I bought an Athearn UP SD70M at a swap meet; the engine died on me a few months later, so I ordered a replacement from Athearn. Since the ditch lights don't work, I use this one as either a helper or DPU, never the front of the train. It's the only Athearn locomotive that accepts an aftermarket drop-in DCC decoder.
Back when the Kato's first came out, I took a bunch of side by side photos and posted them in my Railimages. Here's a few: There are more in the 'Layout Construction' album in my railimages. Personally, I like the Kato units better. I think they run smoother and look better, and the lighting is much much better, brighter with working ditchlights. Since I took the pics, I added prototype style grab rails to the Kato unit's cab (the ones that came with it weren't SP style), and painted the nose window black (which I've done to all my Kato units that have cab windows, that's a must do imho).
