I have two old athearn sd45’s from the early 90’s that run fine. I would like to know if anyone has attempted to kitbash on of these units into an sd45t2. My question is, if i cut off the nose,cab and subase assembly’s, can I just replace them with cannon and company pieces. Also will a 123 inch nose work on this model or does the frame or shell need to be modified. Any help will be appreciated.
Why bother when Athearn’s already done it?
http://www.athearn.com/Search/Default.aspx?SearchTerm=SD45T-2+RTR&CatID=THLD
Andre
In answer to your question. Because I like to build models, not buy them. thanks for the reply.
Why waste your time? These are old ‘fat body’ Athearn engines. All of the good Cannon parts are for models with the correct narrow body. There is not much in common between a SD45 and a SD45-T2. EMD made the frame longer, & used the new HTC trucks. They should have the standard EMD 81" nose(the ‘snoot’ noses were only on the SD40-T2 and SD40-2 engines(IIRC).
So you need a new frame, new trucks, new body - Hey, Athearn makes a good ‘Tunnel Motor’! Clean up those old engines and ‘flea market’ them at the local trains show.
Jim Bernier
I also like building my stuff, but I think I’ll have to go with the other guys on this one. Converting an old, wide-bodied Athearn into a different engine would be more work than going from scratch. Athearn does offer their new SD45T-2 in a very partially assembled, undecorated form, so it would be kind of like building it yourself. I was looking at a finished one at my LHS yesterday, and it’s a fantastic looking model (much better than early Athearn Genesis).