fleet of expensive kitbashed steam projects to haul the mail (or coal).

Unfortunately none of this helps you with your Big Boy problem.  I wish I had a great answer for it.

[Mark5]

I've had some good luck with N scale steam.

My LL Y3 can pull 30 MT boxcars on the flat.
my Bmann 2-6-6-2 pulled 25 out of the box.
I have two of the new Spectrum J class, one was dead on arrival but some nice guy got it running for me.

I recently got one of the 2nd run 0-8-0s - I'll post my impressions when I get a chance - maybe this weekend.

[3rdrail]

Geez, guys, I have a number of good running N scale steamers, enough that I plan to rid myself of Diesels one of these days. Running without problems and pulling at least a dozen cars are 2 MDC 2-8-0's, an MDC  2-6-0, a MP 4-6-2, a MiniTrix 0-6-0, a Bachmann 2-8-0, a Key 2-8-0, a Walthers 0-8-0 and a Kato 2-8-2. The 2 Shays run well but max out at 8 cars.

Yeah, I've played around with each one some, but I'm happy with the results.

[dclyde]

Yet another update:

Dave from Athearn called me to discuss the issues that I'm having with the Greyhound.  He is a very pleasant individual and is certainly interested in having happy customers.  I was impressed by his call...It's a shame that Athearn hasn't given him a product that is dependable.

He indicated that a refund was not an option since I didn't buy the engine from Athearn (it was purchased from MBK).  He did, however offer to exchange the engine for one that he has in stock.  Apparently, all Big Boys are sold out and the only Challengers available are the UP 3943 or the UP 3985.  Neither of these suit me as I would really like to get the Greyhound running properly.

Dave was really hyped about seeing if the engine would run in DC mode.  Our layout is strictly DCC but I decided to disconnect my programming track from the layout and hook up a MRC DC power pack.  Once accomplished, the engine did run under DC....in one direction (reverse) regardless of the direction switch.  It was rather curious that the engine would run in reverse, I'd change the direction switch, the engine would come to a stop, produce the steam hiss, and then start again in reverse.

Bottom line, the Greyhound is leaving Baltimore today for it's 3rd trip to Athearn.  We've had the engine for 7 months with less than 3 hours of actual operation.

Dave also indicated that he supervised the testing of my Big Boy and it is now apparently functioning properly.  Hopefully I'll get it back soon so that I can test it on my layout.

I know these guys are trying but you can only polish a turd so much.

Dave

[SirTainly]

Dave was really hyped about seeing if the engine would run in DC mode.  Our layout is strictly DCC but I decided to disconnect my programming track from the layout and hook up a MRC DC power pack.  Once accomplished, the engine did run under DC....in one direction (reverse) regardless of the direction switch.  It was rather curious that the engine would run in reverse, I'd change the direction switch, the engine would come to a stop, produce the steam hiss, and then start again in reverse.

Sounds like you're really struggling with this loco. Re reverse only thing, I don't remember this with my Challenger (don't think I ever ran it under DC) but it is normal for the Big Boy so expect it's the same deal. The manual does say that it will only run in one direction under pure DC, and that you have to use the extra controller they supply to chnage direction.