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 Posted - April 27 2014 : 10:55:01 AM
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never seen this setup,what year was it,and were they any good ken
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Posted - April 27 2014 : 2:59:03 PM
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I have one of those. I"ve not tried to run it. I skimmed through the "Standard Guide to Athearn Model Trains" , the geared drive chassis apparently began about 1961. My guess is that the magnets were mediocre in those motors and did not perform well. The gears in mine fit in the case very sloppily. I don't know if that's because it has a lot of run time or just poor production tolerances. Seems to me that the gear ratio was 12:1. So maybe not so great pulling power.
Unspoken expectations are premeditated failures.
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Posted - April 27 2014 : 5:34:09 PM
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Ken, from the look of the motor that does indeeed look to be of the 1961 variety - or at least one of the first ones they offered. I acquired one of those "geared drive" chassis a couple years ago with an old Athearn F7. The motor, while slightly newer design than the one on yours, called it quits and I put the chassis aside until recently when I put a Proto 1000 motor in it to power my L&N kitbashed "double F" locomotive.
I don't know what the gear ratio is but it seems to be geared for slower speeds. It has plenty of gear noise when running too, it would never have the need for a sound unit. Whether it is the P1K motor or the gearing, I can't say, but mine pulls like a horse - it hauled my long coal train around some good curves.
 
Looks like that one is from a GP7?
If I could find another one in good shape I'd get it, worst case they are extremely easy to remotor.
http://tycodepot.com/
Edited by - JNXT 7707 on April 27 2014 9:29:06 PM
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Posted - April 30 2014 : 10:07:35 AM
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Athearn first introduced a dual gear drive in 1957 - yours is identical to the one thats under the GE rectifier in my pic. Its one of the earlier variations. Later ones from the early 60's usually have "Athearn Inc" info stamped on the fuel tank bottom.
Larry
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Posted - May 01 2014 : 11:06:00 PM
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I have a box of these early spur gear dual drives. I assume they were an attempt to cheapen the superior Globe drive they offered earlier. The spur gears were enough to wake the dead, and the Hi-F motor was far too weak to power it, oddly enough... I guess there was less friction in a rubber band drive. I've tweaked these motors to the nth degree, relieved brush spring tension, polished the commutators till they gleam, etc., and all I can get is middling performance. I read on some other forum that a lot of young guys in the early 60's were disappointed when they got a geared Athearn GP7 for Christmas and it couldn't get out of its own way.
I have one GP7 chassis with this gearing and one of the first Jet motors that has no shortage of torque, but the noise is enough to drive you from the room. 
The Tyco Depot
Edited by - NickelPlate759 on May 30 2014 12:34:51 AM
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Posted - May 02 2014 : 6:50:12 PM
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quote:I have a box of these early spur gear dual drives. I assume they were an attempt to cheapen the superior Globe drive they offered earlier. The spur gears were enough to wake the dead, and the Hi-F motor was far too weak to power it, oddly enough... I guess there was less friction in a rubber bands drive. I've tweaked these motors to the nth degree, relieved brush spring tension, polished the commutators till they gleam, etc., and all I can get is weak performance. I read on some other forum that a lot of young guys in the early 60's were disappointed when they got a geared Athearn GP7 for Christmas and it couldn't get out of its own way.
I have one GP7 chassis with this gearing and one of the first Jet motors that has no shortage of torque, but the noise is enough to drive you from the room.
Originally posted by NickelPlate759Â -Â May 01 2014Â :Â 11:06:00 PM
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I remember I had always been fascinated with the gear drives the first time I heard about them, then beat the bushes around ebay until I found one. Was hugely disappointed because of that zero torque motor, which then proceeded to die on my track in short order. It sat on the shelf for a long time serving as a shell holder until I had the extra P1000 motor that fit the chassis like it was made for it (although without the flywheels  ) But once properly powered I love the setup, although it will definitely wake the dead
Not hard to see why when you open one of them up it's almost like there are too many gears - even though it does look impressive!
I've never seen one of those early Globe drives, would love to find one of those now!
http://tycodepot.com/
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Posted - May 02 2014 : 7:10:02 PM
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The Globe drives are nice, and very quiet. The noisiest part is the big motor.
That type of drive had 4 big 1:1 spur gears and 4 worms. You think it would have occurred to someone sooner to have single worm in each truck driving a series of idlers, but I guess they were used to a worm driving each axle, which was the practice in brass and Hobbytown tank drives.
The Tyco Depot
Edited by - NickelPlate759 on May 30 2014 12:33:44 AM
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Posted - May 12 2014 : 01:26:36 AM
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| A pretty fascinating contraption. Perhaps my favorite part of the hobby is seeing all the ingenious methods that have been devised over the years to power model trains.
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Posted - May 29 2014 : 6:52:27 PM
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Yeah, I have one of those plastic "tower drive" trucks. Smooth enough runner, but it's SO NOISY! It's a cheap knock-off Athearn made of the all metal Globe drive used originally.
The performance of the Hi-F motors seemed to vary between batches. The one from my Hustler is a strong runner with good control, but another one can barely turn itself (even with neodymium magnets!). The single worm design that's still being used today was a massive improvement over the plastic tower drive.
Darth Santa Fe, doing weird and challenging projects for the fun of it!
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Posted - February 15 2015 : 9:39:35 PM
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There were two versions, externally identical, internals except axle not mixable. One was one bevel gear, which generated some thrusting. The other was "herringbone" or "chevron", with two gears placed side by side, opposing pitch. No end thrust issues.
Ipana toothpaste...light grit..is what we used. Cleaned the grease out, put the toothpaste in on the gears, run it for a while until noise level comes down, take it apart and glean everything very well, re-lube and put it together. Don't mix parts from one gearbox to the next.
Motors, until or if you had a failed armature, was usually magnets, and usually due to exuberant youth taking the motors fully apart. The magnets seemed to die after that without a field bridge. The new super magnets usually fixed it, and allowed HiF motors with bad magnets to drive the geared units just fine. Used to do a lot of mixing of parts when I ran these often.
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Posted - February 16 2015 : 12:27:53 AM
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quote:
Athearn first introduced a dual gear drive in 1957 - yours is identical to the one thats under the GE rectifier in my pic. Its one of the earlier variations. Later ones from the early 60's usually have "Athearn Inc" info stamped on the fuel tank bottom.
Larry
Originally posted by SOU2645Â -Â April 30 2014Â :Â 10:07:35 AM
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Speaking of the "Athearn, Inc" cast into the frame, slightly o/t, but does anyone know what year they stopped doing that? I've been going through all my hustlers and I noticed that only one (my very first, a silver & red #57) has the text on the bottom, while an identical one I got in the original yellow display box does not.
--CRC
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Posted - February 16 2015 : 12:38:10 AM
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I did see one in the junk box at a train show Saturday. Trucks were metal and not plastic.
" Heck with counting 'em rivets, TRAINS ARE FOR FUN! Not called the Mad Scientist for nothing either!"
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Posted - February 16 2015 : 3:28:55 PM
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I'm going on 60-year-old memory here, but I don't recall Globe as having their own drives. Most of us put Lindsays or some other drive into them (spliced into the plastic floor of the F units).
Athearn came out with their (noun name) Dual Geared Geep in mid-50's, thought earlier than 1957. I have a complete until under a GP7/9. I have been told they stopped that and went with plastic snap-together boxes due to cost and trying to stay competitive. The metal boxes are wonderful. Quiet, put together with 2-56 screws, oillite bearings everywhere. One, maybe two years they made them. There are copies out there, Japanese I think, identifiable by 3mm metric screws instead of 2-56, or so I've been told. Dave
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Posted - December 10 2016 : 7:55:52 PM
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I just purchased one of these dual drive locos. It's an AT&SF GP7/9 diesel, and it appears to be the earlier version, considering it doesn't have the "Athearn Inc" info on the bottom. It runs.... okay. Slow speeds aren't terrible for the time. But with medium speeds... it goes fast, then it slows down, and then goes fast again. But once I turn the throttle to high, it runs.... fine.  I'm not sure why it keeps speeding up and slowing down, though.... I'm assuming it has something to do with the motor getting bursts of extra electricity or something along those lines. The motor also gets hot SUPER FAST.
-Steve
"A lot of modellers out there who go to these train shows see broken HO stuff and go, 'This is useless' when, in reality, they can still be used for modeling whether it's as a prop on your layout or a cool project to make something old new again."
Edited by - kovacste000 on December 10 2016 8:19:42 PM
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Posted - December 18 2016 : 5:10:43 PM
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Earlier versions used zamac metal side frames without brass bushings for bearings. The axle bearing surfaces will wear into oblong shapes. When worn enough, engine weight is supported by truck worm gears resulting in poor electrical pickup and erratic performance.
I previously showed this solution on some forum, apologies if this is repeated here.
Using 1/8 inch brass tubing; Now runs great.
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