This locomotive must be pretty good and wasn’t overproduced. The reason I’m saying that is that I still don’t see any auctions on E-Bay for them. I see some buy it now sellors at $70-$80.
Does anyone who has it have an opinion about how good it is?
I have 2 athearn BB GP38-2’s (not RTR 38’s) …they’re ok, I painted and decaled them in UP colors and added a few details…(but since when didn’t an athearn locomotive even RTR need details?) i mostly use them for yard switchers or local freight switching…since they are BB’s the motors are the same as most of the other BB locos…my main line locos are always SD’s or GE C units…guess that didn’t answer your question…chuck
I don’t have an SD38, but I did buy a few Athearn RTR engines recently… The RTRs I bought (an AMD103 and an SD40-2) do have drives that run a bit quieter than the old blue box kits, but I can get the blue box locos to run quietly too with some judicious tuning up.
The SD38 should have the same kind of drive the RTR SD40-2 I bought, so it should be a good runner.
If there is one thing I don’t like about any of the Athearn hood units, it’s the unrealistic cab windows-- They are recessed behind deep pillars whereas the real thing has flush-mounted window glass. That’s why I prefer finding and buying undec blue-box hood units, put in Cannon thinwall cabs, detail and custom paint them myself.
I have about as many athean BB locos as I do anything else and at about $30 I feel they are a good bargain. I’m just wondering if this new SD38 is set up like the RTR SD50 which I feel is worth the extra money (and btw it has scale looking windows that open and close) or is it similar to the SD40-2 in which case I ain’t spending $70.
The overinflated prices of Athearn’s (and most other manufacturers, not to single out Athearn) locomotives is shameful.
If the industry doesn’t do something, there won’t be anyone aged 30 in this hobby in 20 years. There was a time when trainstores were filled with kids who could afford what they saw. Now the stores are filled with guys around 50, and the next potential Generation of Model Railroaders is being lost to video games for less money.
I purchased three of the SD-38’s in B&LE. All three of them run great. Very quiet and excellent low end speeds. The detailing is greatly improved over the BB issued ones and in my eyes is the reason for the upgraded price too.
The BB does not even compare. Everything seemes to have jumped in price over the last year. This upgrade by athearn is a plus to me.
The DCC ready is as advertised. Just plug in a decoder and off you go. I am pleased with these engines.