Check out the ebay item. It is a green and yellow Challenger. I thought Athearn only offered this engine in proper prototype markings. It would not surprise me now to see the Elvis and Earnhart edition next since they both used Challengers for their official train. HA!!
you seen that too. looks weird
Ben
Put “John Deere” on anything and the collectors will buy it! Whatever floats their boat I guess.
Bob Boudreau
I thought the Union Pacific U50 was ugly. I now know a uglier one.
Actually I am tired of John Deere this and Wine that.
I have to agree… put the green, gold and the nametag on anything and some one will buy it.
Makes me wonder if a idiot was raised on the farm instead of born every minute.
TO my knowledge, John Deer is commissioning Athearn to make them for John Deer. So of John wants to pony up, Athearn will make what ever they want
James
very interesting
what disturbs me is the $350 price tag. i just could not pay that much for an engine…unless i had Bill Gates’ money.
I think I saw that in the John Deere store when I was getting my lawn tractor serviced. I don’t think it was $350, though.
That is interesting that John Deere would sell them, but that does make sense if they had them made for their promotion.
Does anyone who is close to a dealer know the price and are they actually selling them? ? Some things like this just set on the shelves. I bet anyone who buys them in green and yellow would think the sound is great also!!
Better yet, maybe Walmart will get these and I can use some for parts.
I had somebody offer me 50 bucks for a John Deere Athearn container car at a show. I would have sold it but my wife bought it for me, she is one of those John Deere collectors.
Someone bought it with 3 seconds left.
Now, don’t everyone go knocking JD! I run a freelanced road with JD equipment! That’s why I freelance. By the way, I ordered a JD Athearn Challenger today for a lot less than $350 from an Online store (got the last one they had!) I think it will go fine with the Deere Valley & Western RR layout I have, especially since I am into big steam. (Even better with the new layout in the planning stages!)
I don’t think we are knocking John Deere. My dad used to own one and I got to drive it. It is surprising that they would offer an upscale Genesis for their train. You usually see the cheap F7 that does not run for an offering like this. I actually would like to see more people get interested in HO railroading and an engine that runs great like the Challenger might get some interest going for model railroading.
B
Just as an aside, I don’t think running John Deere equipment on a ficticious RR is much different than a Hogwarts or Polar express… The rest of my fleet is pretty prototypical for the era (1958-60) and locale (central California).
Bill Gates would want it in his own propietary scale, have Microsoft written all over it, require updates and security patches constantly and have “Blue Smoke of Death” occur at the least opportune times.
[:D][:D][:D]
Kevin
What was the price of the ebay sale??
My dad came across one of those at a flea market a while back, selling for cheap!. however there was only one, and he wanted to buy one for my grandpa who is a John Deere collector and it would be kept in mint condition, under lock and key, yet he wanted to buy one for me because Im the train nut in the family and I would actually use it.
I don’t know how your dad found a Athearn John Deere Challenger at a flea market, since they only very recently came out and in a very limited edition! I think perhaps you have it confused with a different locomotive.
The one on Ebay went for $350.
Yuck! Looks like a fugitive from Thomas the Tank Engine (with a thyroid problem).
Jeff