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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2012 16:11:58 GMT -8
Is it just me, or do those sideframes on the trucks look 2-3 times thicker than they should be? I also wonder what gear ratio the trucks are. If they reused the blue box trucks (Athearn seems to like to reuse blue box era truck tooling to cut costs... for example, the SD45-2 and the GP15 both use blue box tooled trucks) then the engine will have a 12:1 gear ratio. The GP15-1's DO NOT have blue box trucks. They are the newer Genesis trucks...the same ones used under the new GP38-2's coming in December from Athearn Genesis. They aren't 12-1 ratios, either. The GP15's MU correctly and easily with Atlas U23B's here...and GP40's from Atlas, FWIW. Maybe the Digitrax system here operates differently...but I've not had any problems matching my Athearn Genesis and Atlas Master units at all. ;D |
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Post by calzephyr on Aug 14, 2012 6:51:32 GMT -8
Is it just me, or do those sideframes on the trucks look 2-3 times thicker than they should be? I also wonder what gear ratio the trucks are. If they reused the blue box trucks (Athearn seems to like to reuse blue box era truck tooling to cut costs... for example, the SD45-2 and the GP15 both use blue box tooled trucks) then the engine will have a 12:1 gear ratio. The Genesis motors have gotten better although you will get an odd one every now and then. It LOOKS like they could have fit a second flywheel to the rear motor, but probably omitted it to cut costs. The flywheel on the rear motor also appears to be non-standard. The thing is.... the Genesis motors differ a bit in the forward vs reverse directions. The front and rear motors appear to be oriented oppositely. The windows also appear to be a bit off. The prototype doesn't have such a large lip separating the windshields from the nose. After looking at close up pictures of the prototype trucks, I agree the model is very heavy and the thickness is extremely overdone. The prototype units have a slot in the ends of the side frames which makes them look much less heavy. The model is solid and seems to be about twice the thickness of the prototype from the pictures I looked at for the comparison. As for the lip, it is hard to determine the exact size of the lip but the model does look like it is on the plus side. I noticed the prototype has the lip for sure and the pictures seem to blend the lip into the nose, but it does rise up from the nose a certain amount. The painted units look better than the undecorated model. This is much like getting the contour correct on the nose of the F units. It is hard to see the exact contour from the ground level and models sometimes do not look correct when we see them looking down on the subject. Larry |
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Post by snootie3257 on Aug 18, 2012 19:50:22 GMT -8
Based on my experience with recent run Genesis motors, there's probably more difference in the motors than anything that could be caused by the flywheels. I'd be almost willing to bet that if you slowly bump up the speed, one truck will start turning before the other one does. It is more likely to be an issue at track speed though. The DDA40X was geared to run at what, 80 mph? If one motor will do it and one won't, attempting to run at prototype top speeds would be.... interesting. The sound of wheels scooting along the track is a familiar one.
Andy
[/quote]
I have 2 Athearn units and both run smooth at all speeds and in both directions. I also have 2 brass units (built in 1984)that are set up the same as the Athearns(motors connected by wires only)and they too operate perfectly at all speeds and both directions.There is none of the things going on that you mention.
Steve Draper
Living at milepost 86.5 on UP's Harvard subdivision
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Post by diburning on Aug 19, 2012 22:06:02 GMT -8
Steve, you must be lucky then. There's always a slight variance in motors even from the same batch. For example, 3 of my 4 Athearn Genesis SD70M-2s run fine together, but that fourth one is never happy. Same goes for my 4 Intermountain GEVOs. What I've noticed is that the Athearn Genesis motors have a high variance in performance as far as RPMs at certain voltages go. I suspect the motors have a high tolerance for margin of error, possibly to cut costs. The SD45-2s were particularly bad. I have three of them and I can't for the life of me get them to run together. Is it just me, or do those sideframes on the trucks look 2-3 times thicker than they should be? I also wonder what gear ratio the trucks are. If they reused the blue box trucks (Athearn seems to like to reuse blue box era truck tooling to cut costs... for example, the SD45-2 and the GP15 both use blue box tooled trucks) then the engine will have a 12:1 gear ratio. The GP15-1's DO NOT have blue box trucks. They are the newer Genesis trucks...the same ones used under the new GP38-2's coming in December from Athearn Genesis. They aren't 12-1 ratios, either. The GP15's MU correctly and easily with Atlas U23B's here...and GP40's from Atlas, FWIW. Maybe the Digitrax system here operates differently...but I've not had any problems matching my Athearn Genesis and Atlas Master units at all. ;D My mistake ;D I don't see how Digitrax has any affect on gearing..... I use Digitrax as well! |
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Post by calzephyr on Aug 21, 2012 10:19:12 GMT -8
The 6936 is announced for reservations.
Larry
Union Pacific DDA40X #6936 - as it operates today in business train service!!
Wings on nose, lightning stripe scheme, operating ditch lights, air conditioner on roof
ATHG69509 - #UP 6936, standard DC with DCC plugs
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2012 11:01:43 GMT -8
The 6936 is announced for reservations. Larry Union Pacific DDA40X #6936 - as it operates today in business train service!! Wings on nose, lightning stripe scheme, operating ditch lights, air conditioner on roof ATHG69509 - #UP 6936, standard DC with DCC plugs And the end price to the buyer will about 15% more with this batch as they are sold by Athearn to the dealers at the new lower dealer discount! I paid $350 for my sound/DCC DDA's which is a 30% discount. The pre-order price for the next run from my dealer is $425+ or 15% or less. Big seller M.B. Klein sold the first run of DDA's at about 25% off list. If they follow what they have been doing that last few months the discount will shrink to 15% or less off list. |
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Post by calzephyr on Aug 21, 2012 12:03:24 GMT -8
The 6936 is announced for reservations. Larry Union Pacific DDA40X #6936 - as it operates today in business train service!! Wings on nose, lightning stripe scheme, operating ditch lights, air conditioner on roof ATHG69509 - #UP 6936, standard DC with DCC plugs And the end price to the buyer will about 15% more with this batch as they are sold by Athearn to the dealers at the new lower dealer discount! I paid $350 for my sound/DCC DDA's which is a 30% discount. The pre-order price for the next run from my dealer is $425+ or 15% or less. Big seller M.B. Klein sold the first run of DDA's at about 25% off list. If they follow what they have been doing that last few months the discount will shrink to 15% or less off list. Jim No doubt the price is much higer and this will probably continue to raise with each models in the future. I don't believe the builders in China are not getting this extra money but the dollar is shrinking on overseas imports. I will probably not get the 6936 since it is out of my era and the price is close now to a used Key model which is nice and runs well. Larry |
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