I can't believe just how lively this thing is despite everything. It runs like it's brand new.

most people would have thrown it in the garbage. u gave it new life. props

wow!! She's back to life!!!!! Glad to see that this engine has life left!!!

The "Harrison Touch" prevails! That was so awesome to watch! Hauling all that freight, incredible! Great job Harrison,! 💜😊

@SMTMainline

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, this was an unusual one.

i would trust any of my engines to you, and feel confident that it was in good hands!

Great job repairing and restoring your UP F7! Keep up the good work and stay marked up!

@SMTMainline

Жыл бұрын

Thanks.

If SMT is working on the problem the answer is.....👉 YES !!

@MattKonsol

Жыл бұрын

Smt mainline: And we have a runner in our hands! Serenity!

@SMTMainline

Жыл бұрын

Haha, thanks a bunch :)

@farmerdave09

Жыл бұрын

You can fix literally anything!

@DairyNS

Жыл бұрын

@@farmerdave09 facts he can

Perfect video to watch while eating breakfast. You timed it almost correctly for Finnish time breakfast

Another miracle of resurrection from Harrison! Great job!

Great work Harrison

Thank you, Harrison, for showing the workings of these models and giving us novice enthusiasts like me some confidence to service these engines without ruining them, once again many thanks

Tape is definitely the best method of removing the metal filings from the magnet. I had that happen to a rare-earth magnet I was using to find a small metal part I dropped in the driveway. Big mistake -- I didn't find the part, but the magnet suddenly became very hairy from metal filings left by cars parked there. Tape is what finally pulled the mess off the magnet, but it was something stronger than masking tape. I'd go back in there with some packing tape (stronger adhesive than maasking tape) and remove as much of the remaining filings as possible just for the long-term health of the motor, even if it may not see a whole lot of runtime after today, given the number of engines you have :D

@tommurphy4307

Жыл бұрын

duct tape would work, as well- not the cheap crap- the gooey type like 3M or duck tape.

Honestly I hope you get a play button I love watching your videos because it gives me inspiration to work on my own problem child engines

@SMTMainline

Жыл бұрын

That would be pretty rockin' but honestly I'm already happy what it is.

Wow! SMT fixed a seized motor! At first, I actually thought you had to replace the motor. Now that it hauls a lot, call it 'The Freightmaster'

I just realised I have the same fiberglass pencil I used to fix my rusty athern FP45 Well great video as always

I’m pretty sure that the motor suffered some damp corrosion just from the look on the steel motor. But no other parts on the model have damage except for the rust on the contact strip and a good way to clean corrosion like that is with a dremmel with a certain attachment( I forgot what one) Great job fixing this SMT!

The thing about Athearn is the ability to switch covers with the better running motor. Also F7$ and four axle geeps handle smaller radius track as good as any as you illustrated here. Nice job fixing the little shaver..)

And this is why you don't clean tracks with steel wool 😆. Those are such fine shavings I can't for the life me figure how it got that bad. Oh Harrison, you have two eyes. Flinging a bunch of metal shavings around without eye protection is a good way to get to one or none.

When you disassemble those Athearn motors, make sure you you mark the magnet so it goes back together the right way. If the magnet is installed backwards the motor will run backwards. It's the magnet polarity that determines direction.

@SMTMainline

Жыл бұрын

That would be a smart thing to do. K&J magnets also has an app which can somehow read the magnet which is helpful.

@tommurphy4307

Жыл бұрын

you can do it with a cheap needle-type compass- good work, harrison! rob

@EvilTurkeySlices

Жыл бұрын

@@SMTMainline modern phones have magnetic sensors inside them, pretty much all of them as I’m aware.

@peterkneissl3358

Жыл бұрын

dot of paint works best. get a paint marker

@Iconoclasher

Жыл бұрын

@@peterkneissl3358 Even better is a silver Sharpie. Great for writing on dark surfaces. In fact I use it for touching up the silver paint on my locomotives.

Gotta love those old Athearn locomotives

I had an Athearn locomotive of that vintage once. The motor mounts are usually a grey rubbery material, possibly a molded RTV. I know that the magnets are sintered iron, a process of molding metal with heat and pressure, but not melting. Like Zamac, it will breakdown with time. Considering the condition of the shell, it was probably stored somewhere where it cycled through extreme cold for fifty years. I am surprised at the minimal loss of magnetic properties. I would, however, replace the magnet eventually, as once the deteriorating starts, , it will continue, though probably a a slower rate, with your TLC. Be well.

@tommurphy4307

Жыл бұрын

it needs a real remotoring job- with a good can motor

Harrison, one request: You've fixed so many engines that it's getting hard to search through them all looking for a specific one. Could you create playlists by model maker? I.e all the athearns, all the Bachmanns, etc.

Watching your restoration videos on old locomotives is definitely going to help with the old ones i recently got, hope to see more like this

Great restoration, SMT! I was horrified when I saw the condition of that motor.

Congratulations on getting it back on the rails! 🎉. A suggestion would be to clean up the points where the trucks contact the frame. An important electrical contact point.

You can remove the armature with no worry, just put a bolt in place allowing the bolt to to touch the magnets. This will keep the magnetism in check for as long as you need.

Great job. thoses Athearn blue box engins when well maintain will run for years

It's amazing how the smallest piece of metal sticks to those magnets. I was afraid all those metal shavings would have destroyed the coils. Good job!

@tommurphy4307

Жыл бұрын

you mean the armature windings? another isolated incident. those are bits of magnet.

I have seen this before, people with home shop grinders and Metal saws etc. the shavings get everywhere. You have to use high pressure air from a compressor or canned air and blow that unit out completely. The high pressure will blow the shavings right off no issue, just do it outside and use eye protection. Rinse with electrical parts spray or contact cleaner spray and it should be squeaky clean again. The little bit you left in there will eventually destroy that motor which would be a shame as shes still a good runner. Athearn Blue box aside from outright abuse are near indestructible which is why they hold pretty good value. Thankfully they made so many that you can still get them pretty cheap. I never pass on Athearn blue box engines at shows especially the the small yellow parts pouches that many folks never used that has the glass, rails and other parts. You can easily replace the engines with basic double shaft can motors if you're really pressed for parts. Great video as always!

This is definitely my favorite type of video you do - I’ve learned so much from watching these videos! I’ve been able to either resurrect or properly maintain my locomotives from your tips & tricks. Thank you!

I have a Southern F series from Athern that’s probably just as old. I broke it out with my old HO stuff since my son is now almost 4 and in love with trains. The little Southern F series, my oldest HO train is still running like a top. Better than a lot of the others we’ve bought.

I made some ALCATRAZ video's off of SAINT ROW 2. I am getting blame for more things going at the club, This one person wants to take my keys away from me; Now, My worker got a box she going to open 10-25th-22 I got my calendar for 2023. We need you to fix are DCC now you are so good at it.

Wow, Guts you have man.. I remember trying to service my similar locomotive. Don't ask what happened to it.. Well done..

Love it when they come back to life.

I use high pressure air from my compressor to remove metal filings, while wearing eye protection of course. Really enjoy your channel. Trying to decide if I want to stick my foot in the deep waters that is the model train hobby.

Wow, you did such a good job fixing the locomotive, that it not only pulled a heavy train, but it snaps the coupling on it's own power. 😆

Great job, yet again Harrison!

You know it’s going to be a good show when you start with “What the heck?!” Lol. Awesome job.

excellent job harrison! (well done!!)

Another interesting save.

Love the "will it run". I'd love to see you add a light to the front.

Yes! That a nice looking engine too! GREAT JOB!!

I use "Brake Kleen" to clean armatures and magnets, as it also displaces moisture and dries without a residue, followed by a soft toothbrush to remove any oxidation. Only caveat is it will attack some types of plastic, so you have to test it on a small part first.

@EvilTurkeySlices

Жыл бұрын

*Cue dramatic music* (If you don’t get it, it’s from South Main Auto, a KZreadr that owns an automotive shop)

For better electrical contact, solder a wire from the top tab of each truck to the long metal clip on top of the motor....I've done that with every old Athearn loco I have (those I haven't put DCC in yet). And just in case...I always test them with the shell off, because I'm a clod and I'm likely to screw something up...but still...DAMNED FINE WORK, Harrison!!!!

9:09 I get it, it's like preventative maintenance; the whole "Fix it before it breaks" mindset(which is a good mindset to have).

great restoration as always. one testament to Athearn I noticed with model power or lifelike/phroto 2000 1000 they took their design because it works so well. the only thing that I can't stand is that piece of metal that goes between both the trucks. on my f unit I removed it and soldered a piece of wire between both and then solder that to the motor because I had an issue with mine otherwise a great drive system that has worked for generations. there is one thing different on yours versus mine the motor mount are held in with screws it vs pegs. anyway 12 cars I think I counted on level track I'm sure if it was weighted a little bit more it could haul more but that's still awesome. mine Hauls about the same also the motor is a can motor versus the open motor that you have.

I love how you fix your locomotives SMT!

Looks good! Thx for another great video!

Nice work

If you ever need to remove filings or pick up track pins 😂 put a neo or strong speaker magnet into a plastic bag or even an envelope and stronger magnet will attract all the filings and they all stuck to the outside of the bag etc. Remove magnet and all drop off.

I got a Penn central athearn gp35 with this drive, and it runs decent even with half the drive. Reason why I say that is because I’m missing the piece with the worm gear for one side. I had to completely take it apart and reassemble everything because the trucks were falling out and parts were falling out as well.

Such a amazing video and job! You should work at a repair shop! Have a good day!

Hermosa locomotora

You do amazing work

i bought a lot of 10 athearn blue boxes at ebay. 4 of them had similar motors but even in worse condition. the seller cleaned for the pictures the boxes of the fallen-off magnet pieces (and thats what the small metal pieces are!) and told me that he didnt saw it. one of the magnets was rotten to the half of the original size... the discount was about just 10 percent so i decided to return and take my money back. good the decision, once the magnet has started to fall apart it will continue and you cant stop it. the end of the ebay story? the seller sold it again and - surprise surprise - again without to mention the problems. even the cleaned pictures were used again...

To cure the crappy cover boxes drill and tap it with a 2-56 screw with a KD coupler box

kind regards from NL.

Great save Harrison! Looks like it had an interesting life.. lol Should run for another 60yrs now!! 😂 Good work, really enjoying your channel and all the vintage locomotives

Nice save

Keep in mind that those clips on the trucks do warp over time so be careful. My first HO scale locomotives were Athearn yellow box F7 A/B set

thats such an amazing loco! i really love the union pacific F7’s

@agressive_cementbag

Жыл бұрын

and once again, sorry im late

Serenity!

Hey mate that was a ripper of a job good onya👍.

Needs some lights and windows now :)

Once got an Athearn blue box PA for $30 didn’t run at first. But all it needed was a bit of cleaning up on the motor and trucks and it was running again.

It looked like a crime scene in there Harrison. Great job. Send me the shell&I'll detail part/weather it for ya🚂🇨🇦🙋

Excellent repair Harrison. Thanks for taking us along.

Absolutely amazing, Harrison! One of your best. While I’m at it, tell us about how you manage to have such good camera work? Do you hold it yourself? Use a tripod? Have a hidden friend assisting? Have always wondered because it is so good, especially in comparison with some other channels.

Looks like the magnet is slowly disengrating. I've seen that before in a motor out of a Chinese remote helicopter. Unfortunately that cannot be fixed, and you will have to replace the magnet or the motor eventually. All those bits stuck to the magnet are actually part of the magnet that have come loose. Looks like you could really use a digital multi-meter which is invaluable in checking electrical stuff, like making sure each of the armature windings are intact.

Bubba heard if you added weight to a locomotive, it pulled more, so decided to add the filinigs to the motor not the shell

Good job. Those old Athearns are bullet proof. I've found that if they hum, they'll run with a little cleaning and oil.

@tommurphy4307

Жыл бұрын

and if they hum in deutsch- youre in big trouble!

Cool video

Ez to replace the motor. Add the cab window glazing, horns and LED headlight.

Harrison... single-handedly saving vintage model trains since... how long has it been now? And most of the time using all the original parts. And inspiring others to do the same.

@corwin81

Жыл бұрын

I’ve built up my collection of locomotives for stupid cheap thanks to Harrison’s videos and a sale from a donation at my club(old Athearn, Mantua steam, Rivarossi steam, and a Mehano diesel). Slowly converting them to DCC as well.

Hoping to you add lights and brighter leds. Thanks for the hands on .

That's too cool!!

I had an athearn blue box dd40 dual motor that had the same issue with the motors. One magnet was in multiple pieces! I believe the magnet started to decentigrate due to corrosion or being dropped.

That's the Athearn jet motor.

the myth about disturbing magnetic field originated with early alnico magnet motors that could be demagnetized and remagnetized quite easyly at room temperature by exposing to other magnetic fields (shiny light metalic looking magnets) ceramic ferite (black ones) magnets and neodinium magnets can only be magnetized and demagnetized in high temperature (above 250c) or very low temperatures (below -20c) they lose some charge with time but removing a rotor from a motor won't hurt it, unless you put it back without aligning the shaft in the middle

@leverettrailfan5414

Жыл бұрын

From personal experience, I can say that removing the armature *definitely* killed the strength of the field magnet on a fair few motors of mine.... but I'm pretty sure every single one of these motors had an Alnico magnet. I've been replacing them with neodymium magnets, it's reassuring to know that they aren't nearly as sensitive in this regard.

@kokodin5895

Жыл бұрын

@@leverettrailfan5414 i literally taken apart hundreds of ferrite magnet motors,(mostly fs130 and fr260) swapet magnets and armatures around and never noticed any ill effects, plus in poland where i live there is no such beliefs going around i literally first time learned that idea from train model repairs videos. i even rewinded some motors at home and with old train models the most problems i ever had were worn out metal bushings(filling those with babit and redrilling fix those awfull noises those made)

Neat! Saying Hi Happy R/Edin thanks Harrison

Muy bien 👍

I run o/o27 and frog snot makes it so i dont have to see the bands as it drys mostly clear. The trade off is theres a loss if traction by one freight car. I have even used it on non-banded engines (VERY thin layer) to gain traction about 2 cars more.... but also could just add tire weights or fishing lead flattened with a hammer.

Man, that was one furry little motor…😆

I gotta say Harrison, that is one of the more bizarre issues I've seen on any locomotive, let alone an Athearn locomotive! It's strange it also lacks the familiar dual flywheel design found on most Athearn locomotives, but then again, I'm nowhere near as familiar with the pre blue box locomotives in that department. Either way, this thing still has plenty of life left in it and they also appear to be real speedsters as well, I thought it was going to fly off the table for a minute there, lol! Great work as always Harrison!

@MattKonsol

Жыл бұрын

Oh Randall yeah I remember the time he ran the bachmann spectrum Amtrak Acela I’ll tell you this it was pretty fast right and it did flew off the layout table there and broke into pieces when I saw it I was like oh man that can’t be good there. Yea I’m pretty sure things happen though some of my engines can do the same things but like tipped over or something idk.

@SMTMainline

Жыл бұрын

Quality control errors on an Athearn are practically non existent so I'm guessing someone replaced the motor mounts and ended up bending the clip which holds the motor together causing it to do this. Still a very odd issue

@MattKonsol

Жыл бұрын

@@SMTMainline I’ll tell you this man maybe anytime if I get a athearn engine like this for parts even it the motor and the magnets right there if there warped, I’ll have to try to be careful on it.

@mercuryoak2

Жыл бұрын

​@@MattKonsol I also believe that acela was running on 18 radius curves when he didn't have 22 radius then I'm not sure. I remember that day I was in total shock myself. but at the same time it doesn't surprise me because the locomotive is very light weight I've had my own life like fph 40 lift up on the right side and semi cut power off and as the wheels dropped down it would take off again like a rocket which I only did that on the floor I didn't have a way out then.

@magnuswettermark8293

Жыл бұрын

The old bluebox F7's was sold both with or without flywheel back in the 70's early 80's.

Excelente video me anime voy arreglar unas máquinas que tengo saludos

Great video smt!! Can you do the union pacific dash 9 in the next video? I have been dying to see it run!

I think I would have gone for a new can motor on this one.

waww.... it's amazing

Impressive as always. I was wondering when I saw all that dust fly up when you tested the motor if you ever thought about getting a relatively cheap ultrasonic cleaner to clean up the parts prior to reassembly?

That was Totally Awesome. I've been watching many of your videos for quite some time now, and I can't help but ask a question, Have you ever recieved a locomotive that was so far gone that you couldn't repair it? If so, could you please make a video about it?

Wow! That emd (gmd) f7 engine is just running like a rocket and athearn engines are just built as tanks right there like you said. Just to let you know on some of the older athearn units from like the late 60s maybe thru the seventies like the f7 right there it may take like a metal coupler cover there like on most rolling stock there so and yeah the later athearn blue box models does use a plastic coupler covers. But anywho we got a runner and serenity! Very good on this model plus thanks for sharing this bro! Matt k

@SMTMainline

Жыл бұрын

Darn fast little locomotive, they must have changed the gearing in later models.

@MattKonsol

Жыл бұрын

@@SMTMainline it maybe be alittle identical right there with the later models too idk plus the flywheels were like painted gold unlike the older blue box ones that are like silver or gray though. My guess.

@mercuryoak2

Жыл бұрын

oh you mean that metal coupler spring-like thing that the rolling stock they have uses? I know I have a b unit that has those metal coupler covers but it has like the rolling stock a plastic box for it to clip on. my a unit has a coupler box that is plastic kind of looks like a Kadee and has a screw which he was talking about which I'm sure if he had one in his parts bin we would have seen it. I've seen many of rolling stock that I recently picked up missing those coupler box covers which are found on their website and on eBay you can get them used or you can get them new because some people cut them off I don't know why but probably because the plastic does get fragile when you have to try to fit Kadee couples

Older video I know but I'd open it up again and clean it out one more time. I bet some metal bits have shaken out and are attached to the magnet. I find a toothbrush or smaller but stiff paint brush will knock those metal bits off.

Wow locomotive ran away from the train

I have this same model but it’s a dummy unit. My friend gave it to me because he didn’t do anything with them anymore and he had those when he was a kid. I had to take out the gears from the locomotives because they couldn’t roll and didn’t have a motor.

I was two years old when it was new 😬

This athern at the beginning of the vid looks like my varney engines, yes I know it’s a f unit but only 2 of my 10 run but one of the ones that runs is a Florida east coast loco. I can’t stop buying varneys I bought one for 1 usd recently. The only athern I have is a blue box budd rdc car that squeaks so loud. And my only Bachman spectrum smokes when it runs. Oh well, I run my steam locos most of the time anyways.

Hot glue is good for removing metal shavings from magnets.

Seems canned air might have been helpful.....blow those parts off outside.....Great job though! Looks wonderful!

Oh $#!T, iron filings. I wasn't expecting that, but I didn't expect you having so much trouble removing the filings either. Maybe I shouldn't be an armchair technician on this, but you got it to work and that's what matters.

It looks like you have a bum magnet. Not sure what would cause it, but I don't think those are iron filings - those are pieces of the magnet spalling off and will probably continue decomposing. Time to look in the parts box for a replacement magnet. Nice repair!