07-31-2010, 10:55 AM
Reinhard, here are a couple of pages from a friend's web site that might help make the Athearns run better. His old Athearn blue box locomotives run almost as well as Kato & Atlas. The Athearn motors still draw a bit more power than can motors, but I did the mods he recommended and found that the amp draw on my Athearn motors dropped to less than 1/2 of what they were before I tuned them up. I also take the Athearn trucks apart, clean the gears, and put in a bit of tooth paste for brak in. I run them for about 15 minutes in both directions with the tooth paste, and then disassemble the trucks and clean out the tooth paste thoroughly and reassemble and relube the trucks.
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By the way, Jim has a lot of interresting information on his site so I'll also link to his home page:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://trainweb.org/jfuhrtrain/">http://trainweb.org/jfuhrtrain/</a><!-- m -->
When the Santa Fe sold off the Cf7's, the most common switcher used by them were the chop nosed Gp7's & 9's with Topeka Cabs. They were about the same size as the Cf-7's and about the same power. The ones that had dynamic brakes, had the dynamics removed and the sheet metal installed over the resistor banks to make the dynamic brake blisters smooth instead of grilles. The only model that I know of of the Topeka cab is on the Cf7 in your avatar. I don't know if thearn offers Cf7 bodies. Before Horizon every part Athearn used in any model was available separately, but since Horizon, a lot of that has changed.
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://trainweb.org/jfuhrtrain/tuneup.htm">http://trainweb.org/jfuhrtrain/tuneup.htm</a><!-- m -->
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://trainweb.org/jfuhrtrain/fivewire.htm">http://trainweb.org/jfuhrtrain/fivewire.htm</a><!-- m -->
By the way, Jim has a lot of interresting information on his site so I'll also link to his home page:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://trainweb.org/jfuhrtrain/">http://trainweb.org/jfuhrtrain/</a><!-- m -->
When the Santa Fe sold off the Cf7's, the most common switcher used by them were the chop nosed Gp7's & 9's with Topeka Cabs. They were about the same size as the Cf-7's and about the same power. The ones that had dynamic brakes, had the dynamics removed and the sheet metal installed over the resistor banks to make the dynamic brake blisters smooth instead of grilles. The only model that I know of of the Topeka cab is on the Cf7 in your avatar. I don't know if thearn offers Cf7 bodies. Before Horizon every part Athearn used in any model was available separately, but since Horizon, a lot of that has changed.