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Video: Athearn N scale EMD F45 diesel
I am pleased to see the dcc technology coming in for N scale equipment.
Great video! I wish you guy’s would produce more videos of your layouts there at Model Railroader.
This unit was demonstrated to me at a hobby shop I visited in Omaha and it had outstanding sound quality and mechanically a very smooth running loco.
Hello! I noticed toward the end of the video the engine seemed to wobble side to side a little bit coming across the bridge as if it was pulling to heavy of a load!
Cool!
Is it currently available at our local dealers, and what’s the MSRP?
I like the idea of showing off a new product like this - and to hear the sound capabilities of the engine.
Thank you, Dana for taking the time to make this video!
very stunning!
Do Tsunami DCC Sound locomotives work on MRC Prodigy Express?
I have the Athearn FP-45. Excellent runner…and GREAT sound. Light years ahead of the MRC sound decoders offered in previous sound equipped Athearn locomotives.
I’ve never heard N scale sound before. Impressive. The engine sound at speed wasn’t great, but the bell, whistle, and engine idle certainly were . But I’ll stick to HO, sorry.
I picked up the N-scale Athearn Milw. Rd #2 FP45 at a train show last weekend and ran it all weekend on my display layout. I use a Bachmann Dynamis DCC system and the FP45 performed flawlessly. My display was next to the dealer who sold it to me so he was happy to be able to send people over to see/hear it in action. Sound is fantastic. Pulling power was very good–I had 29 various freight cars (10 were Microtrains 50’ gondolas with full homemade pulp loads–so they were heavy!) plus a caboose pulled by the one engine before there was any slippage. The layout is flat (no gradients) but has very sharp curves (it’s for display and running and has to fit in my Jeep), so I was impressed. Score one for Athearn and Tsunami. Great job! Highly recommend this one.
Does MR have a project layout series coming on the layout in the video??
It’s great to have good sound systems on locomotives that perforom outstandingly. Plus the road names being manufacured are names that match the paint schemes for the roads that they serviced. Well Done
I have been modeling American N Scale since 1970 and the products that are available today makes the decision to stay with N the right one.
Well done to Athearn for producing such an outstanding product.
Pretty impressive sound from an N scale unit! However, Athearn needs some better quality control on the axle centering. If you watch carefully, you’ll notice quite a bit of wobble from the locomotive, especially in the head on view at the end of the video. I don’t believe this is from the trackwork because the covered hoppers following the locomotive have no visible wobble. Hopefully this was just an early production issue.
Dear MR:
Whose layout was the F-45 running on? We N-Scalers want to know. A new N-Scale railroad in the world is always an inspiration to learn about. More video and pictures, and a track plan please even if it’s only a module.
The diesel unit sounds great but looks “light” and worse, it wobbles.
Great looking layout though…beautiful scenery and trackwork.
I would like to se more layout videos also.
Wow, I expect the amazing detail, but the sound quality is amazing!
I have a FP-45, it is simply stunning. Pulls really well, looks great, sounds good and no wobble on my loco!
Hi Wesley, Ray, and others,
The Athearn locomotive in the video is running on our brand-new project layout, which was just finished a few weeks ago. The layout has a backdrop divider running down its spine, so you are only seeing one side of the layout on the video. A series of stories about building this layout will be in Model Railroader starting with the January 2010 issue, so stay tuned.
Neil Besougloff
MR editor