I looked through the site and didn't see a thread officially for these. I purchased one off ebay and I'm waiting for it to arive. What do the rest of you think of them? There are too more availble from teh same seller I got mine from. http://cgi.ebay.com/FRISCO-GP35-GP-...I%2BIA%2BUA%2BFICS%2BUFI%2BDDSIC&otn=10&ps=63 http://cgi.ebay.com/FRISCO-GP35-GP-...I%2BIA%2BUA%2BFICS%2BUFI%2BDDSIC&otn=10&ps=63 I did see in one post about the fact that 725-732 had trade in Alco FA trucks, instead of the AAR trucks on the model.
I have one of these with the FA trucks. It looks very nice. Be very careful with the handrails on these as they are VERY easy to break! I am disappointed in the drive in this model. It is not one of the newest Athearn motors. The gear train is the same ol Athearn that they have been putting out for years. The gears have a lot of noise in them and the older style motor has (what I call) DCC Buzz. To me it is very objectionable. I'm not sure even a good Tsunami sound decoder could mask this sound. My model hasn't seen much time on my layout and probably never will. I hope that yours runs better than mine does. I am trying to stay away from these older style Athearn loco's. Their newer ones like the recent SW 1500 and MP15DC are a different story. Bob
Hi Ethan, I think these Athearn GP-35's are fairly accurate replicas and they run pretty good for the price, but they have solid red hand rails and not the two tone red and white that was actually used by the Frisco. I have included some photos of my Athearn "Blue Box" GP-38 and SD40-2 that have custom painted handrails to show you what I mean. unfortunately you can't paint the rubber handrails that Athearn now uses on their engines very easily without the paint cracking. I would get all of these I could afford because they won't be around long since everything is going DCC and Railsound now. |-|
I have both the Athearn GP35 models - SLSF 717, with the Blomberg trucks, and SLSF 725, with the AAR Type B trucks from trade-in Alco FA/FB's. I think they are a pretty good model of the Frisco GP35, certainly for the price. They do need some added detail parts, and of course, the handrails need to be painted differently - but the handrails do look pretty nice other than the color. I agree with El-Bob-Oh about their running qualities. "Fair" is a good description, though they are both still essentially in the box and I have not tried to tune them yet. The 725 runs pretty quietly, but the 717 does not. But, what should we expect? The real Frisco GP35's needed a lot of work as well! Ken PS - If Athearn ever delivers that Frisco SD45 model, I can envision the SD45-GP35-GP35-SD45 power consist the Frisco often used a lot here on the Eastern Division. I recall seeing them often at Geyer & Big Bend - close to WindsorSpring's home.
Meteor910 wrote: "I recall seeing them often at Geyer & Big Bend - close to WindsorSpring's home" The drywall still shows cracks from the shaking!
Eathan: I have a late run Athearn GP-35 with a Soundtraxx Athearn Sound decoder. On my railbed (1/2" plywood + 1/2" Blue foam + cork) the loco does have a slight "buzz" when run with the sound off. With the sound on, all you hear is the prime mover, etc. With a Tsunami (which is louder) you should be very pleased with the sound. Glenn in Tulsa
I mean the decoder doesn't work at all. I plugged it in and put it on the track. The light came on immediately. The weird thing is my power cab could pick up the decoder manu. and version.
Try doing a factory reset on the decoder, usually setting CV 8 to a value of 8. This will take the decoder back to it's factory settings. This also depends what brand of decoder you are using. When you get it back to the factory default the decoder will be address 03. If your decoder is bad pull it out and run the loco on address 00. I am anxious for a report on how it runs. I am starting to believe that the reason I got mine for $40 brand new was that Athearn was unloading a bunch of bad locos. Maybe, maybe not. All I know is mine is JUNK. Noisy motor and a very wobbly gear train in one of the trucks. Bob Wintle
Tonight I ran the 717 and the 725 together on a 14 car (plus caboose) freight continuously for over an hour during the KU-MU basketball game. The workout seemed to help the 717 - it quieted down significantly. The Athearn Frisco GP35's look good out of the box, but they need more details and a Frisco touch here and there. My next two projects are now identified! Ken
Bob, I took the decoder out. I know you can run a Dc loco on the zephyr, but for some reason NCE didn't add that feature to the power cab.
How would you attach it? My GP35 has a board that has a clip that fits on the top of the motor rivited to it. I think a straight Atlas board would flop around too much. Bob
I finally got in a decoder yesterday. After having to rearrange the wires a little bit I got it running. With out the shell on it close to completely quiet, but with the shell on it made noise. Comparing to my Bachmann I would say that it has moderate noise, ie more than atlas but less than like tyco.
