Athearn Turbines and Sound Options

Buy QSI Revolution
Buy Athearn Locos

Discuss This Page in "Train Talk"
See also Improved Lighting in Athearn Turbine

The much anticipated Athearn UP Turbines are shipping to dealers.

The Turbines come DCC ready with the 9-pin Quick Plug. They are not equipped with DCC or DC/DCC sound. If you want to add sound to this impressive locomotive, there is a unique, simple p'n'p option from QSI. Only the Quantum Revolution-U (ext.) supports the exclusive Turbine sounds, it comes with the quick plug, and an appropriate speaker.

Simply plug in the the Revolution to the Quick Plug, mount and solder the speakers. The loco has cut-outs for 2 TDS 1.25" speakers. The Turbine Revolution comes with 1 1.25" speaker so you should purchase another.

We performed the Revolution-U installations in two locomotives. For the first unit we used 2 TDS 1.25" speakers and for the second we used a 1.25" and the High Bass 1.22". As expected the loco with the 1.22HB had a little better bass response but not enough to make a very noticeable difference from using 2 1.25". We felt both options were very good. See photos:

Forward speaker cut-out

Loco before installation

Aft speaker cut-out

1.22" HB speaker, aft location with Revolution-U connected to the loco "Quick Plug"

Forward 1.25" speaker installed

For the best sound, wire the speakers in parallel to maximize the output.

Note: The Quantum Revolutions are the only DC/DCC sound decoders that have enough amplifier power to drive speakers in parallel without the possibility of overheating. Caution: Other manufacturers' sound decoders may not support parallel speaker wiring! The QSI Turbine Revolution is set up so you can engage the Turbine by using F7. The prototypical start up and shut down sequence resides in the Revolution's firmware so expect a minor delay when using F7 as these sequences occur.

The locomotive detail is crisp and includes may applied parts. It ran well in our initial testing. All wheels have pick-up wipers, we would have preferred split axle pickup as this rarely requires maintenance. From time to time dust and debris will need to be removed from the Turbine's wipers.

We were very disappointed with the quality and appearance of the loco wiring. Coarse electrical tape was used and the application was unprofessional. There are many very fine wires so use caution not pinch any when you remove and install the body shell. See photos:

Here is the Revolution manual for Turbine (ext. link) if you want to check out further.