Athearn Genesis GP38-2W - CN Version


K

kz9

Member
Ok so it old news to some but its new to me about the new geeps.

I want to know if anyone has reviewed them and how close to the real deal they are. To me they look very good. I know that there was some flaws with the IM SD40-2W's, mostly with the strips.

I would just like to get a discussion going about these because I am interested in getting a couple of them and I also may pick up a couple of the IM SD40-2W's .
 
kz9 said:
Ok so it old news to some but its new to me about the new geeps.

I want to know if anyone has reviewed them and how close to the real deal they are. To me they look very good. I know that there was some flaws with the IM SD40-2W's, mostly with the strips.

I would just like to get a discussion going about these because I am interested in getting a couple of them and I also may pick up a couple of the IM SD40-2W's .
Click to expand...

4769 & 4809 just came in yesterday. Only had time to unpack one of them so far. I'm no rivet counter and can't tell you if any of the minute proportions are incorrect, but the level of detail and quality of build looks excellent at first inspection. Level of detail is higher than I've seen on any Genesis model prior and is approaching that of Rapido. Paint seems to be very good and accurate, striping is where it's supposed to be from what I can tell. See through fan grilles, with stainless-colored fan blades. They got the correct style of ditch lights. Lighting is reasonably bright, even in ditch lights. It won't blind you, but it's better than what IM has on their SD40-2Ws. Note, that like all Athearn models - these still use bulbs. There's a bit of light glow through the plastic around the headlight when it's on. Reverse light has no such problem. Sound is excellent as well. Decent amount of bass, sound is clear. I believe they're using a newly released Soundtraxx 645E-specific decoder for this model with new recordings. Smooth runner. Creeps a little fast at 1/128th out of the box, but that can be fixed with CVs (haven't gotten to it last night). Haven't tested its pulling power yet, but seems sufficiently hefty for a small loco that is meant for switching and local pulling duty.

All in all - I'm pretty happy with it! I'm sure someone will find a flaw or two before long, but I I'm very happy with the model and its quality after one night of playing with it.
 
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