I was looking at the Atlas MP15s on its website. I noticed that they do not have the numberboard above the cab or the five lights on the SP model. For $135, they should have got that right.
I totally agree with you. How could SP have made an error like that? [;)]
From the angle of the photo from Atlas, you can’t tell wheter or not it has the 5 lights - Easy to add I’m sure. As for the number boards, maybe they are supplied as “customer applied” detail parts like the Proto 2000 engines. Otherwise, again, I’m sure it’s easy to add them.
Buy one off eBay and add the parts you need - I’m sure it will still cost less than $135.00 when all is said and done.
Guys,According to Atlas these units come with detail parts…Perhaps the number board is in the parts bag?
Waitaminute… You actually expect Atlas to put an SP light package on a mass produced plastic loco? BWAHAHAHAHA! That’s a funny one. That’d be like me complaining that P1K, P2K, Atlas, or Athearn didn’t put Hancock Air Whistles on my NH models.
You want an accurate SP model with an SP light package? Better try Overland (and it’s gonna cost you about 5 or 6 times more than $135)…
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven
Paul,Seems to me Athearn’s SP SW1500 had the number boxes in the parts bag for far less then $135.00 or as you say 5 or 6 times that for brass.
A lot of Athearns were built as SP prototypes and then they tried to pawn those off as right for the 99% of the other roads that didn’t decorate their locos like Christmas trees. A lot easier to spend a few bucks for detail parts and ADD them rather than try to take things off that don’t belong. Sorry if I offend any SP modelers but the SP did some wacky things that no other railroad did, and making an SP-specific model for a mass market is a pretty silly idea, especally with the trend towards more accurate models these days.
And the entire point may be moot - does anyone have one of thses? Are the number boards supplied in the customer-applied details package? Bet they are.
–Randy
Randy,I don’t recall seeing Athearns SP SW1500 in anything other then SP…As you know Athearn also did the more popular “standard” SW1500-but,add those bloody flexicoil trucks instead of the correct roller bearing trucks.
Brakie,
Athearn was the West Coast version of Bowser/Penn Line by modeling several Western prototypes that ran by their factory in CA at the expense of Eastern models (just like Bowser/Penn Line makes quite a bit of the PRR steam roster).
But to expect Atlas to put a SP light package on an MP15 is just as ridiculous as expecting P2K to put Hancock Air Whistles, running board mounted water tanks, and modified handrails to match NH-only prototype GP9’s. Or for Atlas to put the H16-44 battery boxes on the other end of the loco from the cab as done only on the NH.
Is it disappointing when they don’t? Of course. But to say they “should” have got that right for $135 is pushing the realm of reality.
Paul A. Cutler III
Weather Or No Go New Haven
No, it is not rediculous to expect Atlas to get it right. Is not Atlas the much vaunted prototypical company? Perhaps I have an incorrect impression of Altas, but that is the impression I get of it. Yet they do not get MAJOR details right on their SP MP15, which costs $135 and no doubt is made in place where production costs are pretty low. Yet, Athearn, which is constantly berated for putting out a bunch of unprototypical junk, does produce an SP version and a standard version of its SW1500 for about a third of the price where production costs are higher. And the SP details were not in a part bag. They are part of the locomotive. So, yes I do think it is reasonable to expect Atlas to get it right.
You can tell from the side if the numberboard is on the lcocomotive. And that MP15 does not have it. Putting it on will require cutting off part of the roof. Imagine how much work installing all of the lights will be.