Please tell me about the Athearn Genesis MP15AC

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Im up for a new switcher and was going to go with Atlas but ive ben looking around for information on the Genesis MP15AC, Ive also used the search function so as not to be lazy!

I hear they use MRC sound but i thought MRC sound was abit bad. Ive also heard from some people that the sound in these switchers is prety good???

What are your thoughts please guys? Should i go for sound or non sound? I dont want another lemon.[;)]

2

I can’t comment on the sound but I do own 3 non sound ones now. Performance wise they are great, they crawl at a very very slow speed and have no problems pulling 10 cars up a 2% grade, they will probably pull a few more. Decoder installation is very simple, all you do is remove the coupler pockets and the shell will come off but watch the wires inside. You have a choice of using a 8 pin or 9 pin decoder, don’t do what I did on 2 of mine, I used a 8 pin plug in decoder and now I’m fighting to get the beacon to flash. If you do use a 8 pin decoder don’t forget to unplug the 9 pin board that is there. There is no need to add resistors to the lights either. Sound is kind of a personal choice so your going to have to decide yourself. So far I’m very happy and I would say these are the best Athearn Genesis loco’s I own so I wouldn’t call them lemons.

3

The sound is pretty good…but it is an MRC decoder. It sounds good, but for how long?

David B

4

Thankyou for the replys. Im thinking about getting a non sound one and maybe installing a Loksound decoder sometime later. I know a freind thats also got an Atlas MP15DC so i may try and get a look at that also.

Thanks again[:)]

5

David, when is QSI going to start offering diesel sound decoders? I’ve seen the Lok-sound ones, but man $125 is awfully steep. Its cheaper to buy an engine with sound than to add their decoders. (I’m speaking diesel only here).

6

I just got done test running my new MP 15 I picked up this afternoon at my LHS.

  1. for $184 I couldn’t pass it up (shhhh - the Mrs dosn’t know about it yet!!)

  2. sound is good at factory settings, but too loud - I’ll lower it later.

  3. there appears to be 16 horn types, 6 bell types & 50 bell ring rates, and seperate volume controls for all of the sounds.

  4. running with the sound off it’s very quiet and smooth running.

I’ll post an update in a few days when I get done “playing” with it!![:D]