I got a good look at Athearn's SD70MAC today. The one I looked at was in the BN Executive paint. First impression, I should have held out for the Kato. The paint was pretty good, but there was some over-spray in a few small places, but over-all it was good. The hand rails looked good, but the trucks did not appear to have that sharp and crisp look on the details. Pilots were bare as usual, except for the cheap snow plow that was broken off on the unit I saw. Packaging is the same as the new RTR SD50s. One thing I did notice was that the long hood did not sit completely down on the walkway at the back of the loco. My 2 units should be in tomorrow, so I will post pictures of them when I get them. I am not ready to grade them yet, I want to wait and run them.
I got a chance to compare equivalent Athearn and Kato SD70MACs (both in the BNSF exec scheme) side-by-side at my club recently, and IMHO, the Athearn smoked the Kato in the looks department! Things I noticed: - Athearn's "Grinstein" green looked closer to the prototype; Kato's looked too light, while the Athearn had the dark green (nearly black in some light) executed very well. The Kato green might work for a faded unit that has been in service for some time, but for a factory-fresh look, the Athearn paint got my vote. The difference between the two greens was very obvious under our club's flourescent lighting. The cream on both looked pretty good. - The red pinstriping on the Athearn was more opaque and crisp compared to the Kato, which looked slightly fuzzy, and had some bad overspray/bleeding right next to the cab. - Athearn has see-through grills for the dynamic brake intake, along with the blower motor detail inside, like they've done on the previous SD50 and SD70s. Kato's intake grill is solid. - Athearn had better looking, more accurately profiled Q-fans, which are also see-through and have the correct fan blade configuration underneath. The Kato had solid fans. - Athearn had finer grabs (metal), and finer handrails. - Athearn also had more accurately sized and rendered ditchlights. - Some of the tooling on the Athearn looked a bit more defined, especially on things like door latches and grills. Athearn's HTCR trucks looked a little better than Kato's too, IMHO - the separate snubbers and other details looked pretty good. Overall, they both ran well, although the Athearn ran a little faster than the Kato. The lack of pilot details on the Athearn doesn't bother me; I'd rather add a few details to a model that has better prototype fidelity and execution overall, than one that has a few more out-of-scale details already applied. Plus, DW plows, MU Hoses, and DA cut levers are cheap, look better than most of the pre-installed parts most makers put ont their diesels these days, and not much of a problem to install. While I don't really need SD70MACs for my 80s-90s Espee, the Athearn MAC looked pretty sharp, and has me thinking of getting a few BN units for an early 90s PRB coal train. In fact, they've got me thinking of making a Phase I BN SD70MAC.
Good to hear that the Athearn unit is a good one. See-through grilles, etc. should be the standard on all new models these days, surely! A bit to modern for my steam-era layout, though
While I can't use the SD70MAC it is good to hear its a winner..It is good that Athearn is turning out better detailed locomotives today.I am still impress with my 4 CF7s and the see though fans. And needless to say 2 NS SD70s with Spartan cabs is in my future. I can no longer pass those units up.Perhaps a CR SD70MAC as well? Time will tell. Perhaps its time I let go of the past ad model modern?
CR didn't have any SD70MACs. Those were ordered as SD80MACs, but after the split, CSX changed their half of the order to SD70MACs and NS took SD70s. For some reason they were delivered in CR paint. Now the Kato SD80MACs are really nice, and would look really nice on a modern coal train. I've got 2 black ones that run really well. P.S. My SD70s did not show up yet.
Jason,I have seen the white face SD70macs.Best looking CR unit. http://crcyc.railfan.net/locos/emd/sd70/cr4131qcf.jpg http://crcyc.railfan.net/locos/emd/sd70/cr4133cab.jpg
