Does anyone have or have had experience with the new Athearn Genesis HO SD70MACs? I saw one at the LHS a few days ago and it really caught my eye! So, how do they run? Do the light bulbs burn out after an hour of running? I have one of the older Genesis SD70Ms, and it’s a nice locomotive, but the gears are cracked and one of the headlights burned out after about an hour of running. I hope they fixed these problems with the 70MACs. And lastly, do they come with the ditch lights installed!? If not, I hope they’re atleast easiar to install than the ones that came with my 70M (many painful hours, only to have them both break![:(!][B)])!
They are nice looking models without details on the front or rear pilot. Most run well, not super, but good. A few have derailing problems due to the trucks not being square and the wheels do not all touch at the same time. This can be corrected by working with the trucks, but if you feel like I do, they should all be correct from the factory.
The bulbs will burn out like any bulb, but they usually last for quite a while in normal use.
A nice model that needs refining is my opinion, but I am sure some will say they are great out of the box, and some are.
I purchased a bunch of them when they first came out and detailed most of them. They look nice, but the running quality is questionable if you use Kato and Atlas.
I have two of the SD70MAC’s. These are great models. The two problems that I know about are how the light bulbs burn out really fast and aome from the first run had warped trucks. Mine are perfect. The bulbs have not burnt out yet and they didnt have warped trucks. The ditch lights do come installed.
Same with mine (I have two of them). They run really Kato-like once they´ve broken in (I ran them for ~ 7 hours on our club layout, after that, they were head-on with our Katos), light bulbs are still OK, the only downside is that you need to apply some DW parts on the pilots.
Well, I suppose if Atlas made an SD70MAC, I’d get it. But they don’t, so it’s either Kato or Athearn. The Kato’s are getting scarce, but there’s plenty of the Athearns around.
Chuck,My friend please tell me you didn’t say that…[;)] You know that Atlas gets bash just like all brands over on the Atlas forum…Even I have mention the problem with 4 of my Atlas GP38s and the other minor problems I have had with my Atlas engines on this forum.[:0]
Maybe you don’t swing by the Atlas forum as often as you use to?[:D]
What kind of problems did your GP38 have? Were they minor ones? Does the 8-40B have the same problems? Just want to know because I want one of those 8-40Bs really bad.[:)] It’s on the Christmas list I started two days ago.[:D][:D][:D]
Please Atlas, don’t, so guys like me don’t have to change our time periods we model to keep up with the manufacturing, or have to resort to inferior models. With my time period, I have room for one or two. So we don’t need 3 manufacturers producing SD70MAC’s. As for the SD40-2, well…Atlas, you awake?
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I had 4 of the DCC/Lightboards to burn out…I am still baffle why that would happen to these units at the same time.They was running on the club’s DC layout when this happen.The decoders in these units was never changed over from DC to DCC operation…A check of the block showed nothing wrong with the club’s wiring.I have had some other minor and easy fix things to go wrong with my Atlas units but,nothing major like those light boards.BTW my other 4 GP38s never had this problem so,I hope you get that 8-40B…[:D]
I have an Atlas GP38 (BN), an Atlas 8-40B (SF/BNSF patch) and an Atlas 8-40BW (SF) - all are superb models and I have had no problems at all with them.
Keep that 8-40B on your Xmas list - I hope you get it !
I also hope I get it. I’ve heard nothing but good things about the new Atlas diesels. I want it in Conrail or SF blue and yellow.[:D][:D][:D]
Where did Xmas come from? Some politically correct guy who decided “someone would be offended because the name of Christ was in there”? (I’m not really mad or anything, just confused. after all, Christmas is to celabrate the birth of Jesus [:D])
I almost picked up a BNSF SD70Mac this weekend, but thought better of it since my layout isn’t big enough to handle one of those. I maybe should have, but I’ll be happy with my UP GP38-2 that I got instead.
I too have an Atlas 8-40B on my wish list. As a matter of fact after my next paycheck I might just have one for my collection.
None of my Atlas locos have had any problems nor have my Proto 2000. The Athearn’s don’t get much running as that sounds they make annoy the crap out of me. Nothing wrong, just that buzzing gets to me after about 10 minutes.
I have no complaints with my Genesis SD70MAC’s. Great paint, good tooling, smooth running–it makes me fell like a modeler again to add the few detail parts needed for the pilots (In the same way a pickup truck makes us suburbanites feel like a down home farmer).
Darth and Jim–I prefer Christmas over Xmas too, but, if I remember correctly, the X (chi) was the Roman symbol for Chist–thus the shorthand Xmas. I either read or heard this a few years ago, so my memory may not be 100% correct.
OH YEAH!!! Those things rock! Except when you have to install the ditch lights and handrails, etc. Otherwise, they ARE the best Athearn product. My SD70MAC, SD70M and 2 SD75Is from Athearn Genesis run smooth and are neat-o. My SD70MAC is a BN in the executive paint. The 2 SD75Is are warbonnet Santa Fe and BNSFs. My SD70M is the UP “Building America” with the flag. They all rock! They can also pull quite a consist!I know what you mean about the ditch lights though, my SD75Is run without ditch lights[xx(]. Athearn is a pain, because Athearn RTR is their only models that are already built.[8][8D]
I have had problems with both Athearn Genesis and RTR locomotives, and am becoming gun-shy about purchasing anything more from them.
I have four Genesis SD70 models. On one, the rear truck continually derails because the side frames warped outward, which allows the axles to drop out of the truck. Another one somehow twisted off a drive shaft. Athearn does not have parts for either problem.
My most recent purchase was an Athearn RTR SD45T-2 tunnel motor. The boobs at the factory sprayed such a thick coating of lacquer onto the rear truck’s electrical pickups that it was electrically dead, and had to be disassembled and have the lacquer filed off in order to get the locomotive to run at all.
Athearn doesn’t have replacement parts for these, either, so you have to cobble your own fix or return the locomotive and do without.
In my opinion, Athearn quality control has really gone to pot.