athearn sd60m

Does anyone else here think the athearn genesis sd60m is pure crap? I just bought one with sound, had all kinds of problems with dcc picking up it's decoder, bought a new QSI Decoder, with sound and am up to almost 300 bucks only to find out it wasn't the decoder that was garbage, it was athearn. It had no power to the trucks. I WILL NEVER EVER EVER BUY ANOTHER ATHEARN ITEM OF ANY SORT!!!!!

-Mark

You must have just gotten a bad unit out of several hundred or so that were made at the time. I've never had this problem with an Athearn before. Granted the RTR Line AMD-103 is a bit underweight.

Ive been buying Athearn products for over 20 years myself, and I've never had a problem with their products I either couldn't fix myself or couldn't get parts for or couldn't put down to something simply overlooked in high-volume production. Athearn has a good reputation in the trade. You may just be overreacting a little to a fault in a model that could have happened to any manufacturer's product. In the old days, if an Athearn engine didn't work, we always checked inside to see if the power clips had come loose in shipping. It was usually an easy fix. Now, it takes an expert to repair a model, especially with all those electronics, which, YES, are still giving some people problems. But if a model doesn't work out of the box, check for the simple things first.

Mike Bartel

I have narrowed it down to this: There is no power being picked up by and/or through the trucks, which lead me to believe I will be doing some soldering tomorrow of some sort after work.

Mem160 wrote:I have narrowed it down to this: There is no power being picked up by and/or through the trucks, which lead me to believe I will be doing some soldering tomorrow of some sort after work.

If this were 15 or 20 years ago, you could just clip it back into place! Athearn never used to use screws or solder joints in their construction. Even though many modelers would replace the stamped metal clips with soldered hard wires, it was still an effective way of making a good engine for a good price. And it was easier to fix.

I'm not familiar with the SD60M from Athearn, but soldering isn't that big a deal, though it certainly is a pain to make a correction like this in a model that should work from the box for the money you paid for it. If that's all the problem is, just don't rush it, and it'll soon be done.

Mike Bartel

I would have just brought the engine back and bought the same one without sound. Never ever buy these new athearns with sound they are HORRIBLE. i have yet to get one to MU to another on any DCC system I have used. That MRC sound system is totally worthless.

And you should always test your decoders before you put them in engines, also test your engine on straight DC operation before you install a decoder!!! This situations a little different since you removed a sound decoder but you could always do a quickie wire up so that it runs on DC.

well, see here is what happened, after the new decoder didn't work, I found it hard to believe that 2 decoders would be bad, so that is when the dissection began and I narrowed it down to the trucks; I'll try one truck first to see if that is the problem by soldering a wire from the pickup tab itself to where Athearn had it wired.

Check to see the truck tops are touching the bottom of the loco frame, if they are still using the old style pickup. I found with F59PHIs sometimes this is covered in paint.

from what I can tell, it is a new style of truck pickup. There is a blackened metal plate on the section between the truck gearbox and the wheels. The wires go to two brass prongs coming out from within the gearbox. It would appear to me that the actual metal tube that holds the plastic side frames on are supposed to act as a conductor. It doesn't....so I soldered a wire to each metal plate between the gearbox and the wheels, directly to the decoder. The Athearn decoder, which works fine now, aside from the sound, which is currently disabled.

So, with that simple fix, we are curious. Will you ever buy another Athearn product again?

What? My brand new Honda has a defective speedometer? I paid all that money, it should be PERFECT! I'M NEVER EVER EVER BUYING ANOTHER HONDA AGAIN (seventeen exclamation points)

Holy overreacting, Batman. If you bought it at a hobby shop, take it back and swap it for another. If you got it on Ebay or if the hobby shop doesn't have one left, call Athearn and tell them what happened. They'll listen; and they should be able to help.

Going off half-cocked over a frustrating experience is not the way to fix the problem. Most Model RR companies subcontract manufacturing to China, but guess what? Most Chinese facilities build multiple models for multiple companies under the same roof! You might swear off Athearn and in favour of BLI, for example, but what you may not know is that the "problematic" Athearn loco and the "preferred new manufacturer" BLI loco may well be assembled by the same people on the same assembly line, doubtless with some of the same parts.

Oh, and as a side note? A sentence written in ALL CAPS and punctuated by more than one exclamation point is evocative of either a quick-to-anger teenager, or a run-of-the-mill TrainOrders poster (which may be one and the same.)

My thinking is, and im currently dealing with this with my Bachmann Passenger cars. Is that if i buy something NEW. Than it should perform as such. If it doesnt, it goes back to the manufacture or hobby shop that I bought it from. I have been fighting with bachmann since last christmas over their heavyweight passenger cars that have wheels that sink so far into the trucks that the cars derail and hang up on switch frogs. No way am I going to take the screwdrivers and tools to brand new cars and start replacing trucks with other brands or trying to modify the current design. These are things you shouldnt have to do to a RTR engine or car brand new from the factory. Granted theres some work that may need to be done, since nothings truly RTR. But we shouldnt have to be cleaning up manufactures defects from the factory and paying to do such.

Basically re-enforcing what was said above. However, I doubt I'll buy another bachmann after buying four sets of items from them and all four instances the items have had to be repaired, or modified by me for proper operation.

Exactly - you have an informed opinion created after buying multiple examples of the same product and experiencing the same issues. You're more qualified to say "these Bachmann cars are junk and for this reason, I'll never buy another Bachmann" than someone who's bought one Athearn loco, had one problem with it, and threw up their hands in frustration and yelled (OK, typed) "I'LL NEVER EVER EVER BUY ANOTHER ATHEARN EVER!!!!!"

That's not to say that lemons don't happen, though. I happen to be partial to Atlas locomotives. My last four locomotive purchases were Atlas, and I'm very happy with their performance. My next locomotive purchase will likely be another Atlas. However, if I buy one (brand new as opposed to used) that doesn't run well out of the box, it likely won't impact my future decisions regarding that manufacturer. Atlas engines have been good to me in the past; they'll likely be just as good with future releases and one defective product won't change that.

N = 1 is not and will never be a reliable sample size. I'd caution the original poster to buy another two or three random Athearn products at the very least before deciding that all that company's output is substandard. I own exactly one Bachmann Spectrum loco, a 15 year old H-16-44. I cannot dismiss Bachmann products as junk on the basis of that one old well-used locomotive that I bought on Ebay. I'd have to sample several more Bachmann products before reaching a fair and balanced decision.

One answer at a time:

So, with that simple fix, we are curious. Will you ever buy another Athearn product again?

Let's say maybe.....I doubt I'll by any more Genesis, especially with sound. It's the first one I've bought with sound, and If I remember, I think the SD60M is the first Athearn with sound capabilities. That said, I think they've changed their trucks from what the other, older Genesis had. And I don't think I need to spend that kind of money, only to dissect and solder it. I also regret not doing more research on the Athearn sound units before I bought the thing, I would not have bothered.
I would have been better off just buying a sound decoder for one of my Proto 2000 SD60M's, which are still my favorite engines. I may still do that and scrap the sound in the Athearn. Now, I have to say the Ready-to-Roll, I've enjoyed, especially since they made them dcc ready, but I don't think I'd waste my money on a Genesis again. Hopefully the MP15ACs will be in the RTR line someday.

Oh, and as a side note? A sentence written in ALL CAPS and punctuated by more than one exclamation point is evocative of either a quick-to-anger teenager, or a run-of-the-mill TrainOrders poster (which may be one and the same.)

Now as for you, maybe you're a millionaire or something, but when I blow almost 200 bucks on something that don't work, if I wanna blow of some steam in CAPS LOCK, too bad. I wasted alot of money on something that didn't work that cost me more money. So big deal. It wasn't my intention to offend anyone here, but I am just fed up with the stupid thing. Is that okay with you? That's ALOT of money to spend on something. I don't blame anyone for that but me. Athearn didn't force me to buy their product, but I'll tell you I am not satisfied with it, not in the least. For that kind of money, and for that matter, hype too, I expected alot more out of that train. Like I said, I didn't mean to offend you, or anyone else, but I am highly disappointed in it, and frustrated too.

The only thing I hate more than that train is this stupid computer I bought, because I ended up with Vista, which is horrible!!!!!!!!! To say the least.

Mem160, this is a train board, not a computer board. Don't be a troll, stay on topic and don't bash windows here.

You can do that at any of the following: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=vi ... sage+board