Athearn lost this race big time! People have been asking for this locomitve for a while now and KATO seems to have been listening. The SD70MAC, especially from KATO, will be an awesome addition to the HO line of modern freight power! Athearn dropped the ball on this one. They explained to us about the needing new tooling for a new chassis. This was understandable, but during all this time they were redoing the sd40-2, sd40T-2, C44-9w chassis and releasing R-T-R freight cars, cabooses, commuter cars, billboard, vehicles, and everything else. They even had time (and money) to update the drive for the Genesis F-units. With the 70MACs on the way, Athearn better hurry and get those CR SD70s on the market or they just might be left with a warehouse full of them! I am glad to see KATO do this unit rather than Athearn. I think KATO's lines are a little more crisp than Genesis when it come to the moldings. Don't get me wrong, the SD70Ms are beautiful, but they do have a lot of shortcomings. For one, the KATO shell, more specifically the walkway, will be a little thicker than the Athearn, thus you won't get the "sagging walkway" effect that you do on this Genesis SD70M. Both the Genesis and KATO drives IMO are comparable, however where KATO exceeds is with the added weight in the frame. The SD70Ms are kind of on the light side and this lends themselves to truck hunting and frequet derailments. I have yet to see one KATO unit come off the track other than adverse track conditions or some clumsy person. Another plus for KATO is the lighting system and DCC readiness. White LEDs are becoming the standard headlight on choice these days and KATO is leading the pack! Atlas has followed suit9 at least in N-scale), but Atlas HO, P2K, and Genesis still insist on using those plastic-melting grain-of-wheat bulbs. Maybe installing the incandescent bulbs in a short length of brass or aluminum tubing would help some, but white LEDs would be a better solution. KATO's light pipes are ingenuous and othe manufacturers should really consider this design! KATO's handrails are a little on the thick side, but I can live with them. If if gets to the point where it starts to bother me, I'll just cust off the railing between the stanchions are drill holes to accept .012" or .015" brass wire. There's really not much left in the way of modern power for Athearn to do accept the AC6000CW and SD50. Most people think P2K will release the SD50, however P2K is busy with the SD60Ms and GP60s. The SD50 will be produced Athearn's standard line the w/revised drive. To be honest, now would be a good time for Athearn to go back and update the SD45 (reshape chassis with a better shaped cast fuel tank or KATO-style plastic halves. They also need to redo the SDP40, GP9, all the U-boats (the nose on every single one of them is wrong and ugly!) These models desperately need narrow bodies and updated/revised chassis. Also, the reshaping of the Standard line F7's windows and numberboards. Really and truly, the only things I see coiming from Athearn Genesis after the SD70s is MORE steam and MORE vintage power...
<font color="336633">Has Athearn announced this?</font> <font color="336633">Would it really be worth spending the same cost as doing a new loco on redoing older ones when thousands of sales will be lost due to people already having them? also the GP9 (GP7) has been done by Atlas and P2K (in several versions).</font> <font color="336633">With all the F units now out I think re doing these will be the last thing on their mind.</font> <font color="336633">Thats fine by me </font>
They heavily hinted at it several years ago, no further word since. However since then the P2K SD60 has come out which in some ways would be a more natural basis for it... It would be quite useful to have whoever made it. Sadly I agree, all these have been done better: GP35 - Kato, nice model GP35 - Bachmann - Odd shape, slightly better than Athearn's though. SD45 - Kato, Good model. SD45 - Bachmann plus - Mediocre, but scale hood. SD45 - Bachmann Spectrum - Quite a nice model, sadly overshadowed by bad press on the plus version. GP7/9 - Atlas - Not bad at all. They have re-worked it recently as well. GP7/9 - Proto - Nice, Lots of variations, can be got heavily discounted. SD9 - Proto - Again, Nice. These following three have not been done better, and I'm guessing won't be... SDP40 - Rare prototype. Only 6 built for the US, all to one buyer, plenty of paint schemes for it though. DD40 - The prototype was never built... DD40B - The prototype was never built... The U boats are a slightly different story...but I would expect updated ones of those to appear from either Atlas or Stewart, rather than Athearn. A modernised Trainmaster would be nice, though it's a long shot that Atlas could do it, they have a habit of repeating stuff in different scales. (They have done it in N) Yeah, I don't see them spending much on updating that shell. After all they have already spent money to create an "ultimate" F unit shell, (and very nice they are too) so why would they try and compete with themselves? It would be nice to see something new from them, rather than investing in stuff that's already available, my suggestions for new Genesis items? Long shot - Alco C636. One of the more obvious gaps that nobody seems interested in filling... Long shot - FM Trainmaster Long shot - Baldwin Centipedes. More steam... Many, many more F units! A "70's mod" F unit variant would be nice, giving fuel tanks with detail on them to represent later "skirtless" F's. [ 18. July 2002, 13:49: Message edited by: Martyn Read ]
They announced SD50s at the 1996 NMRA show in Long Beach, along with F59s and Bombardier Commuter cars. I wasn't present at the show, but a friend from my club was, and he showed me the Athearn flyer that announced it. It got sidetracked (no pun intended ) by other projects over the years, but now that the F59s and Bombardiers are here, I wouldn't be surprised to see it "re-announced" soon. [ 18. July 2002, 16:51: Message edited by: SP 8299 ]
I hadn't realized it was that definate.... Anyhow, i'm less sure now that the project will re-appear from Athearn, as i'm sure that one of the main idea's they had at the time would be to then do an SD60 and SD60M on the same platform after a while...and I guess that's out of the window with P2K doing them! I could be wrong though...
For the comment on the SDP-40, Athearn does produce this model! For the record... I have 2 of them! I would like to see a SD-20, and even the RF-16a's, and RF-16b's, as well for the Baldwin Centepede.. More steam? You guys all know what I feel about that subject... All that can be made possible! HA! [ 19. July 2002, 23:09: Message edited by: 7600EM_1 ]
John, You know that more steam is coming out than ever before. I got my wish with the announcement of the 2-6-6-4 Class A from Broadway Limited. Are you going to get one of those 2-8-4s from P2K for the B&O/C&O? I wish I had the money for that one, but I have to have the big steam! I also will now need to find funds for those BN/BNSF SD70macs! BTW I still haven't tried my Allegheny yet. Since I love UP steam especially the Big Boy I have come to refer to my SD90macs as Big Macs. I wonder if they could serve a Big Mac at the Big Boy?
I realise that John, I used to have one myself, SD80MAC was talking about them retooling it with scale width hoods, which as there were only 6 US ones sounds a bit unlikely!
I bought both the Kato SD80MAC and the Genesis SD70M and Athearn should be taking notes on how to make a top line model from Kato because, not only for the use of white LED's for the lights, but also the better grade of plastic Kato uses for the handrailings. Kato's railings may be big to some, but trying to get the railings from the sprues on the Genesis, every time I touched it with tweezers or even trying to CAREFULLY!!! cut them out, I still wound up breaking them, which can be also said for the trim parts. If you're going to have plastic handrails, detail parts, etc. ues good stuff, not cheap!!!
Sorry about that Martyn, I must have missunderstood your comment.. My bad! But its unlikely to see them retooled! So. I know this, I'll stick with P2K in order to get the correstly scaled hoods!
Jim is correct, 6206. You absolutley need the PBL sprue cutters. Here's the link: www.p-b-l.com/PBL2002/main-ws-ltm.html They might appear expensive, but are worth every penny! I LOVE the Genesis detail parts! I'm so happy they make them that fine! I wish Kato made their handrails like that! It's not cheap parts that are driving you crazy, it's your tools! Nothing makes modeling more enjoyable than good tools!
Hey! Now it is time to enjoy the great products that have been coming out. I am very pleased with my Hi-Hood Atlas SD35's for the N&W. Of course I have to also mention I went "out of era" to purchase two kato SD80macs. This is because, I love the 80macs and used to see them regularly on Conrail's Boston Line. I might have said this earlier: I put the SD35 and SD80mac side-by-side. Where the rear truck ends on the SD35, is about the same place where the rear truck begins on the 80mac. The 80macs are huge. I am glad somebody is coming out with the 70mac, though I doubt if I purchase one. There are a lot of 70macs out there and I have scene at least 3 different schemes up close. These include, CSX, Conrail and BN Green and Cream. I don't know how many schemes BNSF currently has for it's roster of 70macs. Anyway these are good times. Now if someone comes out with the AC6000's, I hope they run better than the prototype. Also the CSX AC6000's getty dirty very quickly. Generous weathering should be applied.
How about... I'd like to put in a word for Baldwin but not necessarily for the centipede (although that would be one heck of a loco). But how about the Pennsy BP20 shark? And why have Alco high hood switchers gone so long without notice? My first cab at age 8, was in an NP Alco high hood, probably a HH900. The PRR units didn't get around but a lot of roads had high hoods. That's baffling...
Almost forgot. Baldwin eventually updated its AS16's and AS616's with a hood that was flush with the cab. I think there would be a few takers.
Wow, alot of water has gone under the bridge since this post and alot of things have changed. KATO's presence in the HO market has waned and Athearn has take off big time in the HO RTR market offering prototypical details never seen before in plastic! (SD40T-2, SD45T-2, SD45, AC15 switcher, Genesis F/FP45 and so on.
Athearn is still a big time player...! Yes, I have to agree. Athearn has been around too long to allow itself to be bullied and pushed out of the picture. In the last post, mention was made of all the new and interesting things that are out there and it's evident that Athearn is making a push to keep its name out in front. Kato is just not bringing out the product like it once did.
Seriously, reading the first post kinda made me laugh. I hope SD80MAC2000 isn't/wasn't a betting man.
