Did they realy sell out all ready? I thought Athearn made a lot of stuff when they came out with a model.
I don't mean "out" as in sold out. They have been released and shipped to hobby shops. I pre ordered mine like a year ago. It's like Christmas in August!
As a Dodge fan, I have to admit that I'm disapointed to learn this. Perhaps if they had used Hemi Orange on their diesels, I might have been inclined to model that era.
Going against my idea to have ALL Steam, My ATHEARN SD40-2 #950 just arrived. I have to hand it to the people at Athearn, It LOOKS good, it Runs good, But....and this is a pretty big but, the beacon on the top, lights up, dont blink, just lights up, and when going forward, the head lights are not bright at all. At low speeds they are not even on at all, I have to give it full power for the head lights to come on bright enough for it to really look good. I am planning on adding some details and a good weather job and reselling this one. However, My wife found a KATO SD70 in the Norfolk Southern Scheme that she just fell in love with (she LOVES horses) and it has great detail, the headlights come on full bright with 1.5 volts of electricity put to the track, I could just do without the plastic floppy hand rails. I love the Brass Quality look, but, I worked for the railroad and woulda give anything back then to bang my knees on plastic handrails, but since that never happened I dont expect my HO Scale train crews to be pampered with plastic handrails either, I know they may be plastic people, but even that is alot harder than skin and bones.
Will, I believe you have discovered just one of many reasons why I like DCC as opposed to DC. I can make the headlights proper brightness, can dim them, I can simulate a MARS or Gyralight and a strobe or rotating beacon and have on/off control of them all.
Has anyone put a decoder in one of these? If so which one did you use? Is there a quick plug dual mode decoder made for this model?
I haven't worked with an SD40-2 model from athearn, but I have worked with my GP35. The only way is a 9 pin decoder. There is a port for an 8 pin but you need an adapter to use it. They use an Atlas style board on the GP35, but there's no way to use a TCS atlas style board on it.
There are two easy choices for putting a decoder in one of these. The 9 pin that just plugs in like Ethan stated or an 8 pin. The factory light board that comes with the loco has provisions for both. I used an older TCS DP5X in mine. It is a little square board that just plugs in. This older unit does not have BEMF. TCS is supposed to re release this decoder this month with BEMF. TCS has the best lighting functions in the business. If you want one of these older decoders contact me off list or PM me. Bob
Bob, did they improve the 8pin plug from the GP35 to the SD40-2? Cause I tried to install an NCE D14SR (an 8 pin board similar (I think) to what Bob is describing) and it was way to lose and the decoder wouldn't register.
No they use the same standad NMRA 8 pin plug. If yours was loose their is something wrong with it. Possible the plasyic part of it is broken or something. Bob
I don't think anything was broken. Ofcorse I had a video of it on youtube and somebody commented that you need some sort of adapter to use the 8 pin port.
That could be. I am not familure with your NCE decoder but the TCS decoders plug right in with no problems. Bob
Hobby Town in Knoxville has one in stock for about $85.00 if anyone is interested. I passed - era too late for me. Doug
I picked up a "blue-box" Athearn model of SLSF954 at the last train show in Tulsa, so I'm out of the SD40-2 market. Besides, it was at my favorite price (cheap) Seriously, I can superdetail this one, and I should have a good model. The only change I might make is swapping out the metal handrails for the plastic ones used on the RTR models. Obviously, this would take quite a bit of work to make it DCC-capable, but for now that's not a priority. Not bashing the RTR models at all, but finding a BB in Frisco paint for sale is something I just can't pass up.
