I've been slowly assembling a set of Athearn SP Daylight streamlined passenger cars. Most of them have been the Athearn kits, but for Christmas I received a diner and coach in the new "Ready-To-Roll" version.
I had a problem with the coach derailing on curves. I figured all I needed to do was open the car and adjust the screws holding the trucks in place.
But, alas, the car won't open! My attempt led to some minor body damage. It looks like the body should come off just like the kits do, but, it just won't budge. After writing Athearn twice, I finally found out they are glued shut. That means you cannot open them to add lighting, make repairs or other modifications. Furthermore, the windows are not glued in (as I discovered yesterday) so if they pop out into the car there is no way to get them back into place.
Unfortunately, Athearn's response to my problem was limited to the words "The cars are glued shut." Period. The didn't advise me on what I could do to solve my derailing problem. Now I'm stuck with a useless car with a strip of windows rattling around inside it. I can't return it to the store, because it was purchased by someone else several states away. Should I mail it to Athearn and tell them to replace it? For the trouble and expense of packing and mailing it I could more easily just buy another (in kit form this time).
And I recently bought a R-T-R freight car while on vacation that is also derailing on curves. I think I can fix that one, however, as the truck screws are on the outside.
So no more R-T-R for me. I'll stick with the kits. I suggest others may wish to do the same and maybe they'll get the message that R-T-R is not ready for prime time.
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
This behavior from Athearn is highly unusual in my experience, They have always in the past been able to accomodate me when I have had problems. I would call them up and tell them your problem. I am sure they can have a new car (Kit Version of you would like most likey) on its way in a few days.
Posted by Mr. Toy (Member # 311) on :
After they told me the cars were glued shut, I wrote back and asked for a solution to my problem. Here is their response:
"There is no simple answer to give you. Please let us know what your telephone number is and a good time to reach you and we will attempt to talk you through a possible solution."
In other words, don't call us, we'll call you. Bah!
Actually, I did manage to get the car open last night, by inserting a small screwdriver into the window hole and pressing down on the floor. But was not able to fix the derailing problem. It seems more than a mere screw adjustment is needed. I think I'm just gonna mail it back to them with a letter of complaint and a request for a replacement.
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
[This message has been edited by Mr. Toy (edited 03-17-2003).]
Posted by Russ Bellinis (Member # 2377) on :
quote:Originally posted by Mr. Toy: "There is no simple answer to give you. Please let us know what your telephone number is and a good time to reach you and we will attempt to talk you through a possible solution."
In other words, don't call us, we'll call you. Bah!
Actually, it sounds more like they would like to try to help you over the telephone at your convenience. They probably don't want to give out a phone # because of people calling for answers to questions more easily answered elsewhere. I think you ought to give them your number and a good time to call, and see how they respond.
Posted by Mr. Toy (Member # 311) on :
Problem is I have a very erratic schedule, so getting ahold of me can be difficult to begin with. And of course, if they do catch me at home it will inevitably be when I am doing something else that will have to be interrupted. Its not worth the hassle for a $15 car.
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
I mailed the defective coach back to Athearn along with a detailed letter describing the problem. They e-mailed me a few days ago and said they would send a replacement. It arrived promptly, but....
I sent them a defective RTR coach, and they returned a RTR diner. (I already have an RTR diner and it works fine.) But wait, there's more. This diner is also defective!!! It derails on curves just like the bad coach did. They obviously didn't even bother to test the replacement before sending it to me.
I'm not wasting any more time on this stupid car. I'm throwing it into the trash and I willl never buy another Athearn RTR product again. I'd advise the rest of you to avoid RTR products as well.
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
I regret your experiences with Athearn products have been a bad one. However I feel compelled to offer a rebuttle to your claimes. I have been using Athearn Equipment on my roster for a good 16 years now. They have proven themselvs most reliable and dependable. When ever I have had problems with their prodcts they were always more than happy to send me the proper parts I needed to fix my own mess ups, or if the problem was a factory defect, more than happy to send an outright replacment. Out of 30 Athearn locomotives I have only had two facotry defective locomotives, Both of them easily fixed in my shop. The first was a motor bushing installed backwards on an SD45 and the second was an Out of gauge wheel on an SD40-2. Out of nearly 100 of their cars, the most serious set back I was accorded was a broken door track on a Stock car, and a set of missing doors on a Box Car. I have a couple of their ready to roll cars, and the only problems I have found so far, is the use of the sub standard McHenry Coupler found in their kits. But substitution of the more proper (and reliable I might add) Kadee #58s takes but a few seconds.
Posted by conrailkid (Member # 1898) on :
shame to hear of the problems you had with athearn, mr. toy. like mr. challenger, i have an extensive collection of athearn equipment and i find it to be the best bang for the buck, also, some of the defects that i've encountered or caused, have been happily handled by the company. without knowing both sides of the story, can i play the devils advocate and suggest try, try again, as maybe there was some misunderstanding on one or both parts? i'd really hate to see you leave with such a bad taste in your mouth from a very unusaul experience with them, as they do make so much nice stuff.
Posted by Mr. Toy (Member # 311) on :
Challenger and Conrailkid, I should add that my complaint is strictly with Athearn's RTR line, not Athearn as a whole.
I have only been in model railroading for a couple of years, and I have several Athearn cars (both passenger and freight) and locomotives in kit form that all work perfectly.
I will continue to buy and use Athearn kits, because, as you both pointed out, they have proven to be very economical to purchase and reliable to operate.
I also have three RTR freight cars, two of which work perfectly. One is having some periodic troubles staying on the track.
I told Athearn I will continue to buy and use their kits, but I will never buy another RTR product.
------------------ Trust God, love your neighbor, and never mistake opinion for truth. -Mr. Toy
quote:Originally posted by Mr. Toy: This story ends badly:
I sent them a defective RTR coach, and they returned a RTR diner. (I already have an RTR diner and it works fine.) But wait, there's more. This diner is also defective!!! It derails on curves just like the bad coach did. They obviously didn't even bother to test the replacement before sending it to me.
Turn it into a stand alone rode side diner. Track one cafe. That's what I did with a bachmann spectrum car.
Posted by Challenger (Member # 1298) on :
After some careful thinnking on the matter, I have thought that the root cause of the problem might be sligtly out of gauge wheels. This has the aggravating and persistant derailing problem you describe. If you have an NMRA standards gauge, I would check the wheels on the offending cars. If it by chance out of guage, the wheels can usually be twisted back into posistion by grabbing the axal with a needle noze vice grip, and twisting the wheel down the axal until it is back into proper gauge. However, be warned, It will take alot of pressure and twisting to get the wheel back in guage, if you have tender fingers, I reccomend using a hobby size blunt needle noze pliers instead. This is the most common problem I find with Athearn Equipment. But wiht a little knowledge, and the right tools, it can be easily fixed.
Posted by woodguy (Member # 2319) on :
I cannot make any comment on the problems with Athearn service, as I've never had any real problems with rolling stock. However, I have a lot of old Athearn cars which need some replacement parts that got damaged or lost over many years in storage. My problem with Athearn is their apparent inability to supply parts. I have ordered (from two different local hobby shops) several items such as truck assemblies, horns, handrails, etc. who cannot get these parts from any of their suppliers. I have been told that they (Athearn) produce large batches of parts only when they need them, and it's not unusual to have parts on back order for a year or more. Has anyone else ever had any similar experiences? I find it strange that a large and well known company would have such an intermittent supply. I am getting frustrated having lots of rolling stock sitting inoperational on a shelf simply because I have to wait for a year for parts.
Posted by Challenger (Member # 1298) on :
I have encounterd that from Athearn in the past. I ordered a buch of their "Special Edition" sets from a discount outlet for a rediculisly low price. When I got them I found out why, Someone had removed all the yellow parts envelopes from the kits, I called Athearn up on the phone and told them my problem. They said no problem, but several of the items I needed were not in stock and had to wait 6 months before they made some more and sent it to me. Of course I was told this over the phone and expected it. As it was, I ended up being so busy in the interveening time, I couldn't have assembled them if I had the parts anyway.
