My favorite railroad, its great to see her running again. Ill be taking out many of my vintage h.o. trains and try with the help of your great videos, to bring them back to life. Thank you
I'm almost 70 and I remember having that exact same HO gage locomotive with the matching rear tender. My brother had the same product but only it was the Sothern Pacific, bright silver. I was probably six or seven. Good for you getting it running.
Again I went back in your history to get this video, as I acquired an Athearn F7 band drive diesel. It was in pretty clean condition but still did not run. I decided to replace the bands, and while they were off I tested the motor and found that it worked. I also had to replace the shafts as the old ones were bent. No my problem is that if I have both shafts connected the motor isn't strong enough to turn them both but disconnect one from the motor and the motor is strong enough to turn the other. I suspect the magnet has weakened over the years but I don't have any way to re-magnetize it. I'll just have to save up my pennies till I can afford the re-magnetizing gadget.
I have an Athearn RDC car, band drive. I don't use it for pulling so I removed one set of bands and put in the biggest flywheel I could manage and it ran very well. Later I installed a Walther's gear kit on one truck and that improved it more.
Love how the rubber band locomotives sounded when the ran. The rubber band hustler loco was almost as fast as a slot car. Thank you for bringing back the memories. !
Dude, I've got that at my place. My grandpa had it when he was young and now I've got it. It's been around for almost 70 years now, and the thing works like a beauty. Old Proto 2000 series. Good stuff
This takes me back. My first HO locomotive was an Athearn Hi-F drive GP9, circa 1959. The speeds attainable by the fact that the gear ratio was 4:1 were truly startling. It drove me out of model railroading and into slot racing. I remember taking apart that motor with its die cast end bells many times, and dismantling the trucks to replace the drive bands. Haven't you ever heard of contact cleaner?
Super. My railroad still has one of the Athearn Hi-F F-7 units in use. Mine is a little different from yours, as mine has metal U-joints and flywheels on each end of the motor and ball bearings for each shaft. The secret is to find the correct size drive belts, not rubber bands. Mine still runs super smooth and quiet, even after all of these years. Hello again from the Tracy Mountain Railway in Colorado. 💙 T.E.N.
It'scool you enjoy working on trains, it really is a fun hobby. I've delt with rubber band drive Athearns in the past but changing the rubber bands all the time gets old and they seem to dry out and get hard after very little use and the bands were Athearn replacement bands. But I'll buy them whenever I can and gut them and use them as dummies, I install LED lighting maybe a dress up kit and call it good. I attach the trucks with just a small piece of 10 gauge wire insulation pushed over the mounting stud and that holds them securely, and the old motors I use as flat car loads, also I have replaced the drive shaft connectors on the motors with again another small piece of wire insulation, 14 or 16 gauge should work. However I have not purchased a new Athearn locomotive since they stopped making them in America.
Found one of these on the floor in my grandmothers basement. After cleaning up the wheels and replacing the bands, I let it run for a few hours to kinda wake back up. The body had been hand painted by a child so I repainted it too 'match' the Mighty Casey ride em railroad that I have. I love this stupid thing. It's such a clever design, and it will happily and quietly run all day at the scale speed of sound.
When working on an old engine like this it is best to clean everything. Those Athearn engines get their electrical ground though the trucks, the mounting pins, the frame, etc. All of those things should be clean and shiny. A Dremel tool with a small wire wheel would work best on all of the connection points. Similarly, I would lubricate all of the parts before reassembly. Even if it is a $10 engine, if you are going to use it on your layout for anything other than static display, rebuild the engine properly.
Good job getting it running again. In the 1950s, these engines sold for $10. For $40, I had 2 F7As and 2 GP9s. Car kits were $1.98. I still have 1 GP9 with the Hi-F drive, and it can pull 12 cars around the layout.
I use CRC Electronics Cleaner on all of my O, HO, and N scale trains. It cleans the commutators, brushes, and the carbon build up between the commutators. It doesn’t hurt anything at all. It also removes old oil, grease and gunk. You should try it. It gets into those hard to reach areas. As far as cleaning the wheels, you should try using a Dremel Rotary tool with a brass wire wheel. It does a tremendous job, and makes it easier, and quicker. Just make sure wipe the wheels down well to make sure you don’t leave behind any brass splinters.
@Thomas Wissmann I was wondering myself why he doesn't use "tuner cleaner" instead of the alcohol bath but the alcohol is definitely more fun. As for a wire wheel, I was told years ago that using something abrasive on track and wheels leaves minute scratches which actually attract more grime over time.
You are correct about scratching the metal wheels and/or track, but that would be steel wire wheels. Using brass is a softer metal that wouldn’t normally scratch the metal surfaces, as long as you don’t stay in one spot or specific area over an extended period of time. Just a quick cleaning is all that’s needed. You do however want to clean the wheels removed from the trucks. This will assure that no metal filings get into the armature, or in the gearing of the locomotive.
Then you can use a rubber polishing wheel for the Dremel and go around each wheel with that. You just want make sure you don’t leave any rubber residual on the wheels. Wipe them down with a q-tip dipped in alcohol to give a good clean surface.
You can actually use super glue or clear finger nail polish and let it dry, then place the rubber connector back on and it will make it a tighter fit without actually gluing it together. It's a trick used by other modellers to make joints a little tighter without damaging, stopping movement if it's suppose to be a movable part, or making it harder to remove encase you need to for repairs.
In between my two American Flyer trains, i talked mom into getting me a set. It ran great for a long time. I replaced the rubberbands over time, but it ran good it's whole life. I ended up selling it to the wife's cousin upstate New York + he used it till he passed a few years ago. For the money they were a good train, " AND" they were made in California, USA! , unlike Atlas.
I remember having this locomotive, when I was younger. Got it from a train store called SMC in Staten Island Ny, that close down years ago. Also had a Life Like UB36 locomotive, Delaware and Hudson, from SMC.
This engine was my first HO set branded Lionel and this was 1959. As mentioned, was very fast!! Had problem when replacing rubber bands getting in correct position. Made big mistake by not keeping original packaging because reduced value of rolling stock. Still have original Lionel HO cars.
Those Lionel by Athearn items can sometimes be quite desirable if the condition is good. Collectors definitely look for the boxes especially with Athearn and Rivarossi made Lionel, before Lionel started making HO themselves in their factory. Since Athearn sold identical models, usually the only way to tell a Lionel item from the Athean one is to look for a tiny "circle L" Lionel logo on the side of the equipment. Though, interesting enough, there's documentation of original, new-in-the-box Lionel Athearn which did not have that logo present. So unless the Athean engine has the Lionel logo it usually isn't "counted" as Lionel by a collector without the original box (no way to prove it's authenticity). 1959 was the last of the two years Lionel sold trains by Athearn. At this time they were already starting to manufacture a new line of HO equipment primarily made from tooling they purchased (and modified) from HObbyline. Some of it was well designed, but some of it (especially the earlier models) had significant design flaws.
Wow thats a great Quiet running locomotive. Its Great. Good job ! I never honestly had this type my late uncle did have just about anything you can think of. "don't do this at home " lol i have before. I expected fire but nah it just ran on my mantua motor on one of my locomotives. Them bands you used look like what my daughters would have hair tie elastics which ive seen at my local dollar tree ( everything $1 store)
Find some small diameter rubber hose at your local auto parts store or even vacuum line rubber hoses to replace that piece, just put the piece you remove in a safe spot as it's original to the loco.
Hey thanks for the class I learned something. And I think the patina is already good for the weathering. Put some glass and a light. You get the rest. Again thank you, Chris
Since you are buying generic elastic bands in quantity, you could hold the truck side frames in place with a couple, giving you two hands to wrangle the wiring.
I also use very fine brass wire wheel to get rid of oxidized wheels and or parts. Being brass a soft metal it only takes off the problem and never hurting metals.
Uses the same principle as the Lone Star 000 (treble-0) scale, which was early n-gauge. I have serviced a few of these and the still perform reasonably well, despite being over 60 years old.
I have a couple of those from the 60s. Missing on yours is the additional weight, which is just like the bottom piece, that slides onto the top before installing the plastic cover. Good video.
Nice to see an old band drive locomotive back on the rails, Harrison. And bonus... It's Pennsylvania RR. Don't you have a B unit to put with it? You can always double head it with the Pennsy 🦈nose. Thanks for sharing. 👍👍👍
Those things run surprisingly smoothly if you can get the bands right. The issue is the post supporting the drive shafts wear. That slot gets deeper and the band then wants to walk forward and the front one goes off the front and the back one goes off the back.
Athearn called it "Hi-Fi Drive" . I used to have two or three of these in the very early sixties, when I was in my early teens. My dad added a couple of flywheels to the drive shaft and that reduced considerably the herky jerky stops and starts, allowing the units to coast to a stop. There's lots of room under the shell to add these. We also wrapped black electrical tape around the axles, making them thicker and increasing traction.
I have 3 of these that were my fathers. Used this great tutorial to get them all running perfectly from what I thought to be trash. Many thanks for that. This is the only model I can find that has the same flat coupler plates as mine. Ordered X2f replacements and they don’t work in the tiny coupler covers. Original couplers have a tiny copper spring which are unavailable. Any ideas of what I can use to replace the old tiny coupler cover/holder. They are super low profile.
Another great video. You never cease to amaze me. I am not sure if you saw my whole comment at the live. Comments were flying by so fast. I was trying to tell you about a Canadian friend's 12 year old son who loves trains. He had been working on his setup with his grandpa in grandpa's basement and most of his trains are Thomas and Friends but people help him out by watching his TH-cam and sending him all kinds of things. He started making his own videos by himself and has been working on his setup and such since he was 10, I think his mom said. But anyway since his parents remodeled he has just recently torn down his set-up and moved it to its new location at home. He is still setting up everything but has his tracks up and running. He has been running some non Thomas and friends trains even. I told him about you, your name and your channel. His name and channel name is Lucas Ciraco. Maybe you could drop in and see him. If can find the time that is, I know you are super busy.
@@SMTMainline Harrison, Do you have a video on how to change the rubber bands on a Lionel rubber band drive, I have a couple I need to work on, and they don’t seem to be as simple as the Athearn models.
theyre bullet proof of the coupkle hundred i have only two could have live breathed back into them...spun armature was culprit on both ...turn your wheels on a drill light grit paper
I have had several of these over the years. As usually, they run better in one direction than the other. The old Pittman, or Pittman style motors were not the smoothest runners. Fine when you put them in a slot car, not so good for HO trains. At one point the rubber band drives were actually smoother than the gear drive units. A skew wound five or seven pole motor with flywheels might make this a smooth runner, but is it worth it? Finding good quality rubber bands is an issue. The blackish-blue ones seem to last. Isopropyl alcohol works but denatured ethanol always seemed to work better, or electrical contact cleaner spray. Certain types of heat shrink tubing make good replacement sleeves. I prefer the thicker clear shrink tubing. Just cut to size.
The drive system was known as Hi-F drive. I had a GP-9 that was ultra fast and it could outrun me. HA I switched many a train on my 4 x 8 layout back in the late 50s.
The bracelet bands melt after awhile. Don't even need to run them . used some few yrs back getting my rbd's to run. My friends daughter made the bracelets. So i got handful from her. Got them out later to run them and the bands were goo. Lol
Awesome!!!! I have a Athearn blue box Bud RDC 1 that was rubber band drive but my dad found for me a kit that makes it a gear drive which made it run better. =^.^=
Thank you so much, I have this same exact engine but the engine ran smooth and all I just couldn't figure out why the wheels didn't turn. Hahaha all I needed was rubber bands
I actually had a set of Lionel HO Santa Fe F7 A & B's and Budd streamliners.....in the late fifties! Rubber band drive and all. Maybe Athearn made them for Lionel, who knows. The engines would not pull the cars up any grade at all!! Just slipped the bands! My father, who worked for The Budd Co passenger car plant in Philly was VERY frustrated!! And then, to add insult to injury, Athearn introduced a band drive RDC! My dad's favorite Budd product. It slipped too!! Times have changed, thank God. Have fun! Just don't start any fires!! LOL
Someone used to make a gear drive conversion for the band-drive RDCs. It only converted one bogie, though - the other end of the motor was given a sizeable flywheel. Not sure if they ever made a gear conversion for band-drive locos, though.
I have an Athearn RDC with the same drive. The biggest issues with it are it starts like a jackrabbit, the bands slip when it comes to a hill so the loco stalls, and the whole unit is way out of scale to what it should be.
I think my dcc decoder is broken. Do you have any knowledge on how to fix it or explain to me how to fix it because I dont really do these things and need help and want to see my new train working like its supposed to and not just going making a sound stop, Going, making a sound, top, and continued like that the movement and sounds were.
@@RetailThrone Nah - just a simple Au Jus. But really...one SHOULD know what wine to serve with that. If it tastes similar to beef...serve a red. If it tastes more like chicken or fish, serve a white. Or one could just say hell with it and serve Jack Daniels instead. But wait...does one serve that with rice or potato????
What is your preferred lubrication oil and cleaner on restoring old locomotive motors? I have a number of old trains I've picked up at flea markets and estate sales that do not run and I would like to see what I can do to get them running again. Thank you
We had about 5 hi-f engines all f units every Christmas dad would replace the bands seeing this video brought back memories .
My favorite railroad, its great to see her running again. Ill be taking out many of my vintage h.o. trains and try with the help of your great videos, to bring them back to life. Thank you
I'm almost 70 and I remember having that exact same HO gage locomotive with the matching rear tender. My brother had the same product but only it was the Sothern Pacific, bright silver. I was probably six or seven. Good for you getting it running.
Not tender - B unit.
Hay it’s Xander nice to see you buddy
Again I went back in your history to get this video, as I acquired an Athearn F7 band drive diesel. It was in pretty clean condition but still did not run. I decided to replace the bands, and while they were off I tested the motor and found that it worked. I also had to replace the shafts as the old ones were bent. No my problem is that if I have both shafts connected the motor isn't strong enough to turn them both but disconnect one from the motor and the motor is strong enough to turn the other. I suspect the magnet has weakened over the years but I don't have any way to re-magnetize it. I'll just have to save up my pennies till I can afford the re-magnetizing gadget.
I have an Athearn RDC car, band drive. I don't use it for pulling so I removed one set of bands and put in the biggest flywheel I could manage and it ran very well. Later I installed a Walther's gear kit on one truck and that improved it more.
first time i saw one of those drives i laughed at it- and that was before i started kindergarten
I have the same one with the b unit also. Glad I saw this video so I can fix mine
Love how the rubber band locomotives sounded when the ran. The rubber band hustler loco was almost as fast as a slot car. Thank you for bringing back the memories. !
why on earth would anybody want a locomotive that goes 200 scale mph??
@@tommurphy4307 frick u goin fast is cool Nicholas Chard i had one and it was awesome
I have a Dremel tool with a wire brush, works great for cleaning the wheels.
i've done many of these over the last 59 yrs, cleaning the wire contacts om the tucks could help
How athearn managed to sell those f7 gp9 and caboose without windows was unbelievable ,
I had one of those when I was a kid, 50-60 years ago.
Dude, I've got that at my place. My grandpa had it when he was young and now I've got it. It's been around for almost 70 years now, and the thing works like a beauty. Old Proto 2000 series. Good stuff
This takes me back. My first HO locomotive was an Athearn Hi-F drive GP9, circa 1959. The speeds attainable by the fact that the gear ratio was 4:1 were truly startling. It drove me out of model railroading and into slot racing. I remember taking apart that motor with its die cast end bells many times, and dismantling the trucks to replace the drive bands.
Haven't you ever heard of contact cleaner?
Deoxit is great for electronics, lubricates and cleans, and is safe for electronics
Super. My railroad still has one of the Athearn Hi-F F-7 units in use. Mine is a little different from yours, as mine has metal U-joints and flywheels on each end of the motor and ball bearings for each shaft. The secret is to find the correct size drive belts, not rubber bands. Mine still runs super smooth and quiet, even after all of these years. Hello again from the Tracy Mountain Railway in Colorado. 💙 T.E.N.
My first Athern was in 1957. I still have it.
It'scool you enjoy working on trains, it really is a fun hobby. I've delt with rubber band drive Athearns in the past but changing the rubber bands all the time gets old and they seem to dry out and get hard after very little use and the bands were Athearn replacement bands. But I'll buy them whenever I can and gut them and use them as dummies, I install LED lighting maybe a dress up kit and call it good. I attach the trucks with just a small piece of 10 gauge wire insulation pushed over the mounting stud and that holds them securely, and the old motors I use as flat car loads, also I have replaced the drive shaft connectors on the motors with again another small piece of wire insulation, 14 or 16 gauge should work. However I have not purchased a new Athearn locomotive since they stopped making them in America.
The locomotive is happy now and thanks you for not giving up on her.
Great restoration! Soon you should fix up that Erie Lackawanna locomotive you have. Be nice to see it run. Have a great day!
I always know how these videos will end yet I still watch, just to make sure. Haha. Great work as always.
Thanks for watching anyway, haha
Found one of these on the floor in my grandmothers basement. After cleaning up the wheels and replacing the bands, I let it run for a few hours to kinda wake back up. The body had been hand painted by a child so I repainted it too 'match' the Mighty Casey ride em railroad that I have. I love this stupid thing. It's such a clever design, and it will happily and quietly run all day at the scale speed of sound.
When working on an old engine like this it is best to clean everything. Those Athearn engines get their electrical ground though the trucks, the mounting pins, the frame, etc. All of those things should be clean and shiny. A Dremel tool with a small wire wheel would work best on all of the connection points. Similarly, I would lubricate all of the parts before reassembly. Even if it is a $10 engine, if you are going to use it on your layout for anything other than static display, rebuild the engine properly.
Good job getting it running again. In the 1950s, these engines sold for $10. For $40, I had 2 F7As and 2 GP9s. Car kits were $1.98. I still have 1 GP9 with the Hi-F drive, and it can pull 12 cars around the layout.
..and people made about $1.00 an hour if they were lucky- what is your point?
I use CRC Electronics Cleaner on all of my O, HO, and N scale trains. It cleans the commutators, brushes, and the carbon build up between the commutators. It doesn’t hurt anything at all. It also removes old oil, grease and gunk. You should try it. It gets into those hard to reach areas. As far as cleaning the wheels, you should try using a Dremel Rotary tool with a brass wire wheel. It does a tremendous job, and makes it easier, and quicker. Just make sure wipe the wheels down well to make sure you don’t leave behind any brass splinters.
@Thomas Wissmann I was wondering myself why he doesn't use "tuner cleaner" instead of the alcohol bath but the alcohol is definitely more fun. As for a wire wheel, I was told years ago that using something abrasive on track and wheels leaves minute scratches which actually attract more grime over time.
You are correct about scratching the metal wheels and/or track, but that would be steel wire wheels. Using brass is a softer metal that wouldn’t normally scratch the metal surfaces, as long as you don’t stay in one spot or specific area over an extended period of time. Just a quick cleaning is all that’s needed. You do however want to clean the wheels removed from the trucks. This will assure that no metal filings get into the armature, or in the gearing of the locomotive.
@@thomaswissmann9073 You're right but it looked like those wheels were brass.
Then you can use a rubber polishing wheel for the Dremel and go around each wheel with that. You just want make sure you don’t leave any rubber residual on the wheels. Wipe them down with a q-tip dipped in alcohol to give a good clean surface.
@@thomaswissmann9073 Good idea.
I love your videos
You can actually use super glue or clear finger nail polish and let it dry, then place the rubber connector back on and it will make it a tighter fit without actually gluing it together. It's a trick used by other modellers to make joints a little tighter without damaging, stopping movement if it's suppose to be a movable part, or making it harder to remove encase you need to for repairs.
white glue does the same thing and is easier to disassemble and a drop of water releases it
In between my two American Flyer trains, i talked mom into getting me a set. It ran great for a long time. I replaced the rubberbands over time, but it ran good it's whole life. I ended up selling it to the wife's cousin upstate New York + he used it till he passed a few years ago. For the money they were a good train, " AND" they were made in California, USA! , unlike Atlas.
I remember having this locomotive, when I was younger. Got it from a train store called SMC in Staten Island Ny, that close down years ago. Also had a Life Like UB36 locomotive, Delaware and Hudson, from SMC.
doing many atheran blue box RDC cars are fun to run at least for myself.
Good job! First time I see this drive system and it was pretty interesting
Another Awesome Overhaul!!! Is this a Challenge?? Only Kidding. Thanks SMT!!
This is awesome
This engine was my first HO set branded Lionel and this was 1959. As mentioned, was very fast!! Had problem when replacing rubber bands getting in correct position. Made big mistake by not keeping original packaging because reduced value of rolling stock. Still have original Lionel HO cars.
Those Lionel by Athearn items can sometimes be quite desirable if the condition is good. Collectors definitely look for the boxes especially with Athearn and Rivarossi made Lionel, before Lionel started making HO themselves in their factory. Since Athearn sold identical models, usually the only way to tell a Lionel item from the Athean one is to look for a tiny "circle L" Lionel logo on the side of the equipment. Though, interesting enough, there's documentation of original, new-in-the-box Lionel Athearn which did not have that logo present. So unless the Athean engine has the Lionel logo it usually isn't "counted" as Lionel by a collector without the original box (no way to prove it's authenticity). 1959 was the last of the two years Lionel sold trains by Athearn. At this time they were already starting to manufacture a new line of HO equipment primarily made from tooling they purchased (and modified) from HObbyline. Some of it was well designed, but some of it (especially the earlier models) had significant design flaws.
Wow thats a great Quiet running locomotive. Its Great. Good job ! I never honestly had this type my late uncle did have just about anything you can think of. "don't do this at home " lol i have before. I expected fire but nah it just ran on my mantua motor on one of my locomotives. Them bands you used look like what my daughters would have hair tie elastics which ive seen at my local dollar tree ( everything $1 store)
Great video I really appreciate your repair videos.
CRC contact cleaner and lubricant is your friend. Cleans ALL electrical motors, connections, track, wheels... Use it!
Find some small diameter rubber hose at your local auto parts store or even vacuum line rubber hoses to replace that piece, just put the piece you remove in a safe spot as it's original to the loco.
Hey thanks for the class I learned something. And I think the patina is already good for the weathering. Put some glass and a light. You get the rest. Again thank you, Chris
Since it looks like a 5 pole motor it's worth working on Even a new 3 pole motor is junk ,I ' ve played around since I 8 yrs old I'm now 71
Since you are buying generic elastic bands in quantity, you could hold the truck side frames in place with a couple, giving you two hands to wrangle the wiring.
I also use very fine brass wire wheel to get rid of oxidized wheels and or parts. Being brass a soft metal it only takes off the problem and never hurting metals.
Amazing job!
Uses the same principle as the Lone Star 000 (treble-0) scale, which was early n-gauge. I have serviced a few of these and the still perform reasonably well, despite being over 60 years old.
I have a couple of those from the 60s. Missing on yours is the additional weight, which is just like the bottom piece, that slides onto the top before installing the plastic cover. Good video.
Good afternoon, Harrison!!!
Nice to see an old band drive locomotive back on the rails, Harrison. And bonus... It's Pennsylvania RR. Don't you have a B unit to put with it? You can always double head it with the Pennsy 🦈nose.
Thanks for sharing. 👍👍👍
Very cool 😃
Hey SMT, nice job on the video
Those things run surprisingly smoothly if you can get the bands right. The issue is the post supporting the drive shafts wear. That slot gets deeper and the band then wants to walk forward and the front one goes off the front and the back one goes off the back.
Very nice 👌 👍 👏 😀
Band drive... wow I've truly seen it all now.
SMT I'll let you in on a cheap trick to find the rubber hose for the drive shafts ...... the rubber jacket on wire!
I have many Athearn rubber band drives
Athearn called it "Hi-Fi Drive" . I used to have two or three of these in the very early sixties, when I was in my early teens. My dad added a couple of flywheels to the drive shaft and that reduced considerably the herky jerky stops and starts, allowing the units to coast to a stop. There's lots of room under the shell to add these. We also wrapped black electrical tape around the axles, making them thicker and increasing traction.
Slight correction. It was the "Hi-F" drive.
I have 3 of these that were my fathers. Used this great tutorial to get them all running perfectly from what I thought to be trash.
Many thanks for that.
This is the only model I can find that has the same flat coupler plates as mine.
Ordered X2f replacements and they don’t work in the tiny coupler covers. Original couplers have a tiny copper spring which are unavailable.
Any ideas of what I can use to replace the old tiny coupler cover/holder. They are super low profile.
Another great video. You never cease to amaze me. I am not sure if you saw my whole comment at the live. Comments were flying by so fast. I was trying to tell you about a Canadian friend's 12 year old son who loves trains. He had been working on his setup with his grandpa in grandpa's basement and most of his trains are Thomas and Friends but people help him out by watching his TH-cam and sending him all kinds of things. He started making his own videos by himself and has been working on his setup and such since he was 10, I think his mom said. But anyway since his parents remodeled he has just recently torn down his set-up and moved it to its new location at home. He is still setting up everything but has his tracks up and running. He has been running some non Thomas and friends trains even. I told him about you, your name and your channel. His name and channel name is Lucas Ciraco. Maybe you could drop in and see him. If can find the time that is, I know you are super busy.
thanks for sharing , i had one of these bought at Americas Hobby centre for $3.99
It's an Athearn, you could soak that thing in gasoline and would still run...with alot of sparks and a bonfire lol
They don't go down without a good fight.
@@SMTMainline Harrison, Do you have a video on how to change the rubber bands on a Lionel rubber band drive, I have a couple I need to work on, and they don’t seem to be as simple as the Athearn models.
Good job.
I had the same exact one back in 68
Thanks for the video.ive had many locos apart but not that one yet.maybe ill come across one in the future. Informative for us HO junk collectors.🚂🚃🚃
theyre bullet proof of the coupkle hundred i have only two could have live breathed back into them...spun
armature was culprit on both
...turn your wheels on a drill light grit paper
Great vid!
My dad had a few rubber band drive but he had nothing but problems with it. You should start a business fixing Locomotives, your very good at it.
I had had an NH ABBA all powered....long time ago
I have had several of these over the years. As usually, they run better in one direction than the other. The old Pittman, or Pittman style motors were not the smoothest runners. Fine when you put them in a slot car, not so good for HO trains. At one point the rubber band drives were actually smoother than the gear drive units. A skew wound five or seven pole motor with flywheels might make this a smooth runner, but is it worth it? Finding good quality rubber bands is an issue. The blackish-blue ones seem to last. Isopropyl alcohol works but denatured ethanol always seemed to work better, or electrical contact cleaner spray. Certain types of heat shrink tubing make good replacement sleeves. I prefer the thicker clear shrink tubing. Just cut to size.
Replace the band drive chassis with either a Globe or Athearn gear drive chassis. - Charlie
I think you can!! I think you can!!!! I think you can!!!!!!!
Serenity now!
The drive system was known as Hi-F drive. I had a GP-9 that was ultra fast and it could outrun me. HA I switched many a train on my 4 x 8 layout back in the late 50s.
Good job saving an old rubber band drive.
The bracelet bands melt after awhile. Don't even need to run them . used some few yrs back getting my rbd's to run. My friends daughter made the bracelets. So i got handful from her. Got them out later to run them and the bands were goo. Lol
Nice work.. Good thinking on holding the trucks by using the rubber bands..
Well, when that motor turned over the first time..😁
Excellent use of your video camera
CRC contact cleaner would get all of that oxidation off of everything, the motor, wheels and connections.
a dremel and vacuum hose from the auto parts can work wonders on repair.
Awesome!!!! I have a Athearn blue box Bud RDC 1 that was rubber band drive but my dad found for me a kit that makes it a gear drive which made it run better. =^.^=
Hey SMT welcome back
Thank you so much, I have this same exact engine but the engine ran smooth and all I just couldn't figure out why the wheels didn't turn. Hahaha all I needed was rubber bands
I'm glad this video was helpful. The bands have to be changed pretty often but other than that these locomotives are low maintenance.
I actually had a set of Lionel HO Santa Fe F7 A & B's and Budd streamliners.....in the late fifties! Rubber band drive and all. Maybe Athearn made them for Lionel, who knows. The engines would not pull the cars up any grade at all!! Just slipped the bands! My father, who worked for The Budd Co passenger car plant in Philly was VERY frustrated!! And then, to add insult to injury, Athearn introduced a band drive RDC! My dad's favorite Budd product. It slipped too!! Times have changed, thank God. Have fun! Just don't start any fires!! LOL
i use a brite boy track cleaning bar to clean the wheels !!.
I suggest getting some silicone fuel tubing used for nitro engines it will last a lot longer the latex or other rubber tubing for those couplers.
ah athearn band drives some of the most interesting model trains
I tend to agree. You don't see much else like it.
Someone used to make a gear drive conversion for the band-drive RDCs. It only converted one bogie, though - the other end of the motor was given a sizeable flywheel. Not sure if they ever made a gear conversion for band-drive locos, though.
I have an Athearn RDC with the same drive. The biggest issues with it are it starts like a jackrabbit, the bands slip when it comes to a hill so the loco stalls, and the whole unit is way out of scale to what it should be.
I have a athearn diesel engine that was in its original box and I am pretty sure that it will run but I still need to test that.
Cool SMT
It’s a F7A
I did the same and mine barely works
I have a weird version of this locomotive the front is band drive but the back has gears
That's very strange. Maybe someone made it their project at some point?
@@SMTMainline mabey but it looks like it was made by athearn
I think my dcc decoder is broken. Do you have any knowledge on how to fix it or explain to me how to fix it because I dont really do these things and need help and want to see my new train working like its supposed to and not just going making a sound stop, Going, making a sound, top, and continued like that the movement and sounds were.
Remove the carbons, clean the carbons and carbon tubes then reassemble. Also, clean the wheels. That can cause the motor not to operate.
Can you use any type of rubber bands on this athearn band drive loco or not?
so if you run an athern blue box athern genesis athern ready to roll and athern band drive what would happen? anyway great video smt.
"don't do this at home"...unless you enjoy the smell of barbequed loco motor...
Bob's Famous Grilled Locoque
Lol
@@RetailThrone Hmm...what wine does one serve with that???
@@antonbruce1241 Not sure yet. Would you like a side with A1 sauce with your meal?
@@RetailThrone Nah - just a simple Au Jus. But really...one SHOULD know what wine to serve with that. If it tastes similar to beef...serve a red. If it tastes more like chicken or fish, serve a white. Or one could just say hell with it and serve Jack Daniels instead.
But wait...does one serve that with rice or potato????
When you put a train on it, the slow speed gets better.
I have a suggestion Make a movie about a runaway train Just like The movie Unstoppable
Yo that was an amazing movie now I will go find it on Netflix or something
Btw I forgot the name thanks alot
Or just like the movie Runaway Train.
What is your preferred lubrication oil and cleaner on restoring old locomotive motors? I have a number of old trains I've picked up at flea markets and estate sales that do not run and I would like to see what I can do to get them running again. Thank you