In the latest e-mail that I received from Athearn last week, they announced a couple of Genesis F7s (SP “Bloody Nose” and Penn Central"). The announcement included the following terms:
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[*]“Modernized”
[*]“improved factory-installed on board sound and DCC decoder”
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The e-mail also mentioned the upcoming release of a Genesis SD 45-2. Since there seems to be a few folks on this forum that had advanced inside info on the release of the SD 45-2, I was wondering if there is anyone who might shed some light on the terms listed above for the F7s.
It seems that there has been quite a few mentions on this forum regarding less than great satisfaction with the choices in sound decoders Athearn has used for their Genesis line in the past.
I have no inside track to info on these, but I do have quite a bit of experience with my fleet of Genesis F-units and am familiar with discussions about them.
Here “modernized” means that the units have been de-skirted, for starts, although this is only the most obvious differecne and may refer to other modifications done after these units were in service for some time.
The “improved factory-installed on board sound and DCC decoder” may refer to an impoved MRC sound system. There have been lots of criticism of the MRC sound used up to this point in the Genesis F-units, so something may be done to address thse issues. I can’t say one way or the other about exactly how bad the MRC sound is. I’ve just heard enough criticism about these that I decided that it’s not yet worth the extra investment for me, yet. Maybe this will change that equation.
The FRA changes that were mandated in 1960 era are included in the new model. These are the nose ladders and other various changes that prevent accidents. The Skirts were removed at the convenience of the the service track, but most F units lost those also during the late fifties and sixties era. All of the F units did get the nose ladders since they were mandated.
The improved sound has not been announced, but I hope they replaced the MRC drive and sound unit.
