# Why do Atheran RTRs make so much noise?



## Great SaltLake Route (Mar 1, 2014)

every RTR that I have owned has been a loud one. what can I do to remedy this? Athearn has some real nice RTR stuff that they don't make in Genesis line. what can I do to make an RTR as quiet as a Genesis? I want to get a certain tunnel motor, but I'm hesitant because of the noise.


----------



## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

i read somewhere that they have motor upgrade kits for the rtr, a genesis drop in kit .. no idea of cost, but should as quiet as a genesis after?? maybe ??


----------



## ggnlars (Aug 6, 2013)

First off, what power setting are you running. Most Athearn units motors are fairly quiet below 9 volts DC. The gears and drives will sing. 
Make sure the truck gears are well greased and the bearings are oiled with the proper lubricants, Do not skimp on this. 
Also make sure the fly wheels and motors are as balanced as possible. 
If you can disconnect the drive from the fly wheels. The motor should run over the entire voltage range with minimal vibration. If you sense that there is some, then you should try to fix the rotor system balance. 
If the RTR unit still uses the old style rubbery mounts. Then you should upgrade them to the later screw mounts. This will eliminate several headaches. 
Another thing to check is the shell to chassis fit. It needs to be snug everywhere. Appropriate placement of a soft tape will help here.
Hope this will help,
Larry
Check out my blog: www.llxlocomotives.com


----------



## ggnlars (Aug 6, 2013)

Sorry for some reason it posted the reply twice.


----------



## PhillipL (May 5, 2012)

Sounds like a "ready to roll" engine is really a "ready to be rebuilt"! I gave up on Athearn several years ago. Don't get me wrong, they look great but I already have a blender in my kitchen.


----------



## D&J Railroad (Oct 4, 2013)

You might check the inside clearance of the flywheel from the shell. 
What kind of noise is it making? Gear noise, vibration noise, scraping noise naying billy goat noise?


----------



## Grabbem88 (Feb 24, 2012)

50% is motor and 50% is in the trucks

The cf7 I last built got a new kato drop in motor

And several sets of worm gears minus the washers till I got it quite


----------



## Great SaltLake Route (Mar 1, 2014)

I've had 3 RTR's, the motors were real noisy in all 3 of them. I really like the RTR's, those SD Tunnel motors are my favorite. if I could get them to be quiet, I would buy 5 or 6 of them. I did not know they had a motor upgrade.


----------



## wvgca (Jan 21, 2013)

here's a link to one of the upgrade kits on Athearn's site ..

http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATHG63839

one of the benefits they mention is quieter motor operation


----------



## tkruger (Jan 18, 2009)

I have seen many of the RTRs by Athearn but never saw much of a difference between them and the Blue Box locos regarding the drive train. Both used the same gearing, shafts, flywheels and motors. The BB had this issue also. Worn mounts, cracked gears, poor lubrication all could cause this. As well as an unbalanced flywheel. With tweaking thought they always seemed to be able to get in tune so to say.


----------



## Grabbem88 (Feb 24, 2012)

For that price you can buy a kato " old style" with hex flywheels and be miles ahead.


----------



## Chet (Aug 15, 2014)

About 25 years or so ago when I started my layout, there wasn't a lot of choice in locomotives and the Athearn BB kits were one of the better locomotives at the time, but as mentioned, they were a bit noisy. I lubricated the entire driveline fron the U-joints off of the motor right to all of the gears in the trucks sparingly with plastic compatable teflon grease and they quieted down a lot. One thing I didn't care for was the way the locomotive would slow down pulling up a grade and speed up down grade. I ended up remotoring all of them with NWSL can motors. Problem solved. 

I would suggest the Genisis repowering kit asit would drop right in and then careful, sparing lubrication. I haven't had to repower any locomotives in years, but I do prefer the can motors. Back then there were no kits to do this whereas I believer that they are available today. I did pick up one Genisis F-7 a few years back and was pleasantly suprised at how well it performed, a world of difference fronm the Blue Box units.


----------



## Great SaltLake Route (Mar 1, 2014)

I think the RTR's are much better in detail than the BB's. I also dis-like the tabs on the BB's that secure the body and frame, they look horrible to me. I only run DC, will this Athearn kit work for me? the kit says it's for DCC. I've also had a couple of Genesis SD70Ace's that had loud motors, I had to get rid of them.


----------



## ggnlars (Aug 6, 2013)

All motors are DC. For DCC you want one that has low stall and operating current levels. That won't hurt in DC. These DCC friendly motors will not pull as much train as older higher current motors. They accommodate for that in DCC by having consists of engines. You will be able to do that in DC as well with less control of the individual engine speed. The easiest change will be to use the Genesis motor. The mounting is similar and will drop in. You will have to change the drive links to match the motor. Any motor change will be costly. All things being equal, I would try one and see how it works for you. There is no silver bullet here. It will depend on you and your railroad.
Good luck,
Larry
Check out my blog: wow.llxlocomotives.com


----------



## Southern (Nov 17, 2008)

I like Atherans, I have a lot of them. They are great for the price, but I do not have one that is quite.


----------



## riogrande (Apr 28, 2012)

Great SaltLake Route said:


> every RTR that I have owned has been a loud one. what can I do to remedy this? Athearn has some real nice RTR stuff that they don't make in Genesis line. what can I do to make an RTR as quiet as a Genesis? I want to get a certain tunnel motor, but I'm hesitant because of the noise.


Sounds like you were just unlucky. I've got a bunch of Athearn RTR SD45's and tunnel motors and so far they have all been either fairly quiet or in some cases ran like KATO's.

FYI, I have 27 tunnel motors, 17 D&RGW and 10 SP/SSW :sold:


----------



## Grabbem88 (Feb 24, 2012)

D&RGW are awesome!


----------



## TA462 (Oct 17, 2014)

riogrande said:


> I've got a bunch of Athearn RTR SD45's and tunnel motors and so far they have all been either fairly quiet or in some cases ran like KATO's.


I've never seen or heard of a Athearn RTR that ran as smooth as a Kato.


----------



## riogrande (Apr 28, 2012)

TA462 said:


> I've never seen or heard of a Athearn RTR that ran as smooth as a Kato.


You need to get out more! 

How old are your Athearns? I've heard there was a lot of Athearn RTR engines made in the between 2000 and say 2006 which included some coffee grinders so I've heard and yes, Athearn has had a lot of QAQC issues over the years but they are getting better.

Most of the Athearn RTR engines I've bought have been produced since around 2007 and later. I've picked up 26 tunnel motors and 20 SD45's. I haven't run them all yet but many of them have been run and so far run well and pretty smoothly. :stroke:

A couple of the RTR D&RGW SD45s I tested runs very quiet and silky smooth, very much like KATO's I have. In fact I've sold off ALL of my KATO SD45's, 3 D&RGW, 2 UP and 1 SP, although I 've kept my 4 KATO GP35's. BTW, I"ve heard other Athearn owners report similar experiences as me, very smooth quiet chassis on some Athearn RTR engines. 

So... now you know they do exist.


----------



## thetramp (Dec 14, 2012)

ggnlars said:


> * Appropriate placement of a soft tape will help here*./url]


What kind of tape do you use? Do you put the tape on the inside sides as well as the ceiling?


----------

