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Athearn HO RTR Southern Pacific SD-45
Athearn has simply done it again, I have all 3 SP and SF SD45, DC versions; which as I understand is a re-tooling of previous version. These are really super products. Some things I discovered that were easy to fix. The SP models are pre merger paint scheme would have like to see 3 numbers in Speed Lettering as I am modeling 1994 for both railroads, the elephant ears I removed so to comply with the era I am using the motive power, from what I can find out and I am not an expert; most of the ears were removed by SP especially after 1978 when tunnel motors started to arrive. You will have to paint the ends of the stairs, but a tooth pick and flat white paint solve that minor detail. One of the 3 has SP lettering is left off the nose, very minor but I found it odd. They run extremely smooth, I use mine for unit coal trains and mix in some tunnel motors often running in a consits with tunnel motors dragging 40 to 50 coal hoppers. As Joel mentioned above the SP front lights only brighten at unrealistic speeds. The SF units don’t have the same issues. Bottom line awesome products which I highly recommend