Knowing Richard as I did, I'm sure he would think kindly of us continually referring to his great Frisco knowledge, many articles and prolific modeling. Ken
Richard was very good at sharing his knowledge. He did a seminar on how to install DCC to an Athearn blue-box model, which will be great for me- I have four painted for the railroad. He's sure missed in this household.... Meanwhile, as for GP38-2 details, don't forget that on the last order the paper air filter boxes were tapered as opposed to the square boxes on earlier versions. If Athearn doesn't offer a Frisco model with a tapered filter box, Cannon & Co. has a nice kit.
I checked with the Wholesale Trains site, and they are showing Feb. 21 as the estimated shipping date. Has anyone heard or seen anything else on the possible shipping date for these engines? Terry
Athearn website shows them being available, but out of stock. They have a production picture of 419. Looks like they did a really nice job on it, though in the picture the red color took a step back from what it had been. It looks like a close match to what they used on the SD40-2's when they made them. I'm starting to think I should have ordered two...... http://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATHG40670 As far as other dealers Wholesale is showing 2/21 and toy train heaven is showing 2/20. So hopefully we will start receiving them before the end of the month. Props to Athearn for keeping with their intended delivery date. Ethan
If you want one of these engines, buy it now because they are selling out fast. I just looked at Whole sale trains and they showed up as available. All four numbers of the sound version are sold out, and #454 of non sound is sold out. Toy train heaven still shows them as expected 2/20, but they are only showing one number for non sound and two numbers for sound. On Athearns website only 419 and 683 non sound are in stock. They aren't showing up on Ebay or model train stuff yet. Those are my findings at this time Ethan
M B Klein has all four numbers in both the non sound and sound versions. I agree with Ethan that you should get them quickly if you want one or some. Terry
My local pusher has a couple coming this way, (who knows when) not quite as good a price as train stuff, but I will pay a bit to keep him around BTW The pics show the Red/Orange a little darker than the last runs of the SD40-2/45's but that could be the photo too. Please let us know when you get them. Cheers!
To All: As others have mentioned, the Genesis GP 38's have hit the retailers and I would assume that by the end of the week will be moving freight on some of our railroads. Having said that I hope that several of you would be willing to post reviews and or pictures of them. I for one am especially interested in three things: (1) General overall accuracy. (2) Color (3) Smoothness of running in regards to the sound equipped units. The Genesis sound locos have developed a bad reputation of intermittent stalling on dirty track and especially when passing through turnouts where the trucks are on the frog and the point rails at the same time. This is due to the type of bearing that the current must pass through to maintain contact. Several fixes have been tried but the bottom line to me is any of these should not be necessary. Someone please run a loco back and forth at slow speed through a turnout and see if you have this issue. Thanks in advance,
I won't be able to help with reviewing the sound locomotives, but I'll definitely give it a good comparison to photos for detail accuracy.
Bob: I received my sound equipped units this morning. I blew the budget and bought all four numbers. To answer your questions; (1) The general overall accuracy is excellent. One of the best plastic models so far (IMHO). I can't note any extra details that I will need to add to these models. The pilots look correct. The nose gyrolight looks good (it is non operating). The roof beacon (Stratolite) does actually work. The trucks appear to be accurate based on the photos of the road numbers that I was able to look at. Sanding lines and speed pickup cable are there. Many small decals all over the units. Windshield wipers on all windows. Sunshades, etc., etc. (2) I am happy with the color. Let others debate on the correct shade of Frisco Orange. The overall paint job and decal work is good. I did have a couple of my models with some minor paint issues on one cab sunshade and a couple of white areas on the handrails, but these are easily touched up. I have already touched up the one sunshade that had some paint chipped. I found that Modelflex Frisco Orange paint is a pretty good match. Also, the sunshades are brass. (3) Now to the running part. After reading your post I took one unit to the layout. Unfortunately I do get stalling at slow speed, both through turnouts and at places not near a turnout. I must admit that I have not run my layout for several months, so the track definitely needs a good cleaning. I ran the unit at higher speed for at least 30 minutes, and then tried the low speed again but stalling still occurs. I will try again after cleaning my track. What is the fix if there is indeed a inherent problem with these units? Keith Edgington
Keith and All: I am going to let Keith Robinson weigh in more here, but this is what I know. The stalling issue has been a source of frustration on multiple Yahoo groups. It seems to center on the fact that the electrical pick-up goes through a bearing on the back of the wheels that people are theorizing that it is either too loose or develops oxidation or both. One suggested fix of sorts is to buy a conductive lubricant called CRC 2-26 and spray it on the bearings. It is available at Home Depot and is SKU#215412 (Model # 02004) and sells for $2.98 here in Wichita. I did buy a can and followed the directions and let it set overnight. I made sure the wheels and track were clean and it seems to help. I also powered all of my frogs on my turnouts. Having said that I don't understand why your nose gyra-light doesn't work. Are you sure the function for it is turned on? It will either be F5 of F6. If it lights but doesn't have the gyrating effect it probably isn't programmed correctly.
Regarding the pickup issue with recent Genesis four axle locomotives, there are a couple of causes; 1) the phosphor-bronze bearing plate which is mounted in the truck side frames has pressed in bearings that have too much clearance between them and the axle ends, especially nearer the wheelsets. The bearing opening has a taper from inside to out, laterally in the direction of axle side to side movement. 2) the axles are not long enough in overall length to provide good contact between them and the bearing plate when the axle shifts away from the side frames as the locomotive traverses curves, especially where contact may be lost on the opposite truck. This is what happens especially on dead frogs or turnout points that have poor conductive qualities. The remedy is to solder phosphor bronze pickup wires to the bearing plates and bend them so they make constant contact with the wheels. I am on the road and do not have access to my photos of the modification, but will post them and the process on a separate thread when I return home.
I received #419 with sound from Wholesale trains yesterday. First off I want to say that I am disappointed in quality control. Right out of the box, the battery box cover was hanging off the side. I am also disappointed to see that they did not make the gyro light operational out of the box (Like on the GP15-1). The strato light is wired to F6, so I kept turning F5 on and off and playing with direction and speed and it never came on. Then I looked and there isn't a bulb in the housing (That I could see, it was late last night when I got it out.) I think the Orange is way too Red for the frisco. I did a side by side comparison and it is darker than the SD40-2 that Athearn produced a few years ago. It is a bit more orangeish than pictured on the Athearn site though. Final note on the bad, I think Athearn went a little too far in their quest for thinner radiator fans. It doesn't even look like they are there. Based off what I've seen in prototype photo's, the covers they had been using are more accurate than these new ones. Some one tell me if I am seeing this wrong. Now that that's out of the way here's what I do like: Great amount of detailing. I don't have the eye of a rivet counter, but having the correct 5 chime horn, the beacon and gyrolight installed on the model goes a long ways for me. I am really considering buying a second because of how good these look. I cannot comment on the running quality yet because I didn't have much time to work with it last night. I will test the running over frogs later today and see what I come up with. Ethan
To All: I emailed my contact at Athearn about the gyra-light issue and he responded that it was indeed an oversight on the part of their design team and it should have been there but was missed when they submitted the information to the factory. He suggested that for those of us that would like the light installed we would need to drill a hole and wire it ourselves. He concluded by saying to tell all of you that they (Athearn) are sorry for the oversight and will resolve the issue in the future. I don't know how the rest of you feel but to me if this is only issue on a locomotive of this quality and detail, I am satisfied with their response. It was prompt, they admitted their miscue, apologized, and promised to correct it in the futue .
What is the group's consensus on the shade of red/orange? If they are as red as the Athearn pictures, I'll be very disappointed, given that Athearn has done a pretty good job of matching the color on several past units. Don't have mine yet - they are on the way. Ken
