Of all the locos out there today, if any of them could be called an Athearn "clone", the Life Like Proto 2000 series certainly fit the bill, but in a good way. The earliest BL-2s, upon further review, revealed several distinct similarities, the most notable being the motor. However, while still sharing mechanism types, the Proto chassis run almost as quiet as the Kato models, due to better parts tolerances and ALOT of weight, creating a very tight model with almost no rattle to speak of.
The Proto 2000 locos that I've fooled with thus far are the SD9 and the SD60, with most of my time spent with the SD60. The SD9 belonged to a friend of mine that purchased his secondhand, and I believe that certain parts were altered (like the pilot areas, see below). I'm assuming, of course, that other types are similar. While they are put together exceptionally well, there aren't too many tricks to getting them apart and putting them back together again. Keep the instructions handy!!
Getting to the Drive.
Following the exploded diagram, unscrew the coupler boxes and pull them loose. On the SD9 that I worked on, this was a bit of a chore as the coupler boxes were glued to the pilot. Once again, I'm not sure if this was the norm for these models. I was able to pry the pilots loose, scrape away any excess CA and glued them back on after I had completed the requested work.
After the pilots/couplers were free, the shell will slide off the chassis. The fuel tank on the SD60 is held in place by a piece of double stick tape. Pulling the tank free will reveal four holes that hold the motor mounts in place. Looks suspiciousely Athearn, don't it? Don't mess with these quite yet.
Apair of screws hold the circuit board in place. Make a diagram of where the wires connect to the board - mark your wires if need be. Pull the clips holding the wires, and be prepared to play catch (Life Like includes some extras). Once the wires are free, unscrew the board, setting it aside in a safe place.
The motor and flywheels appear to be surrounded by alot of weight. There sould be several screws that hold this weight in place. Depending on your model, they will be at either end, hidden by the truck assemblies or a combination of both. Unscrew them and lift the weight from the chassis.
As stated, the chassis is full of Athearn characteristics. The trucks are held on by the worm covers, although slightly modified with rounded bottom edges to enable the trucks to "track" more effectively. Nevertheless, they will snap free, revealing the worms. Pry them free - carefully - and while feeding the pickup wires through the holes in the chassis, pull the trucks free. It's a good idea to scribe an "F" and an "R" on each front and rear truck assembly so you'll know which goes where when it comes time for reassembly.
The motor pops free in the same fashion as the Athearn motor, except that the motor is hard wired to the chassis as opposed to the friction conections found with Athearn products. In fact, I was a bit surprised to find a motor that is almost indentical to an Athearn motor. Same open-frame design, same basic principal. However, the Proto motor has a better wind pattern (thus the term "skew wound") and more windings as well.
Trucks.
First off, DON'T TRY PULLING THE SIDEFRAMES FREE LIKE YOU WOULD BE TEMPTED TO DO ON AN ATHEARN. The bottom covers hold the sideframes, pickup plates and truck halves all together. Gently pry the bottom covers loose, then slide the sideframes loose, followed by the pickups. Mark each gearbox with an "F" or an "R". Also mark the backside of the sideframes and pickups with whatever marks you are comfortable with. I prefer "LR" (left rear), "RR" (right rear), "LF" (left front) and "RF" (right front).
Reassembly.
Most definitely a snap as long as you've marked everything and you assemble everything in the order that it came apart.
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