Model Railroading > Athearn USRA 2-8-2.

A friend gave me a box with an Athearn USRA 2-8-2 in pieces and a couple of spare driver sets. Set on the engine has a broken gear and the little gearbox also has a broken gear.
Are these parts still available and is it worth fiddling with? Its not like I don't have anything else to do, but I like refurbishing brass, so why not plastic?

They were made in 1999 by Samhongsa. NWSL has replacement gears.
https://nwsl.com/products/spur-gear-0-5mod-x-21-teeth-x-11-5mm-od-x-0-084-face-x-5-0mm-bore-hubbed-delrin


 

Lighter Wrote:
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> They were made in 1999 by Samhongsa.

Didn't know that. Have never seen one in the flesh; Are they composites (Brass and zamac)? I thought they were plastic.

They are plastic with some zamac in the running gear/frame.

Thank you. I have new pair of drivers with a good gearbut the "idler" gears are broken.
That must have been a very common problem.  Some years ago I went to a swap meet here in St Louis and some guy had a whole table full of them for $25 ea.

Be careful.   That engine will not pull more than about six cars up a 2% grade.    Or just stick with brass.   The PFM/United USRA light Pacifics and Mikes are infinitly better and pull quite well.   They only need a can motor/flywheel installed.   Be careful with these models if you need a USRA engine as most of these came in with "Western" style cabs, only the last run had correct USRA cabs.   They are very nice looking models.  I have several to pretend to be CNW engines as they have Western style cabs, like CNW did.

Richard.

ATSFSuperCap Wrote:
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> Be careful.   That engine will not pull more
> than about six cars up a 2% grade.    Or just
> stick with brass.   The PFM/United USRA light
> Pacifics and Mikes are infinitly better and pull
> quite well.   They only need a can
> motor/flywheel installed.   Be careful with
> these models if you need a USRA engine as most of
> these came in with "Western" style cabs, only the
> last run had correct USRA cabs.   They are very
> nice looking models.  I have several to pretend
> to be CNW engines as they have Western style cabs,
> like CNW did.
>
> Richard.

I seem to remember that the designer did not figure the thickness of the lagging into the model, so the boiler is somewhat undersized.

I've probably  built a dozen PFM/Akane/Sunset USRA light mikes into Frisco versions over the years. Think I'll just put this Athearn back together, draw a line through the number and dirty it up.

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