Facebook mention in your post

You post has the last sentence as "....check out the posts on the MRH Podcast Facebook:"   I see nothing after the colon, just a bunch of white space between the colon and your signature.

What is MRH Podcast Facebook?

Chris

Would athearn be willing to try kato drives in some genesis models someday? Like atlas did early on?

I did change out some RTR with genesis motors. Never thought to try kato. Will look at that for this SD40m-2 RTR I got. Thanks for the Idea.

Steven Hamilton

So, do you have to have a

So, do you have to have a Facebook account to check this out?  As there is nothing but a big empty white space after your post.

Mike

Sorry about the confusion...

For some strange reason the "embeded" FB post milage may vary. Below is the quote from the MRH Podcast FB post:

The main MRH podcast FB page is here: https://www.facebook.com/Model-Railroad-Hobbyist-Podcast-494117273946099/ I don't think you need a FB page in order to see the content, it should be public. However if you want to leave posts and comment back, you will need a FB page for that. What would be excellent is to take what we post in FB and see if there is a way to have it available as an RSS feed available to all on any platform outside of FB.

@ stevelton

I think for Athearn, there has been a lot of tooling and investment into the ROCO style motor. It would be a very expensive proposition to convert and find a source for a Kato style motor at this point with very little benefit...perhaps a perception benefit, but very little as far as performance.

As for the Genesis vs. Kato HM-5, and why I decided to go with the HM-5 vs the ATH Genesis motor. For me my reasoning had very little to do with performance as they are pretty similar. I think there is some misperception that the Genesis motor isn't as good as the Kato, but there is no evidence of that other then personal preference. This install was done for more of a discovery of what it would take. I think the level of effort to install a Kato in present day RTR is minimal, migrating a fleet to an HM-5 would be doable across multiple models. However, the Genesis motor install in the SD39 is far easier and requires no moto-tool or soldering then a Kato HM5. Someone starting out without a lot of tools, I would suggest to Keep It Simple, and stick with the Genesis motor retrofit. If you don't mind the additional tasks, and have a greater install base of Kato HM-5s, yes, it makes sense to go that way instead. There was also some trouble getting the decoder installed with the 956010 motor saddle too, such that I would choose different products if I were to do it again. The next video will illustrate the challenge I ran into on that side of the build.

The biggest difference between the two motors is in the motor body itself, the Genesis motor is a little taller then the Kato. The smaller profile of the Kato allows more versatile application giving me more options when installing in other models, including P2K, old Blue Box, and other switcher type applications.

It's been really fun to bring back the good old remotor and regear procedures into present day model railroading.

Chris

"It's been really fun to

Back in the 1980's it was standard practice to re-motor Athearn diesels with Mashima or Canon can motors. It was very handy to have a standardized, easy to maintain, and simple to repair drive .....DaveB 

DaveBI couldn't agree

DaveB

I couldn't agree more!

One thing I'm realizing as these funky drive Life Like P2K units get older, replacement parts are becoming tougher to find and more expensive when you do find them. A new aspect in today's repower/regear procedures; migrate the model to more common and easier to find parts for servicing.

Chris

Defining the process

is worth while.  The question I have is what is your measure of good?  Is it narrowly focused or does it include aspects across the entire physical operating range of the actual prime mover that your representing? 

I assume some of this description and comparison is in the pod cast.  I will look to see what is there.

Hey Chris...

I know you are super busy now, so I was very pleased when I saw "Shoofly" on a new post.  Glad to see you have the same passion you had 4 years ago when you were posting at the Diesel Detailer blogs...

-bill