Any idea if they went back to the drawing board on these and if so when they will be out? About a year ago my SD75M kitbash was leading an eastbound hotshot up the Tehachapi's when it picked the west switch Marcel and took an unfourtunate fall 5 feet to the concrete floor. Damage was critical and I salvaged all of the parts placing them in a zip lock bag for later assesment. When the Athearn's were anounced I put the rebuild on the back burner, and then forgot about replacing it completely when the Athearn's were aparent duds. Today I came across the bag containing all the parts and it still had a decoder in it and everything. The major damage was to the brass handrails. Most of the stantions had broken off leaving no holes for which to replace them with. Also the frame was broken in two places on the fireman's side, along with the firemans side battery boxes being smashed. The cab survived intact, except for the sunshades. In the hopes that Athearn will get it right this time I am going to rebuild ATSF 209 and return her to service. Kitbashing Murphys Law: (If you build it they will come). I already started with new battery boxes and silver paint to touch them up. The sunshades will be next. Of course the brass handrails will be the most time consuming and tedious task. A good dose of weathering will be in order to blend in all the "body work". I always thought that a wreck repaired unit would add interest to my fleet, unlikely to happen to one of these units though as they were brand new in 1995, the cutoff period for my layout.
Why would a wreck to a brand new engine be unlikely? I can just picture the scenario: Brand new engine, paint still shiny is given to a novice engineer who's mastered his last engine (GP-60 running hotshots, maybe?), and he doesn't realise the subtle differences between that and the shiny new job... Before he's quite realised what went wrong, he's sliding on full emergency right up the back of another engine! The whole while the CEO of the company is smiling and waving to the cameras, explaining how lovely the new model is... Yup, I can picture that all too easily. After all, Murphy watches engineers as well as kitbashers - he's a busy patron saint. Although, come to think of it, the Class Ones have had a few years of practise in which to learn not to give photo-op engines to novice engineers... Haven't they?... Good luck with the rebuild. Sorry, I don't know anything about Athearn's.
That question is hanging in the air. As to wreck repaired, some locos in history were unfortunate enough to be involved in incidents very shortly after arrival. The law of large numbers clearly says that a broken rail can happen just as easily to a new unit as an one on the way to the scrappers. It happened to a cut of SD45s that Jim Boyd was scheduled to ride for their first run west on the BSMF. Some 50 miles into the run a wheel broke about 10 cars back in the train and 40+/- cars and all but 1 loco ended up on the ground. Jim chose to ride the 2nd section with some SD40s instead as he needed some "rack settings". No injuries to crew and the delay allowed Jim to return and get film for his camera. A brand new EMD SD70ACE Demonstrator ended up on its side in the river at Yarmony on the Moffat line last summer. Here's a link to a shot by Tyler Eaton: http://f4.grp.yahoofs.com/v1/0OzDQtEHuAMi67nkfqTGM5AysONimSPP3oSSvgXedBQ1QNP4qKktG563atd91Ybd4zBM0qdGNeupIZqGGlkbPA34cA/YarmonyDerailment.../derail.JPG
Last time I checked, the LHS still had one of the Athearn Southern Pacific SD70Ms that came out a few months back. I haven't picked it up, as I'm waiting for the retooled ones to come out. I'm nervous as heck hoping that they're not cancelled and that the one at the LHS doesn't sell.
