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ANOTHER GREAT FRISCO RAFFLE!

Athearn Genesis GP40-2 in Frisco o/w

Discussion in 'Electo-Motive Division (EMD)' started by meteor910, Jul 29, 2014.

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  1. friscobob

    friscobob Staff Member Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    I'm not saying Athearn did a bad job with their Genesis diesels at all, but I have limited funds, and I'm rather happy with what I have, plus their RTR unit. I'm pretty sure the Frisco models will be flying off the shells justthisfast. Athearn has definitely stepped up their game with the Genesis line. I'm still waiting to see what the Genesis GP7 looks like in Frisco colors....

    Somewhere in my collection I have an Atlas/Roco GP40 I painted & detailed for Frisco- it got retired when I built the Athearn GP40-2s. As I get engines with scale-width shells, the wide-shell units become display pieces.
     
    friscobob, Aug 6, 2014
    #21
  2. friscobob

    friscobob Staff Member Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Both Frisco and C&NW had "torpedo boat" GP35s, so I can see where such a model could be introduced. I would definitely like one of the first-order GP35s in O/W to go with my RTR GP35s (one with Blombergs, one with Alco trade-ins).
     
    friscobob, Aug 6, 2014
    #22
  3. William Jackson

    William Jackson Bill Jackson

    just thought to add to this thread, was sent to Rosita, because of washouts after heavy rainfall, was just really just side wash, but pretty bad. Tom Rainey, was a really great guy, and i was just sent to unbuckle the Jordan. Tom wanted to dump rock on both sides of the crossing, so the rock was dumped and i prepared the ditcher, which was on the head end of the train. Tom ran one side and i ran the other, Tom, after a couple of passes, said the rock was too high against the rail. ask if i had ever lowered the front plow, i said no, he said it was a good time to learn, so i lowered the front plow. Tom was always in a rush so he said we could run both sides and raise the plow for the crossing. About the first two passes, worked great, plow was raised just in time to go across the crossing. Well you guessed, we got too close, the plow hit the crossing and the timber crossing went flying. Tom just looked at me and said laughing "i always wanted to renew that crossing"
    Some time around 76 or 77
    40-2's alway's had the mustard to push through most cuts with both wing's down and a full load on both.
    The crossing was a dirt road, with bridge timbers for crossing boards.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 1, 2014
    William Jackson, Sep 1, 2014
    #23
  4. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member Staff Member

    Thats a great story William,
    It never ceases to amaze me what these locomotives will pull off the rail, derailed cars, dozers whatever. And what they can tear up! They are just so powerful and heavy, there was a show years ago called "You asked for it" where a locomotive drug a Bulldozer like it was a little puppy.
    Reminds me of the story where a Road Master was up here surveying his ROW and saw a fence built on it that the RR didn't build. Even though it had been there for who knows how many decades. He pulled a Geep up threw a chain around the drawbar and the corner post backed up, tore a 1/4 mile of fence down.
    Well needless to say there was a flat car of fence material on the rear end of the "Z" train headed West, and right up to where the fence was. No RR got fixed for the next couple weeks, as all the section was building fence. Right back where it was tore out. Only on the RR huh?
    Those section guys never let him forget about it too.
     
    gjslsffan, Sep 2, 2014
    #24
  5. William Jackson

    William Jackson Bill Jackson

    Tom, those were fun times, in that era, you could mess up something, and not even hear about it. Sometimes you would get blistered, over nothing. We run the ditcher over the Mt. Vernon branch, had Harry King as engineer, he would throttle up, with a little independent, great engineer, lots of power. All the sudden, everything would stop, he jumped out and picked up a rabbit. Never even heard the shot. He got a bunch of rabbits that day, don't think the ditcher had ever been over that line. Great fun, used to be able to do some of that stuff. Really rolled the brush.
     
    William Jackson, Sep 2, 2014
    #25
  6. WindsorSpring

    WindsorSpring Member

    Harry King was a fun "neighbor." A friend and I visited him in the cab as he waited after his hours were up and that is how I got to know him. After that, Barbara and I would get a little "toot" as he passed by, so we would run out and wave to him. On one instance, he leaned out the window of his Warbonnet GP-40-2 (let's say that's what it was to be mildly on topic - it was a warbonnet and did have 4 axles) and waved with both hands.
     
    WindsorSpring, Sep 3, 2014
    #26
  7. William Jackson

    William Jackson Bill Jackson

    Well, I suppose these have finally came in, mine was shipped Wednesday. The DCCand Sound Athearn Genesis models.
    I sure hope they turn out nice.
     
    William Jackson, Oct 8, 2015
    #27
    Ozarktraveler likes this.
  8. klrwhizkid

    klrwhizkid Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    Mine arrived today from Spring Creek Model Trains. Did I mention how nice the folks at Spring Creek are? Great service and always a friendly greeting.

    Nice models. Kudos to Athearn on getting the lights right; the Pyle Gyralight in the nose and Prime Stratolite on the roof are both functional and assigned to separate function outputs.

    I did replace the OEM 16x35mm speaker with one of my Sweet Sound speakers and covered the fan openings from the bottom with pieces of styrene painted black to further improve sound quality.
     
    Last edited: Oct 17, 2015
    klrwhizkid, Oct 17, 2015
    #28
  9. HWB

    HWB FRISCO.org Supporter

    757 arrived on the property this week. Not a bad model. Some flaws, hand rails a bit bent but I've come to expect that. Overall not a bad model. You be the judge
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Oct 19, 2015
    HWB, Oct 18, 2015
    #29
    w3hodoug (Doug Hughes RIP 03/24/2021), Ozarktraveler and FriscoCharlie like this.
  10. FriscoCharlie

    FriscoCharlie Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    Thanks for the video!
     
    FriscoCharlie, Oct 19, 2015
    #30
  11. Larry F.

    Larry F. Member

    I recently got my copy the new Athearn GP-40-2 and I think it's terrific. While I was sitting admiring the craftsmanship of the model I couldn't help but reminisce of days gone by. When I first started taking the hobby seriously (after my American Flyer set), my first diesel was the Athearn F-7 and at that time I thought that it was the coolest model in the world (rubber band band drive notwithstanding). Now I am way, way down the road and I think this Athearn model is the coolest model in the world. Talk about things going around! Larry F.
     
    Larry F., Oct 24, 2015
    #31
    FriscoCharlie likes this.
  12. meteor910

    meteor910 2009 Engineer of the Year Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Larry - Your points are very valid. Think of all the offerings Athearn had as the hobby grew. Wow! They, and several others, offered some pretty good models for the time and all at very reasonable cost. Old Irv, RIP, deserves a lot of credit for the rapid growth of model railroading in the 1960-1990 period of rapid expansion of the hobby. I still have my original Athearn F7A and F7B, hand painted, but still looking good. (Pics are in my album). They are dummies now, but in the early days, I ran the wheels off of them. I also still have a few of the freight cars, and almost all of my passenger cars are Athearn's heavyweight "shorties". Working on another Pullman right now. My passenger service has proved to be so popular, we need a second sleeper!

    Ken
     
    meteor910, Oct 24, 2015
    #32
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