I put some of these gears in my Athearn SW and man does this thing howl!! The motor sounds like its going to blow at any minute now.I know they are designed to make the engine crawl, but the rpms are way up there. Has anyone else used these gear sets? Was just wondering if I might have done something wrong.. Robert
I installed a set in an Athearn F-7 more or less a a joke. I remember having to re-wire the pickups because with the third gear the loco ran in the opposite direction with everything else. It certainly does make a lot of noise but runs very smoothly and pulls quite well albeit very slowly for an F-7. I also remember a friend having one in an Athearn SW and it was noisy as well. Dont know if the noise can be reduced much by using the toothpaste method. AFN
I have installed several in Athearn switchers and they all make noise. The noise will diminish as the loco is run-in. Toothpaste method of gear break-in will help. The Ernst gearsets are not designed to be run at high speed, but give tremendous pulling power at low speed. Dean The Train Doctor
Sounds good, thought I had done something wrong. It sure does crawl but like I said its loud, I'll run it for awhile, if it doesn't get any quiter I'll take them out. Robert
Where can you get the Ernst gearsets? Is there some place that describes them? Thanks. [ 20. December 2004, 13:24: Message edited by: sapacif ]
Many years ago a friend fitted the gears to a few of his locomotives as he had a VERY steep grade from one level to the next. He fitted Athearn F7's IIRC. They were extremely noisy, but the pulling power was enormous. He just used them on the trains which had to climb to the upper level. Do they make different gear ratios? I think the gear reduction is more suited to pure switching locos. than road units.
I bought mine about 10 years ago, Walthers still list them, so I guess there still available. Walthers.com Robert
The fad among certain members of my old club in Grand Junction was to install Ernst gears, and true-up the flywheels on Athearn diesels to make them round (apparently they're the teensiest bit out of round). The resulting engine is a bit noisy, but runs smoothly, and at slower speeds. One member did this to 3 SD40T-2s in Rio Grande colors, and had 'em pulling a unit coal train. I haven't done it myself, but that's mainly because I don't have a lathe, nor access to one, to true-up Athearn flywheels.
I ran the SW for a while today, on straight/ level track, it takes 45 seconds to crawl 4 feet. Not too bad. Robert
Hi Robert, I had the Ernst gears in two models using the Athearn GP7 / 9 chassis. I removed them because of the noise. One had the brass flywheels with the narrow motor, the other was the older type. I found that on the newer one with the brass flywheels gear teeth catching on the truck casing. Filing a little plastic quietened it down but I still wasn't too keen on the set up. Now that I have these locos silenced I may try the gears again. Cheers Willis
I regeared a newer Athearn GP-9 with Ernst gears. I took them out the same day. While it does improve low speed performance and pulling power, the noise and lowered engine life were deciding factors in pulling them. I figured why go through the trouble of regearing (cleaning gears, test fitting, reassembling the truck/loco) when the, "cure" would end up killing the motor, which I would then need to replace. Better to spend $30 on a new can motor that is a simple drop fit, gives great performance and requires 5 minutes to install. Compare that to $10-15 for the Ernst kit, 1 hour to install it, noise and lowered life expectancy. Even better, buy a Proto 2000 engine for the same price as a reworked Athearn. With that said, it's back to installing the brass hand rail stanchions ($15) on the Athearn GP9 for the MILW. The stanchions help to accentuate the air resv. ($4.50) on the roof, which hide the bad patch job on the removed dynamic brake fan (styrene, putty, glue-$5.00). Luckily, the patch job looks better than the 1/4" thick paint job on the model, which hides the already shallow surface detail, but doesn't look to bad on the overly wide body. Luckily, I only paid $10 for the unit at a trade show, which cost me $5 to get in and 1 hour to drive to. I don't think about what I have spent on MU hoses, mounts, fillers, hand grabs, etc. ($30) because that's not the point. After 50 hours and all of the money I'll have a prtotype Milwaukee Road GP9 with an out of scale body, bad paint, half ass detailing and poor low speed performance. But it'll be mine..dammit! Did I mention the Proto 2000 Milw GP9 for $75.00?
Ernst gears are Spur gear design, where the teeth are cut straight across parallel to the Axel, and are known for the whine of meshing teeth. Helical gears have teeth cut on an angle, to prevent noise. That is why helical design gears are used in autos in the transmission. If you ever heard an old straight eight Buick start out in first gear, you would have heard this whine. The only silent gears are, Helical, Hipoyd, Worm, and Spirol types. There is not enough of a market to warrant the added cost of "silent" gears made small enough to fit in our engines. Rivarossi solved the problem by using their design of worm gear tower sets.
Hello, first post here. If you don't mind my jumping in, I've been running Ernst gears in Athearn locomotives for 10-15 years. (I think from the time they were first offered.) They will quiet down after time. I have burned up 2 Athearn moters out of 10 or 12 regearings. I blew motors before I regeared, too. Some Athearn motrs just didn"t run well, not back then, anyway. The two that blew after regearing, I replaced with Sagami?? motors and replaced the origional gears. Those engines are very quiet and smoth. Run good coupled to my Atlas C30-7. I will probably eventually change all to the can motor and origional gears. On the noise issue, the SWs almost prototypical when working the yard.
Welcome to our family here on the TrainBoard Howdy Doody, I was born and raised at Wichita, so you might feel at home here with us. Glad to have you. Are the Ernst gears still brass, or have they gone to plastic too now?
Watash, the Ernst gears I used were plastic, and it's probably been 10 years since I installed a set. I didn't know they ever made brass. I'll bet they were noisey. I haven't bought a new Athearn Locomotive for that long either. The new ones might run better.
Hey Watash, Haven't heard from you in a while. I have written about this many times. Several years ago, I thought I would be very clever and create some real sleeper haulers. So I put Ernst gears in two SD40-2s. Don't do it! If they are put in anything, it should be switchers, only. My engines roared, all the while, going about five miles per hour. The gearing provides a triple reduction. My engines have been back in their boxes since the trial runs. Denis
