Hi, I am new to the forum. I just bought my first steamer. My other three are all diesels from Atlas, Con-Cor, and Bachmann. It is an Athearn #10909 Southern Railway 2-8-0 Old Time locomotive. A Ready to Roll model. It is also my first Athearn. Not many vendors stocked this model so I bought it from First Hobby. The model looks like this: http://discounttrainsonline.com/Athearn-2-8-0-Old-Time-Southern-Railway-208/item140-10909.html Something doesn't seem right to me and First Hobby doesn't seem to be able to answer my questions which are: 1. The model didn't have any paperwork. No diagram. Nothing. It also didn't have an optional Rapido coupler in a small plastic bag. There was a little compartment in the moulded plastic insert the loco fit into which was empty. Do any of you know if either of those things normally come with the Athearn locomotives? 2. I bought this to pull 5 Con-Cor 85 foot Southern Railway passenger cars that I have. With No Cars Attached this locomotive requires 3/4 throttle to achieve an average speed. Is the motor really weak in this model or do you think I have a defective unit? John
First, the MDC, now Athearn, Consolidation does not come with a diagram. I had to call Model Die Casting to get one for the first one I bought and they initially discouraged me from delving into the works. Along with the diagram I received a hand written set of instructions. Second, does not Athearn now provide Accumate couplers on these? The Rapidos came as an alternate to the dummy knuckle couplers when MDC made them and are most likely no longer included. Third, rather than being weak or defective, you have discovered one of features of the model, it is one of the few that actually operates at realistic speeds. Top speed for a locomotive with 50 inch drivers would be around 50 MPH. As it comes from Athearn, it is a low speed drag freight engine from the 1890's. :cat:
Hello John Welcome to the Trainboard! As Thirdrail has mentioned the best feature that MDC/Athearn 4-8-0 Consolidation engine has is that it has a realistic slow speed. He also mentioned that this prototype was intended as a low-speed drag freight rather than a high speed passenger train. The ConCor 85' cars would be more modern and better suited for a larger steamer (4-6-2 Pacific type) or early diesels such as ALco PA, EMD FT/F3/F7& E6/7/8s. It is... of course... your railroad so you can chose to pull these cars with an 1890s version steamer. Here' a picture of a Southern 4-6-2 made by Model Power*** Heres a picture of a Southern FP7 made by Model Power*** ***Note: Model Power has had some bad press over the past few years, but, to their credit, they have been trying to improve their product. If you ever chose to buy one... do it at a hobby shop where you can test it first. ALSO... as to the 4-6-2 Pacific, get the ones with the traction tires installed... they are the latest version and most improved. As far as the couplers... it seems that a lot of manufacturers are completely abandoning the Rapidos in favor of Accumates/Kadees or their own type of knuckle coupler. Very few manufacturers are still putting Rapidos on the engines or rolling stock. The only one I can think of is Model Power, which is why I only showed those pic's above. I don't know your particular situation, but, you seem to have few engines and rolling stock. Perhaps you should consider changing out the Rapido couplers on the other engines and rolling stock you have. I have a lot of the older engines and rolling stock which still have Rapido's... It will cost me a small fortune to convert them all to knuckle couplers.
John: Welcome to Trainboard. The MDC/Athearn 2-8-0 is one of the best running steam loco's in N scale. It will run extremely well at very slow speeds as has already been mentioned. The Athearn version of the 2-8-0 (Athearn bought out MDC) is equipped with accumate couplers which is a big bonus in comparison to the MDC version of the 2-8-0. This loco wasn't made to race around the layout. I have quite a few MDC 2-8-0's as well as several Athearn 2-8-0's and it's still a fine running steam loco. Stay cool and run steam....
I have had really good luck dealing with Athearn's customer service - I have had some missing parts, called them up, and they sent them to me.
I actually looked at the Model Power Southern 4-6-2 you showed above, but couldn't find a picture anywhere on the internet that would give me even a reasonable idea of what color it was so I could see if it would even come close to matching the Con-Cor passenger cars. It seems that the dark picture from the Model Power site is all that is available. I can't even tell if it is green let alone an accurate shade of green Have you seen one? None of the Hobby Shops I have been to have them so I would have to order one just to see the color. Thanks for the quick response. John
Yes. Truly amazing. Thank you all for being so interested in helping others who like model railroading. Quite a community you have here. It appears that my Athearn works as intended and is better suited to pulling the small Overton passenger cars rather than those long Con-Cor passenger cars that look like this: http://www.all-railroads.com/instock/ho85ambl.htm I guess the parts diagram doesn't come with the loco either. I will try to track one down. The Rapido/Accumate coupler situation can be solved by changing the truck on the first car to match a given loco's coupler. I guess I will do that if need be, but it looks like I will be trying again to find something to pull the Con-Cor set and will use the Old Steam engine for a tiny Overton Set (Athern makes them). This is the S-2 4-8-4 Northern Locomotive Con-Cor recommends for pulling the set, but it is really expensive (to me anyway): http://www.all-railroads.com/instock/ns2484.htm Bachmann makes a Great Northern model that looks "sort of" close: http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/160-58161 Is changing the decal on the tender a viable solution? Not as good looking for sure. Bachmann does have a "Southern" steam locomotive that I HAVE seen in a Hobby shop. The shade of green is absolutely hideous and toy-like. Like a bright candy colored green.
You might look into the Bachmann Spectrum 4-8-2 Mountain. They come in Southern Crecent Green paint scheme and look very nice and as far as I have seen, the green is correct. It may not match the cars exactly but the passenger loco's of the era were generally kept bright clean and shinny. If you don't like the brighter green, just weather it a bit with a light wash of black and it will tone the color down alot. They have previously offered the 2-8-0 Consolidation in the green scheme also. The Model Power Pacific in Southern is not green as far as I know. I think they do offer a Great Northern in Green that would require some re decaling to get a close stand in. Spectrum Mountain - Southern Crecent green All of the above mentioned loco's are good choices.
The one you illustrated is the one I was talking about in terms of the hideous color. It's really far off from the passenger cars, but maybe weathering it is not such a bad idea. I hadn't thought of that. It is certainly reasonably priced and Bachmann seems to have come a long way as evidenced by the Conrail GE EMD SD-45 diesel I own. It runs VERY well indeed. Thanks for the tip. John PS: How do you protect the decals when you weather it with the wash you recommended?
Welcome to Trainboard! The Bachmann 4-8-2 Mountain is a fine looker and sweet runner, but not a huge puller. Their latest version of the 4-8-4 (with split frame) is modest in price, very smooth, a bit noisy, and a good puller. Its detail is not up to the Spectrum series. The Con-Cor 4-8-4 is a sweet engine all around but, as you noted, expensive.
John- Welcome to Trainboard. The older models come with the Rapidos installed. The newer ones come with a coupler compatible with MT's and Accumates. I have a few of each (old and new). You will not find a more reliable, out of the box, steam engine. The run slower which is more realistic. It was not built for speed, either in real life or in the model. It is smaller in size than other Consolidations (Bachmann) but are, on the whole, a better bet for reliable operation and pulling ability.
Craftech: The Southern Crescent Green is the color of the Spectrum 2-8-0 and 4-8-2. I happen to like that color as I model the Southern and ATSF on the JJJ&E. Stay cool and run steam.....
Craftech John: Welcome and congratulations on picking a very good first steam purchase. There was an article in the May/June, 2005 issue of N-Scale that dealt with improving pick-up, adding dcc and changing out the headlight on this model. There are photos and instructions for taking it apart in the article. If you send me your address through here on private message I'll copy the article and send it to you. I did not modify mine but kept the issue in case I ever had to get inside them. I've got two of the old MDC versions and am very pleased with them. I'm considering getting one of the new run Athearns in B & O. If you are set on using your consol for a passenger train, you might check out Athearns 50' Overland equipment. They make a 4 car set and individual coaches, in Southern, too! Have fun and let me know if you want a copy of the article.
Boxies, I'm just about to take mine apart to do DCC. If I send you a SASE, would you mine sending me a copy of the article? I was going to do it "blindfolded" so to speak so an article would help me to not screw things up. Let me know and I will PM my address to you.
Your rail images are really nice. Great work. Maybe it's the Con-Cor Southern Crescent green that is off. John
I think I got a returned item though. The traction tires are already slipping without any cars attached. That is after breaking it in and running it for around an hour or so. I checked with first hobby and apparently I got the only one they had. John
The tractions tires should definitely not be slipping. Hopefully the hobby shop can take it back and return it to Athearn for a replacement. Good luck. - I responded to your pm, and sent one to MK also.
