Is my new Loco working properly?

[craftech]

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/Athe...140-10909.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

 

[pennman]

Breakin Time

Ok for starters I think all the new rolling stock and engines are comming out with either accumat or micro couplers on them as faras the power goes you need to do a few things first. clean and gauge the wheels, sometimes you need to make sure you have good contact should have those in the tender if I remeber right. You might also want to use a little lube on the gears and motor.
Last and finnaly check the throughs on the drivers and make sure they are timed correctly, if it goes down the track woddling or binding chances are the throughs are out of time comon mistake during assembly either by us or the factory.
Tony

 

[Ray Marinaccio]

Welcome to The Gauge John,
If the locomotive normaly comes with paperwork and the rapido coupler it may have been returned to First Hobby and resold.
As for how it runs, does it start smoothly at a lower throttle setting or lurch into a gallop.

 

[craftech]

Welcome to The Gauge John,
If the locomotive normaly comes with paperwork and the rapido coupler it may have been returned to First Hobby and resold.
As for how it runs, does it start smoothly at a lower throttle setting or lurch into a gallop.

Thanks for the quick replie. Much appreciated.

I will call them and ask them about the paperwork. It does start smoothly. I think the thing is just geared low and not suited to pull 85 foot passenger cars, just the old time Overton models. I was just told that the maximum scale speed for the loco is 50 MPH.

John

 

[eightyeightfan1]

I'm not sure about the N scale Athearns, but I do know that the HO have Bachmann EZ-Mates(Does Bachmann make N scale EZ-Mates?).I don't think they even provide alternate couplers anymore.
As far as the paperwork. A couple of times I thought the same, until I found it stuffed inside the vacumn formed plastic that hold the loco in the box.

 

[craftech]

I'm not sure about the N scale Athearns, but I do know that the HO have Bachmann EZ-Mates(Does Bachmann make N scale EZ-Mates?).I don't think they even provide alternate couplers anymore.
As far as the paperwork. A couple of times I thought the same, until I found it stuffed inside the vacumn formed plastic that hold the loco in the box.

It's not in there. Apparently I got the only one they had in stock. I think it was returned as someone suggested above. The traction tires are already starting to slip without the loco even pulling any cars.

John

 

[eightyeightfan1]

Traction tires?????
They still use those?
If it has traction tires, its definitly and older model,, I didn't think they used traction tires anymore. But being out of N scale for awhile now I could be wrong.