Freelance 2015-1

[faraway]

Athearn genesis motor is actually a Roco motor, they're very good usually, I have a few genesis locos and they're very smooth runners, but please be your own judge . ...

The Athearn Genesis motor arrived.
They fit with little milling and cutting some plastic from the motor support


Perfect horizontal mount. It looks like the motor is higher than the old one. But that is not true. The flywheels are perfect level if you put the motors on a flat surface.


The old truck-motor connection is very short at one side but works fine


The other side is ok


This photo shows the length variations at both sides. The motors are put side by side aligned at their mounting points. It is easy to see how the lower end is significant shorter than the old RTR motor.


It is an easy conversion and the new motor is great indeed. Problem are the old RTR trucks. They make a lot of noise too. The replacement motor is a great choice if the motor is the only problem to be solved. A complete Atlas Trainman GP3x drive is the best choice if the entire RTR drive does not suite your requirements.

I have thanks to Athearn non existing quality control a funny situation.
All this was triggered by two GP40-2 with the usual RTR sound. I converted them to dummy, ran them with Atlas engines and waited for the motors and two further GP-40. It was my intention to run two pairs of CSX GP40-2. Each one with a drive and a dummy.
The other two arrived about a week ago. To my surprise is the drive far better than everything I have every heard from Athearn RTR so far. Those two are in revenue service and run quite well (not perfect but quite well). I will keep it that way and put the Genesis motor on stock for other conversion when Athene quality control produces the next junk motor