Questions on Athearn RTR GP35s

[friscobob]

Today, via the Brown Truck, I took delivery of two Athearn RTR GP35s from M.B. Klein (one of our advertisers, BTW). Both were painted in Frisco colors, and the one numbered 725 even had AAR type B trucks, a la the prototype :D

The color is a bit too red, but I figure weathering should take care of that. The couplers are that cheesy plastic, but new KAdees will solve that too. And no, a new paint job is NOT in the future (sorry, Bad News fans graemlins/nono.gif graemlins/wink.gif )

Has anybody else got the new RTR models? Comments, complaints, etc. about appearance and performance?

BTW- the MSRP for the GP35 was under 88 dollars, but I only paid 50 bucks for each model. M.B. Klein's prices are pretty darn good, so why pay retail?

[LongIslandTom]

Heya Friscobob,

I'm thinking of picking up some Geep 35's myself ("Do I REALLY need another loco?" :D :D :D ). Did Athearn retool the GP35 with scale-width hoods for their RTR line or are they still the old fat hoods?

Thanks for the 411!

[Kevin Stevens]

The Athearn RTR GP35's are based on Rail Power Products tooling, not the older blue box Athearn kits. Generally, most of the RTR line has been re-tooled and very well detailed...I'm not sure that any of them are based directly on the original kits. $50 is a great price for that model, so if you are looking for one I'd recommend picking one up at that price. I can get them also, but the best price I could offer would be $55-$60. I have only gotten one of them in (MoPac) and it looks to be a well detailed model.

[SP 8299]

The only RTRs released so far that are based off of old RPP tooling are the CF7, GP35, GP60M, GP60B, SD38, and SD40 (the already-released SD45T-2 and the upcoming SD45-2 are all-new tooling). I've picked up a couple of the GP35s, with the intention of turning them into engines for my club, and they're not bad. While some of the biggest problems from the old RPP are still present, like the crude latches and thick pilot plates, they make a decent overall starting point for what I have planned for them. The chassis is all-new, and the running quality is fine. Like many newer Athearn releases, they have the DCC harness that's designed to accept a Digitrax DH123D or DH163D decoder with no additional wiring.

Here's a shot a friend took of one of the ones I'm detailing for my club, the California Southern (http://www.californiasouthern.org/) (this one will be lettered for our Norwalk & Western subsidiary):
http://www.railimages.com/albums/CSL/aai.jpg
It started out as an L&N unit I got dirt cheap, and stripped with 91% alcohol. The "story" is that the NWRN, always a sucker for cheap power, picked up secondhand GP35s from a variety of sources (this one is ex-Conrail), and had them de-turbocharged by Omnitrax. The PAF box is a Cannon part, as is the hood end, fans, radiator grills, sunshade tracks, mushroom vent, fuel tank details, and dustbin hatch. The horn is a DW part, along with the firecracker antennas and spare knuckles. The exhaust stacks are by DA, along with the strobe on the rear of the cab roof. The steps (and since-added sunshades) are by A-line. I made the plate for the blanked center 36" fan from a disc of .20" styrene.

There has been additional work done since the pic was taken, and hopefully, when complete it'll bear some resemblance to this artwork I created: http://www.railimages.com/gallery/CSL/aae
Colors are white and Reading green, with decals made from artwork I created in Corel and printed on a color laser printer. It's one of those projects that keeps getting bigger and bigger, but it's turning out to be one of my favorite models. :D

[LongIslandTom]

SP8299:

That's a nice looking paint scheme. Your kitbash should look very snappy wearing it. :cool:

Yeah I know what you mean about a project getting bigger and bigger. These days, I'm not satisfied with a loco unless I've added a Cannon thinwall cab (believe me, these improve the appearance of an stock EMD model loco immensely), hand-bent handrails with Smokey Valley stanchions, and the sundry list of details (grabs, MU hoses, horn, plow, antenna and other fittings). I usually end up spending another $50-75 per engine on detail parts alone, oy. graemlins/220.gif

Can't wait to see your finished loco!

[friscobob]

SP-
That pic of yours looks very similar to a GP35M I built using an RPP shell as a starting point. I added Cannon & Co. parts (thinwall cab, tapered paper filter box), and Detail Assoc. and Details West parts to come up with a model of a MoPac GP35. It's still unpainted, but once I do paint & decal it (not sure if it'll be MP or Kiamichi), it goes on a Proto Power chassis I picked up dirt-cheap. MP had modified 18 GP35s in the late 1970s to GP35Ms, renumbering them in the 2600-2617 series. Wisconsin Central got 11, Kiamichi wound up with 4, and DGNO got another.

The details on the RTR Athearn such as the door hinges are a bit clunky, but I can afford one better than I could a Kato model. And Ken, 55 bucks still ain't a bad price, as long as it isn't retail :D

[Dave Jones]

Got my two SAL GP-35's a couple of months ago and was very impressed by the paint job.
Will need (eventually) to add mu/air hoses.

Only problem I found is that they are not good to mu with Athearn Genesis, LL P2K or P1k, Atlas, or Kato - but they are smooth runners.

Since I still use straight DC, will have to cobble up a solution.

[AFN]

I purchased two Rock Island units several months ago and was very impressed. They came with snow plows, hood side mounted bells and even a five chime horn. The only problem I encountered was on one unit the plow or the pilot behind it bottomed out on uneven track. I filed enough off to where this is no longer a problem. I am very pleased with the paint and lettering as well.

[SP 8299]

Thanks for the compliments guys! Yep, it's been a fun kitbash, and I've had to really resist the temptation to go all-out on the details - I'm trying to keep the project somewhat economical, and quick & easy (ha!). I was really tempted to add an entire Cannon cab/nose/sub-base like I do for any of my front-line models, but decided against it, mainly for cost and durability reasons. I did, however, fix the too-short and shallow handbrake detail on the nose with some cutting, styrene, and a spare handbrake from a Cannon nose kit. Looks much better than stock.

Despite holding back on certain details, the GP35M is still taking longer than I anticipated - and what's worse, I'm now thinking about building a slug to run with it. :rolleyes: Not like I have other projects to finish, like the ones Harry Wong photographed at WPM last year:

http://www.pbase.com/tracktime/image/50567240

http://www.pbase.com/tracktime/image/50567249

http://www.pbase.com/tracktime/image/50567251

So many projects, so little time!

[mcjaco]

Hmm, that paint scheme looks familiar....

http://www.railimages.com/albums/mattjacobs/ack.sized.jpg

The good old green and cream! graemlins/wink.gif

[mp_eagle]

The similarity of the California Southern paint scheme to the California Northern (and the Arizona and California as well) is not by coincidence. During a brain storming session a couple years ago to update the image of the club and rolling stock away from a SP orientation that had existed previously. The club wanted an image that was not only more attractive but also Californian. The ARZC and CNRR came up in the session and a concensis that this image could be the basis of this new image. Over the next year or so, paint diagrams were rendered and submitted by Paul, Charles and me as well as others. No intent was made to do an exact copy but to use CNRR as a foundation. The crest was also based on CNRR/ARZC, where as the CNRR uses a pine tree in their crest and the ARZC uses a cactus, a palm tree to represent Southern California, was used in the CSL crest a image of which is on the home page of the club web site.http://www.californiasouthern.org. The first locomotives painted were three SD7's, #4000 and #4014 in the current post 1995 paint scheme and #4012 in the 1980 paint scheme. http://www.pbase.com/image/57070805

[mcjaco]

I must say, very cool!

I'm working on detailing a pair of the Athearn Special Edition NWP SD9's. Hopefully, I'll have some pics by tomorrow.

[2slim]

Only problem I found is that they are not good to mu with Athearn Genesis, LL P2K or P1k, Atlas, or Kato - but they are smooth runners. Dave,
I have some older KATO GP35's do you think they will MU with the RTR 35's?

2slim

BTW, Bob be careful the handrails will pop out if handled a lot. I thought the directional lighting was nice, they even light up the headlights instead of the whole cab!

[Dave Jones]

2Slim - The only Kato's I have are RSC-2's and an NW-2. The RSC-2's seem to have a higher starting voltage than the GP-35's. I have tried to MU the GP-35's with all the others, but the GP-35's by Athearn start before all of the others (inluding the Genesis F-3's by Athearn)?

I don't have any Kato GP-35's so I can not speak to that matter. As soon as I get to a more complete stage, I'll look at this again - possibly the proper rated resistor?

[Dave Jones]

2Slim - I ran out of space before I could add this; these are beautiful engines and by themselves are very smooth runners. I'd recommend a buy and do whats needed later to get them to m.u. with other makes.

[2slim]

Dave,
I did get 2 of the RTR GP35's and I like them a lot. I tried MU'ing them with P2K GP's and agree that it won't work. Heard someone say that if you take out the P2K boards and hard wire like an Athearn it will cure the problem. I have no first hand knowledge of this however.

2slim

[Dave Jones]

2Slim - If I had read your post a wee-bit more carefully, would've picked up on that!

That cure might well work, but then - would your other engines m.u. with the P2K? I currently have Atlas, Athearn "Genesis", Life Like, and Kato that all seem to m.u. together well. Unfortunately, these GP-35's don't get along well with any of the other makes.

Again, my experience is that they (GP-35's) want to start moving before any of my other units. Gonna need to talk to someone with more electrical knowledge than self (I do know ac/dc, gets real blurry after that).

[dingoix]

So is there any brand other than Athearn that these run well with? I might just have to pick up a RI GP35 sometime. The MU'ing shouldn't be a problem since it would be used alone in most cases (or with an Athearn RTR RI GP38-2)

[friscobob]

Roger that on the handrails- I had that very same problem, but got 'em back on the shell and used a tiny drop of ACC to hold 'em there (I plan on these locos being in Frisco paint for good, so I want the handrails to stay put).

I have a variety of locos and different drives (old, wide-motor Athearn, narrow-motor Athearn, Atlas/Roco, Front Range, LL P2K), but since I've boxed everything up I haven't had a chance to test the various drives for compatibility. They ran well together, and fair to middlin' with the Athearn and Atlas/Roco GP38s.

[Dave Jones]

First off, if you model a road that Athearn has produced, or even an interchange road, I suggest you buy some of these GP-35's. Athearn deserves the support because as far as I can tell, they intend to cover ALL the road names and color schemes that these units were produced for.

As far as I know, that's a first for a model manufacturer. Has anyone paid attention to the road names released thus far? It's a lot, and some of them fairly obscure (at least to me).

The m.u. problem has a temporary fix at least in that I can combine the GP-35 with two of my "slower" runners, and this seems to help quite a lot.

Otherwise, two of them together make a nice 5,000 h.p. block.

As I write this I'm looking at one of mine and it is a georgeous engine.

BTW, I'm not a shill for Athearn, but it is so good that they, like LifeLike began to pay attention to some of the more obscure (i.e. not Pennsy or AT&SF) railroads.

[dingoix]

Athearn has been doing a good job on covering a lot of roadnames letely. One left on the GP35s is IC, but they did make a BB version of it with the fat shell.

[StickyMonk]

I plan on getting a couple of these for my GP39E/V/M projects they seem to be easier to get hold of than the old Kato ones.....

[StickyMonk]

Accually I have just had a look round the American eBay site and the Athearn ones seem to be more expensive than the Kato ones, I would like to see one first hand really before I go spending money.

[Martyn Read]

I would say Kato has the edge on the drive, Athearn's have wire not plastic grabs and overall they paint better than Kato did, so if you're using factory paint Athearn may have the edge. (Kato has got better, but they haven't run GP35's for a few years now.

Just looked on Athearn's site to see what they have done, and WOW! That's a huge list in a fairly short time!

SP Kodachrome
SP Grey/Red
Cotton Belt Grey/Red
CP Pacman
CP Maroon/Grey
Conrail
Frisco
GN (late empire builder)
CB&Q
BN
ATSF B/Y Warbonnet
ATSF Pinstripe
UP
TP&W (Dk Green & Cream scheme)
SOO (one with blombergs one with AAR trucks!)
SAL
Alaska (black)
CN (60's)
Wabash
N&W Blue
RF&P
Pennsy
C&EI
Ann Arbor
WP
Rock Island
NYC
T&P (Mopac big eagle)
Mopac big eagle
GM&O
DT&I
L&N
WM
Reading
Erie Lackawanna
CNW
C&O Blue
B&O Blue
Milwaukee
DRGW

I can still think of a bunch more off the top of my head though, so I don't think they will run out of roadnames any time soon!

[friscobob]

Maybe it's because I've been hitting sales, but to me the Athearn model is cheaper than Kato's offering. Again, I bought mine at M.B. Klein, and at the time they had a sale. Plus, I was able to get one of very few models of GP35s with Alco trucks (SLSF 725-731 had them from Alco FA trade-ins). I've never had any experience with the Kato models, but I wouldn't throw rocks at them, either.

[Dave Jones]

Sticky Monk - I'd look around at those prices. If I remember correctly (and I may not), seems to me Kato's listed retail several years ago was more than Athearn's current retail list for the GP-35's.

And while I'm not a diesel detail fanatic, the paint jobs on the ACL and SAL units is as good as I've ever seen. The body shell is also, to me, a work of art.

This is not to knock Kato, I have three of their RSC-2's and an NW-2, all of which are also very, very good.

If the production guru's at Athearn ever elect to do a high-hood GP-35 in Southern, they'll have a ready customer in me.