I kind of jumped the gun on buying a new SD90, and i didnt do any research. I just had to get one. Are they really worth the money? What are some of the good points and the bad points of this loco?
I'll let you answer that yourself, that's a personal thing... I had a good look round a friend's pair a couple of days ago, so I'll have a go at your next question Okay, good points first: They haven't screwed up the paint jobs. Yippee! At least not in any major ways that I can see (It was a pair of UP ones I was looking at, can't vouch for the rest but the pics i've seen of them look good.) The moulding is up to Kato's usual excellent quality, it's nice & solid, and makes it feel like you could actually open the doors. Also moulded are representations of the under-walkway cabling etc... Proper sized big wheels! Working (but blue) ditch lights. Feels like a BIG bit of kit, just as the prototype does, it captures the massiveness of these very well. White handrail verticals. Pre-lettered numberboards (on the parts sprues) They've fixed the pickup problem that their last new loco (SD40-2) suffered with, these run really great! On the whole, I thought it was excellent! Bad points: Note, some of these should definately be considered nitpicking, I had to search for things that I didn't like about it, if I wanted one I would have bought one with no hesitation. Some (or all) of these points might not bother you at all even! No cab sunshades! It could be heavier. It doesn't feel very heavy for it's size, I think it's probably lighter than the P2K SD60 for example, but I haven't had chance to compare them directly. Should be heavy enough for most uses though. Handrails and grabs could both be finer, I do think they are getting better, but still way behind Atlas and P2K with this. I'm not altogether sold on the "sectional" handrails, basically the hadrails are in several bits that clip together, this lets them make it a smaller sprue and gives you the white sections. Maybe this is a great thing, i'm just not sold on it yet. Grabs moulded in grey plastic so you have to do quite a bit of "touch up" painting as you assemble, that may or may not be a problem for you, the majority of "top end" loco's these days don't require any painting even if they need a little assembly. Some of the "moulded in" items below the running board I think should have been separate, the air filter is one, the cable runs moulded on look pretty good, but the big air filter is a little chunky to get away with. Truck sideframes are very well moulded, but just look a little "flat" compared with the similar trucks under the Athearn SD70 series. Moulded on dampers etc. Two "heard on the net" things, I have no way to verify the truth of them but worth checking out if they bother you: If you are DCCing then there is a potential issue to watch out for with the circuit board. Apparently it's easy to correct, it's just a problem if you don't notice it. Sounds like it has the same gearing as other Kato but the bigger wheels make it run slightly faster. Don't know how much of a problem this is, but it's not an issue at all if you are running with other 80/90MAC's or can amend the speed via DCC. On the whole... This is a fine loco, nice job Kato!
Just a bit of extra info, Kato's web page has an advisory notice on it about the DCC circuit board modification, with (apparently) easy to follow details on how to change how one wire runs to prevent it potentially shorting out your decoder. This is a DCC only modification, to do when you apply your decoder. No need to change anything if you are not applying one.
Yes there is Definatly a potential DCC problem that requires you to snip a bit of metal to avoid shorting out the circuit board and frying you're decoder.
