Athearn has announced a 4th run of SD50’s in D&RGW. The punch line is no gyra light upgrade - they emailed me that tooling costs are too expensive even tho they do have a correct nose from the tunnel motors.
I sent one additional email to Athearn after they responded - thats probably about it for now. We email them our feelings and then vote with our wallets, my wallet says no. BTW, there is the email address I sent to: “Athearn Help” <help@athearn.com> Perhaps if they get an overwhelming response about the gyra light, maybe they will reconsider.
Dear Athearn, thank you for your response,
I would like Athearn to consider that I am willing to pay a higher price for the SD50 to get a correct nose gyra light. During the past several years, HO modelers have become accustomed to HO diesels and other rolling stock, which has a much higher degree of fidelity to the real thing. Consquently, people like me are now expecting this as the new standard. When such models as the SD50 are not upgraded to the same degree as Athearn’s SW1000, SW1500, SD45, SD45T-2, SD40T-2, etc. then we are not willing to continue purchasing models which do not meet this standard. The SD50 is now falling below the above models if it is not upgraded in significant ways. Bottom line is - no sale for many of us.
I’d hate to see Athearn produce 4 road numbers and have them potentially not sell well due to the above changes in modeler expectations, and then Athearn refuse to produce more on the basis that “demand has evaporated” when its not lack of demand but lack of an upgraded product.
I purchased SD50’s from the first two runs but that was prior to the raising of the bar by Athearn with many of t