Rick - Yep. Looks like they used the taller SW1500 switcher "FRISCO" font rather than the shorter road unit font on the SD45. I checked the SD45 lettering vs the recent Athearn GP35's and the Athearn "Blue Box" SW1500. The SW1500 is a match. There is always something! Ken
More on the Athearn SD45, my unit SLSF 927 ..... I couldn't resist giving it a test run, so I put it in a consist with my two Athearn GP35's, SLSF 717 and 725. The SD45 runs sweet and runs well with the two 35's. The new SD45 makes the two GP35's look bad. The 35's (also just out of the box) need a host of details and accents, while the SD45 is loaded with Frisco specific detail and only needs a few fine touches. I did notice I have no forward headlight on the 45 (the rear works fine), and yes, the FRISCO font on the 45 is much taller than the font on the 35's as Rick noted vs his SD40-2. Also, the much deeper red shade on the 35's is very obvious. Athearn did indeed try to get it right on the 45. I guess the answer - other than to ignore the differences - is to dirty up the 35's a bit. They were often pretty grimy as I recall them. Ken
Rick: Do they seem to be road # specific as far as details? If I read the serial # sequence correctly in Marre's book the final order which had gyra-lights should have started with road #943 which means the model of it should have one. I know by the pictures posted that #911 has a coon on the nose (BTW as long as we are looking at the size of lettering to me it looks to big compared to prototype photographs) and #927 doesn't.
Bob you are right about the road unit specific details which I like a lot. The 911 has the coonskin on the nose. The 927 is the plain vanilla unit. The 943 has the gyralite in the nose. Athearn gets high marks for these details. Glad I got all three. Now I need three more . . .
Hey Rick, is the gyro light wired up? I didn't see these the other night at MB Kellin. I may try to buy 943 tonight. Wish me luck.
This is in response to Bob's inquiry about the windows. I'm not sure what a side site window is. I'm guessing you mean the one on the sides of the cab. It slides open and shut like the window at the drive-thru of a fast food restaurant (sorry, that's the best way I can explain it). It was completely open when I got it, and it looked like it didn't have any glass or post, but then I noticed that the fireman's side was partially open. I used a small hook tool and was able to reach into the cab and slide the engineer window back to where the frame and "glass" were visible. Unfortunately, they seem a little flimsy, so be careful when positioning the windows open or shut. I've never seen this on an HO model before, but then again, I haven't got that many locomotives in my roster. It would look good with engineer and fireman figures
I couldn't stand it - after seeing the pictures and reading the reviews, I just had to have one. I have #911 on the way! Rick, break out the PB&J, I'll be joining you, and when Elise finds out I didn't buy with "my" money, I may have to roll out a sleeping bag under your layout.
The site glass is on the side of the locomotive on one of the engine compartment doors. I did go back and look at Marre's book and it looks like the SD45's didn't have them, but the SD40-2's did. If you have his book turn to page 144 and look at the picture of SD40-2 #955 at the bottom and you can clearly see it to the left of the "F" on the word FRISCO on the side of the long hood. Sorry about the confusion.
Rick: I know why Athearn made the lettering a little taller. It is because a certain somebody recently had a Birthday and is getting to the age where they need a little larger letters to read. Keith: The floor under Ricks' layout is quite comfy even without a sleeping bag. Ask Rick how I know. You guys keep talking about these Frisco Beauties and your gonna get me to want one. Rick have you looked inside one of the SD45's yet? Which decoders? Bob Wintle
Looks like model train stuff ran out off 911 and 943. There are only 2 of 927 left there. Looks like I'm too late for 943. O well, I'll find it some were else.
Okay, I see what you mean now. My old SD40-2 has the side window just as it should and the new SD45 doesn't, just as it shouldn't. One thing that I have to say about the old Blue-Box locomotive, and I'm probably in the minority when I say it, but I love the sound it makes. Those big flywheels spinning and all that vibration that comes with it makes me think that's what a train should sound and feel like if I was 1/87th my actual height and standing on the table next to it. The SD45 is super smooth and quiet, which is nice in it's own respect.
I need to know the height (in feet and/or inches) of all lettering applied to modern day diesels in each locomotive class. If somewhat has the same informaion for the B&Y era that would be great also. I am working with Athearn on an ongoing basis to get models as accurate as possible. As hard as one trys to cover all bases, it is obvious that things still don't go as assumed. Case in point, when the SD40-2 came out it was apparent that we had made great progress in getting the color right and on that locomotive there was no problem with the size of the lettering. Then this happens with the SD45. The more information that I can proactively supply them, hopefully the better and more accurate models we can expect. I can tell you that they are very receptive which is a plus.
I have one SD45 running using the TCS T4X plug in decoder. The drive on the SD45 looks similar to the SD40-2 and has a choice of the 8 pin or 9 pin connectors. Since I am in the middle of my tax returns, I took the easy route and simply plugged it in to the 9 pin connector. The locomotive runs smooth but it has the lamp (1.5v) in the rotating beacon wired up with the headlights. Strange. On the Athearn 9 pin harness, I cut the green wire (light function 3 and F1 on a Digitrax throttle) and took some insulation off the blue wire (don't cut the blue wire, it is the common wire for all lamps. I disconnected the rotating beacon lamp wires and soldered one to the blue wire. I added a 680 ohm resistor to the second lamp wire and soldered the other end of the resisitor to the green wire. I covered the resistor and both soldered ends with a piece of heat shrink tubing. One other thing I did to improve performance was to remove all those dumb rubber boots on the connections on the light board. Since mechanical electrical connections only breed trouble down the road, all of these connections were soldered. One improvement I noticed in the SD45 is that the pick ups on the trucks were already soldered. A quick trip to the programming track for a unit number and programming the rotating beacon funtion (both forward and reverse) and unit 911 is in service. Now he needs two more units to help him drag some long freights out of Tulsa staging. This whole dance with the decoder, programming etc. took about 20 mins. I LOVE DCC.
Any one know were 943 is still available? Now I really want to get one of these and I can't find one on the internet accept for Athearn.com Looks like the SD45's are different from the SD40-2's in the fact that the 40-2's were on ebay for a long time, so far I've only seen 1.
http://www.internettrains.com/merch...Code=IT&Product_Code=ATH-95385&Category_Code= Try here... (may not be the cheapest)
I found one for Ethan and we are making plans for me to make a special delivery to him via hybrid drive in a couple weeks. The Chairman of the Board and the CFO of his railroad apPARENTly both approved the purchase.
The Athearn Frisco SD45 is indeed becoming hard to find. Right after I received my SLSF 927 from TTH (I also ordered 911 but didn't get it - TTH was short-shipped by Athearn), I took Tom's suggestion and contacted MB Klein. They showed 911 and 943 as still being in stock, so I ordered one of each right away. About an hour later, I went back to MB Klein's web page and they showed all three Frisco SD45's as being out of stock. I might have gotten very lucky and grabbed two of the last few they had. I checked my credit card activity this morning and, sure enough, MBK posted a charge for two units. I also received a shipment notice from MBK this afternoon. Lucky me! Thanks Tom! We drove up to Olathe yesterday - will be here this week as our granddaughter #2 was born this morning and we are helping out. Little Lauren - Olathe's newest citizen! I brought the 927 along with me to show it to Kurt - he loves it, so I'm glad I apparently got the other two as well. These big SD45's were his favorite Frisco locomotives when we were chasing the SLSF on Ozark fishing trips back when he was a kid. As far as finding SD45's still available, one approach would be to try calling some major hobby shops in non-Frisco territory - try the listings in MR and RMC. Ken
Congratulations on the new granddaughter Ken... I haven't found an SD45 yet. I may have missed out. (Off topic, but I did managed to snag E8 "Citation" on Ebay a little while back. I'll have to do some research to see if "Citation" was used on the Ft Smith sub.)
