Athern Hustler (rubber band - yeeeha!)

jon-monon

Active Member
Originally posted by Tankertoad70
Say, ya don't suppose that Navy industrial switcher had a rubber band drive do ya????:confused: :rolleyes:

I was in the Navy and it wouldn't suprise me one bit! The Jets I worked on had the same ARN-52 Vacumn tube tacan system that we trained on it school. In school they said it was a P.O.S. and we would never see the system in the fleet. In the fleet, the vacumn tubes broke every time the jet landed. Good thing we were all intoxicated. :D :D :D :rolleyes:
 
Originally posted by 60103
Jon:
I suspect you'll find that they copied bits from a number of different locos and filled the gaps with imagination...

It was that blasted round fan on the top front hood that always threw me. I have never seen one of these types of fans on such a small unit. I agree with the "everyman's design" as the hustler has similar (but not identical) compatriots in the Porter, Davenport and Plymouth lines. There are even obvious similarities to Vulcans and Whitcombs.

As to the page Jon linked... I disagree with one thing there in that they state the D&RGW never owned anything like a "hustler" style locomotive. I suspect the Athearn Hustler was offered with Rio Grande markings as a "surrogate" for the D&RGW 30 ton narrow gauge Davenport Switchers built in the late 1930s.

Tom F
 

Vic

Active Member
Originally posted by tomfassett



As to the page Jon linked... I disagree with one thing there in that they state the D&RGW never owned anything like a "hustler" style locomotive. I suspect the Athearn Hustler was offered with Rio Grande markings as a "surrogate" for the D&RGW 30 ton narrow gauge Davenport Switchers built in the late 1930s.

Tom F

Hi Tom, You are right. According to Vol 1. of the Narrow Gauge Pictorials D&RGW #50 was in service at Durango, CO. as late as July 1964. But it did not have the orange and silver scheme. It was simply black with silver or white trim with the #50 on the cab and the letters D&RGW under that. There's a pic of it on page #174. Sorry I don't have a scanner to post it.
 

Vic

Active Member
More

Here's how it looks today at the Colorado Rail Museum.

It is a Davenport. Built May 1937 orginally for The Sumpter Valley (Oregon) as their #101.

BTW...D&RGW did not acquire this loco until 1963 so perhaps what the gentleman was reffering to is that the Hustler came out before the D&RGW had one on their "layout":D :D :D
 

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jon-monon

Active Member
This ten ton diesel isn't that close, but isn't it a cute lil bugger?
 

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jon-monon

Active Member
This one really belongs in critterology 102, we'll consider it a sneak preview :D :D :D How's that for a grade!?!?!?
 

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gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
The Hustler Farm

Before I almost started my own thread on Hustlers I searched for it on here and whaddya know... there was one. So let the posting commence!

The first pic is of my Hustler collection. My very first Hustler was the Wisconsin and Southern unit, I bought it as a project for my Boy Scout Railroading Merit Badge (that I never got because I never went through the proper channels to organize it) for $15 at a train show. Not bad considering the custom decals were already put on. Like most kids, they like fast trains and I was no exception so this was the perfect loco for me at the time. The second unit that I acquired was the silver #57 one, gave to me by my late neighbor. This one is one of the originals, to include brass wheels and "Athearn Inc., Los Angeles, CA, Made in USA" cast in the bottom. From the get go this loco never ran, but it's probably had it's share of run time judging by how worn the motor brushes were and the immense amount of crud on the wheels. At one point in time I took one of my spare r/c car motors and mounted it inside with a bigger rubber band connecting the powered axle to the non-powered axle... that thing REALLY flew! The other five lokies have been accumulated recently, coming from the famous Clarksville Model Railroad Club in Tennessee. The two black units are semi-permanently coupled and will be the paper mill switchers at the club. One unit will have the gearing kit in and the other will be a dummy, as four wheeled short wheelbase locomotives have really hard times picking up power without help. The DRG&W unit had a Ernst gearing kit already installed in it and fellow club member Bill Nelson had it on his workbench to be debunked for operation. Also at the club was a spare gearing kit for these little critters sans instructions, but luckily it was easy enough to figure out how they go together. I'll explain my next few pictures now.

I got the DRG&W Hustler with the initial issue that either the motor mounts were badly worn or some other cause for the gearing kit's worm to not make contact with the other gears. So far everything was true, with the inclusion that whoever initially installed the kit installed some of it the wrong way, making the idler gears off center enough that it wouldn't sit right in the old holes that held the rubber band tensioner. Also upon further investigation, I noticed that the drive gear is off center just by a tad making a world of difference of how it all goes together. So using the unassembled kit as a guide I assembled that one to learn from the mistakes made on the other unit. It went together pretty smooth, some parts I had to sand to make fit because of the such tight tolerances (the end bushings specifically). The end result turned out good, they fit in the Hustler as they should without any slop or mismatched holes. The only thing I haven't done is tried it out with the new gears.

The last pic isn't mine but a good idea, those are newer gear housings from a blue box Athearn loco mounted to a original style motor. This setup in theory should work relatively good, as Ernst Hustler kits are out of production, NWSL assemblies (the new Stanton drive or the other gearboxes that can be made to work) are out of budget, and stock Hustlers are just 300 mph short of breaking the HO scale sound barrier. So if anyone has any old Athearn diesels that need a new home, let me know!

Tyler
 

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gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
A couple of days ago I primed the two that will be going to the club as the mill switchers. I'm still unsure of what color they're going to be, and if their design/color scheme will be reminiscent of the original Hustler style or what. I do have some interesting colors left over from my pine wood derby car days, but Bill has forbidden me from making the units sparkly teal. Maybe I'll do it anyways, ya know, just to keep things interesting at the club...

Tyler
 

gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Choppin' up a four axle for the Hustler

One of the gents at the club has donated two Athearn F7's to my project. As posted previously, I noticed someone ripped out the whole gear tower assembly (only the one located directly under the worm) and shoehorned it in the Hustler and I'm attempting to recreate that. In the picture it shows that they used the old style motor, I'm going to attempt to use a new style motor. I know I have on hand two old style motors but one is missing parts and the other I painted gray and used it as a flatcar load. Hopefully it works, as so far it seems to be going smooth.

I did also find out that the motor mounts are NOT the same between Hustlers and everything else. Hustlers have only one nub per side while the F7's have two.

Tyler
 

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gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Slight Progress

I started this project a while ago, as I do with a lot of projects, but I've made some progress with the pair of Hustlers that will be the mill switchers at the Clarksville MRR Club. I've got the wires for the motor soldered to the motor directly (since it will have DCC installed) and I've painted the bodies of both units. Currently there is a bind in the mechanism that I need to figure out, but I figured I need to get the stuff done that I can get done here since I'm not bringing everything with me to Korea. Nonetheless, it's progress, albeit not much, but I have 40,000 other things I need to do before the movers come to get my stuff soon.

Tyler
 

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gbwdude

General Manager, W.R.Ry.
Zathros,

For the heck of it, I signed up for the pressure test paper. You got me wondering what it's all about, as not only can I use it for train stuff but R/C stuff too since I'm slowly getting back into that. I've got some crazy R/C ideas, you may just have to stay tuned...

Tyler
 

zathros

*****SENIOR ADMINISTRATOR*****
Staff member
Administrator
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Great!! I finally was able to show you something of use! I am intimidated by your knowledge, but am attracted by your vastly informational posts and sharing nature. Having been a former machinist ( I have a small machined shop at my house, vertical milling machine, compound rotary tables, indexing heads, 9" South Bend Back gear Lathe, Mig/Tig welders, etc), I really appreciate the effort you put into your projects, and the craftsmanship. Most people have no idea how things are made. Reading these threads has taught me a lot. I design and make recumbent bikes/trikes occasionally, this is one I made a couple of years ago. It has rear suspension and front disc brakes. I had to fabricate 90% of this thing, including the hubs for the wheels. It goes really fast though, even faster when somebody healthy is pedaling it! 18 m.p.h. is an easily sustainable cruise mode of this, on level ground. :)

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