I picked up an Athearn RTR SD 40-2 that was, “DCC quick-plug equipped” this weekend.
When I got home, I gave it a look and noticed right away that I could see the old style 12 volt lamp on a stud in the cab like the blue box models. This made me curious so I checked the instructions. While the instructions said RTR, the diagram showed an old style Blue Box loco without a DCC board. I decided to break it in and opened it up to clean, lube and adjust. Well, it does have a DCC board and a 9pin plug, but it only has the one bulb, 12 volt, wired directly into the electrical pickup wires. So, there is no directional lighting, in fact, no lighting control even with a decoder in place ( no on or off, just steady on). You’ve got forward and reverse and that’s it.
Needless to say, I’m more than a bit disappointed. I thought all the RTR’s had directional lighting with multiple low voltage bulbs. I will take a lot more work to make it “Ready to Run”.
All Ready To Run means is just that. No assembly required, though for the money they charge for these beasts you would think they could put in decent lights. Consider yourself lucky. I got a RTR AC4400 that was a total lemon. The board was bad, the soldering was sloppy, the trucks were shorting out and the motor was a DUD! On top of that, nothing had been lubed. It works now, but only after a total rebuild and installation of a motor scrounged from an Athearn BB F7. I won’t be buying anymore of these RTR locos in the near future.
I have recently purchased 2 different Athearn RTR engines. One was the Athearn RS-3 RTR and the other was the Athearn GP38-2 RTR. The RS-3 was about $65.00 and the GP38-2 was about $55.00. The RS-3 was DCC ready with lights on both ends. The GP38-2 was NOT DCC ready and only had the headlight on the front stud that can be seen thru the cab windows.
I too was Pissed when I realized that the GP38-2 was nothing more than an Old Blue Box engine and frame with a nice looking body and great paint job place on top. It’s almost like one group at Athearn did a great job on the shell and paint job and another group did a less than fantastic job on the frame and engine.
Bingo! If you want the nice lighting and quiet motors, then you need to purchase the Athearn Genesis locomotives. As Jeffrey stated, RTR only means that it’s pre-assembled and you don’t have to assemble it yourself - except maybe superdetailed parts.
How is it possible to confuse Genesis for the old style RTR Athearn?
I feel that I need to defend the good old RTR Athearns in the Blue Box, Ive got one on the corner of the desk that is still running since the late 80’s. A Chessie SD-40 last surviving unit of three.
This subject came up a couple of weeks ago. I made the comment about these RTR are nothing more than BB’s that have already been slapped together for us, less lubrication (the gears are dry in there)- but somebody barked back at my comment, and shot me down the tubes. So, I keepee my thoughts to myselfee.
My thoughts are exactly the same as yours, Tilden. At least next time we will know, ha ha.
By the way, I have an Athearn Genesis F7 that I bought last summer, maybe has been run about 10 hours, or less, and it has snapped a driveshaft. Quality? Can’t keep anything together in this hobby.
But even then some Genesis units come with their share of problems.
I posted a while back about my wife’s cousin. He purchased 2 HO BNSF Genesis units. I think SD70M or SD75M. Over $100 per unit. Within a few days he told me that he was very unhappy with them. Both growled like my old Blue Box locomotives and one of them had a warped front truck that even after repairing, continued to derail. He was so disgusted that he stated he would never buy an Athearn again. Ironically he purchased several 6 axle P2K units and has been very happy with them. I felt bad because I had recommended Athearn Genesis to him.
Yet, there have been quite a number modelers happy with these units that encountered few or no problems. I’ve heard very good reports about the Genesis F units. It’s ironic that Athearn and P2K’s reputedly best performing locomotives are their EMD “Bulldogs”.
As stated on another post, one factor that we have to consider is that things happen on the assembly line, which can result in big or small batches of units slipping through the Quality Control checks. They make make it all the way to the hands of modelers who, unfortunately, have to deal with the annoying problems.
Remember, when a glitch in a model locomotive or any other manufactured item is caught…40 or 400 units with that same glitch may already be in a container ship on its way to distributors in the USA, Australia, Europe, etc.,. With outsourcing this has become more and more common. That’s the price we pay for our insatiable appetite for goods at a low or reasonable dollar amount.
This is why we have modelers that have stated their P2Ks or Athearn RTRs/ Genesis were the equivilent of Tyco junk. On the flip side those same modelers are very pleased with the competing compan
The RTR SD 40-2 I got did come in the RTR packaging and does have the plastic handrails anda DCC plug. However it appears to be a not very upgraded Blue Box model. As I said, disappointing because I will have to do much more to bring it up to an acceptable level.
I have Genisis units and RTR Dash 9’s and SD45T-2’s. These are really Ready to Run. However, I have experienced most of the afore mentioned problems with them, such as warped trucks and paint overspray affecting electrical pickup.
Makes me appreciate my KATO’s and Tower 55’s more. [:D]
Sorry Tilden The SD40-2 does not come with a DCC plug nor does the other BB RTR except as noted above…Are you sure its not a SD40? Athearn hasn’t even added the metal grabs to the SD40-2 like they did the GP38-2/40-2…
Again Athearn will be releasing a highly upgraded SD40-2 so why bother with the old SD40-2?
Agreed. I have about 10 RTR Athearns among my loco collection, and at least for the models I have (GP35, GP38-2, SD38, GP40-2, SD40, and SD45T-2) I can confirm that what Brakie has said is correct.
From my experience, the RTR’s with the upgraded (RPP) shells have the 9-pin JST plug and improved lights, while the “other” RTR’s are basically pre-assembled BB locos.
Also, ALL of the RTR’s that I’ve ever seen have had the Celcon (plastic) handrails, so that’s apparently not a distinguishing factor. I have even ordered the Celcon RTR handrails to use on BB locos because that’s a lot easier than messing with the metal ones.
Hmm, thinking about this a little more there was a post here a while back about someone who had bought one of the Athearn RTR’s with a 9-pin plug and the huge single bulb in the cab. The way it was wired was causing him decoder problems. But a check of that exact model on the Athearn Web site showed that it was NOT one of the RPP-shell, DCC quick plug equipped locos. ISTR that the conclusion was that it apparently was a dealer modification. I wonder of that’s the same thing you’re dealing with? What’s the road name/road number/stock number so we can cross-reference it on the Athearn site?
I’m sorry too Brakie, but this one does. It is packaged in the newer RTR see through box with the DCC Quick Plug star on it. It is Item number 80178 and clearly labeled SD40-2 (in UP, Humm, maybe that’s the problem [;)]). It does have a DCC plug and I have installed a decoder, which will run it, forward and reverse. It also has the newer plastic handrails installed and (argueably) a better paint job, but it does not have grab-ons, either molded on or otherwise. And, as I’ve said, only the one light which is not wired into the board for directional control but into the electrical pick-ups. It can propally be re-wired onto the spots on the board and that could tie it into the F functions of the decoder…maybe.
I’ve put in a call to Athearn to find out what their read on it is. Maybe it’s a half baked hybrid.
One of the reasons that I have decided to run with DC longer. Cheaper stuff that can be improved to high quality less a decoder with half the trouble and sometimes half the cost of DCC locos.