Maybe I’m out of the loop, but did anyone else catch that little zinger that Athearn let loose in today’s online newsletter? An SD38? My, my, that sounds vewwwwy interesting!
Yes it does???
If it’s good enough, it’ll be good competition for Kato.
SD 38 in the RTR series? Heck, Ill take 2 for one Kato
It will be the old Railpower shell and frame (upgraded?) and the new Athearn drive components. Not really competition with Kato’s SD38-2 - different loco, different roads.
They did a nice job bringing the RPP GP60M/B, GP35 & CF7 up to speed…I expect the SD38 to be no less attractive.
I suspect the Athearn SD38-2 will out sell the Kato SD38-2 just by price alone…Have you actually seen or ran the newer RTR Athearn engines?The CF7,GP35, SD45T-2,SD50/60 and GP60M will match Atlas and Kato as far as smooth running regardless of what the Athearn bashers say.Heck,even the newer BB RTR is smooth.
Kato got bit this time.Perhaps Kato should get serious about the HO market?
I also hope it will be in the same league as their CF7 and GP35 unlike the RTR GP38-2 and SD40-2 which in my opinion were minor cosmetic upgrades and somewhat disappointing overall for the additional cost over their blue box cousins. Even Bachmann has directional lighting now-a-days. I was saddened when my RTR SD40-2 arrived and I saw that great big light bulb in the cab.
Bob DeWoody
I actually have an Kato SD-38-2 in UP trim sitting on a UPS truck somewhere. Hopefully will get here this week, I didn’t find the price to be that bad.