As I was performing my daily ritual of checking my credit card and bank activity online, I noticed a new charge from Tony’s Trains on my credit card. Since the only thing I have on order from them at the moment is a pair of Santa Fe FP45’s, I’m guessing that they’ll be in the mail to me today or tomorrow. YAAAAAAAAAY!!! [:D]
I’ll post pics of these beauties as soon as they arrive. [:)]
Mine are in at the LTS (got a pair of Warbonnets myself). I can’t wait to get my paws on them.
I don’t know if you saw this discussion on another thread, but appearantly you have to install the fuel tank yourself. Because of the new packaging style the chassis is screwed to a piece of fiberboard.
I heard about that, actually. And I heard that removing the screw(s) is a real pain.
Still, I can’t wait. I placed an order for these almost as soon as they were officially announced. [:)]
I was looking at a listing on eBay that talked about the screws. If I remember correctly they said that you can strip them out really easily if you are not careful. They also said that the the sound is WAY too loud (seems the norm for the Genesis units with sound). They also mentioned that it is fairly easy to bust a lift ring off when removing the fiber board and installing the tank.
Re: the sound… I haven’t been impressed with the sound decoders that Athearn has been using (MRC), so I ordered mine DC, and will pull the decoders (TCS A6X and Soundtraxx DSX) from my old BB versions to install in these.
Thanks for the heads up about the lift rings…I’ll be very careful now when I try to remove the fiberboard.
One of mine arrived from First Hobbies earlier this week. The second from another source due today. They were worth the wait. the removal of the fiberboard is no problem. I used a Phillips, no slip, they came right out. The fuel tank then goes on with one small screw. also had no problem with the lift rings breaking off, as long as you use common sense you shouldn’t have any problem either. I removed the fibreboard with the engine resting in my lap on a towel.
Can’t speak to the sound as I will no longer buy Genesis sound as long as it is that MRC they are presently using, so mine are mute. May install something later that works.
You will like the diesels themselves.
Bob
I didn’t hear anything about a screw or about the sound quality but I did hear that Athearn’s moldmaker engraved the steam generator on the wrong end and that this should, in reality, be called a 54PF.
Tongue-out-of-cheek, Athearn has promised these two units for N-Scale but, unless I have missed something, they are still floating around out there in the model railroad vapor.
Well, for certain it is about time they delivered these. Always nice to actually deliver your first run BEFORE announcing the second. . . .although they’d announced the second run over a week ago. . . .[:O] I am looking forward to my pair of GN F45s, though, (silent, of course).
I heard a rumor that they would have been here earlier this year, but had to send them back to the assembly folks because of a manufacturing problem. Maybe that is what happened?
Got a phone call from Happy Hobo Trains telling me that my unit’s arrived! I’m looking forward to picking it up.
I ordered non-sound, DC. I hope to have DCC/sound installed. Interesting about the horns. On a photo that I have of the 5942, the unit has what appears to be a Leslie RS-5T (5 chimer). But then I also have a photo of the 104 (originally 5991 and got this number again later in the early 70s) showing it with appears to be a Leslie S3-K (3-chimer). In any case there are some good sound samples on websites that I can ask my friend to download, edit, and upload into a Lok Sound or Digitrax sound decoder.
To those of you with one already, how many bells (trumpets) does your horn cluster have?
Happy Hobo Trains? That sounds like The Hen House in North To Alaska!
Yeah, I just read something about them coming out with them in BN. Hopefully I can get my hands on at least one.
Not sure if you knew this or not, but the units came with 5-chime horns for passenger service, and then got 3-chimes when they were shopped after reassignment to freight service. [:)]
And someone posted photos of his unit on another forum today…100 at least comes with a 5-chime.
I did notice one tiny detail Athearn missed…the pilot on the SF units is notched at the upper right and left corners. That didn’t happen on the prototypes until about 1988-89. Oh, well…I can live with one small detail wrong. [:)]
[tup]Arjay,
Thanks a lot for that info! [:D][tup] Had me baffled as I’ve seen photos of the Santa Fe “Big Jacks” in the early 70s with 5 chimers and 3 chimers, but now it makes sense.
R.T. POTEET,
The “Hobo” as we affectionately call it here in Tampa is quite popular as its owner is a knowledgeable model railroader himself. Inspite of the hard competition from discount internet hobby dealers and a surly landlord, Kevin loves this hobby, enjoys helping model railroaders and has stated that he’s going to hang in for the long haul. Very dedicated man who has my respect and admiration. [:)]
I went and picked mine up today, and all I can say is “WOW”!!! They are nice and heavy. They do have a little bit of a “growl”, but I think that will go away with break-in. For those of you that purchased them with sound, I had to knock CV55 down to zero to get the volume down to an acceptable level. I also found (so far) that with my NCE system that I could only get them to consist in the old style. They won’t consist in the advanced consist settings. Not that big of a deal though.
They sure look great heading the Super Chief/El Cap.
As far as removing the base, I turned them upside down on my cradle, and used a #2 phillips to remove the screws.
When I was installing the tank on one of them, I noticed that the drop steps had fallen out of the tank in transit. A dab of ACC should take care of that, but look out for this when removing the fuel tank from the packaging.
I also noticed that the control stand looks a little high in the cab. Is this right, or an oversight by Athearn?
I did notice that they did remember the ATS shoes (at least on the SF version).
All in all, worth every cent. A good FP45 has been a long time coming. Although they don’t fit my era, I had to have a pair. I also hear that Athearn does not have any spares. Don’t know how much there is to that, but get 'em while you can.
Smitty,
Can you tell what type of horn sound she’s equipped with?
Antonio, here are some pics showing the 5 chime horn. I did find a horn on the MRC decoder that sounds close to a 5 chime…
Beautiful.
David B
Wow, that is a beauty!
Thanks, Smitty! (BTW: How ya coming with the metalizing?)
Looking forward to picking up mine soon.[:D]