My CN Budd RDC set from Athearn "blue box"

I just want to show my recents works on my Budd RDC set from Athearn..

first,pretty hard to find those rubber band,exept on Ebay and wait for the delivrery,but I got another option,the rubberbands can be avaiable on our local denturologist..A bit unbeleivable but the rubberband used for dental proteses are exactly the right size,saving time and money,I got those for free..


the I get few RDC on my roster,around 8 in all,and one more from Proto 1000,a MTBA RDC-4..

Now I working on my Geometry car project that is not completed..
And I get my finished ones,from CN..






only have to paint in black the plow of my center unit..
Also for the motors,I got 2 or 3 more of them,but I had to work on them,cleaning and testing them,but I noticed that the motor was working hard.
I removed the shell and I saw that the motor was moving while running.I add a better fixation to hod it well,make it run fine..
second problem,cause the rubber band,the RDC was not able to get up hill and the rubber band was slinding on the shaft..to resolve this problem,I add masking tape on the axle and the motor shaft,making a good grip for the rubber band.now,the RDC are not only get up the hill easyer with the 2 dummys coupled to it,but I made a try with 7 units in all and two Walthers VIA budd car and it was still hauling everything up the hill..

I whill prepare soon a video,showing every test that I made on my layout...there's not hills on my layout,but I simulated one by raising the removabe bridge to a heavy grade to do the test..but on next summer,I expecting to get a new track and a hill on it,that track will go accross a home made bridge that I wil build soon in wood,to make run my RDC to a new station at the other end..

Very nice, Montrealrail. That was a good solution to add masking tape to the axle... I'd think for a more permanent fix, you could sand the shaft with a rough grit sandpaper to allow the rubber band drive to have some texture to grip onto.

I finally find another option,a built in motor with gires and flywheel,and I'm very satisfied for the result

here a video with the first run(second part of the video are a shot I taked when I buyed them,before the first motor have been burned,have now a new one)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7q6pQA6sG0

And there is the test with another BUDD RDC-4 car,I made some heavy test,espescially on a 30% hill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWzctZR074w

I have in all 5 Athearn blue-box RDC with a motor in it,still have 2 more motors to fix,they working great,only need the rubber bands in..

Now,it's time to buit a new layout to run my RDC on it

in all,I have 5 powered Athearn Blue-Box RDC and 2 dummy
and 1 Proto1000 RDC-4