I am looking for some opinions on Walthers Proto 2000 and Athearn Genesis locomotives. Both are DCC, HO scale. Genesis is a GP9 with Soundtrack Tsunami and the Proto 2000 is a SW1200 with QSI(R) sound. I am back in the hobby after an absence of 20 years and I am new to DCC. What I want to know is if these are reliable locos, will it be money well spent or should I avoid these manufacturers.
Both are typically great locos. I am partial to the Protos, but that's probably only because those are the majority of my locos. You can't go wrong either way.
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
Hi.
Both of these locomotive manufacturers produce fine products with decoders that have good motor control and very good sound (if so equipped). I admit that I have 6 Proto 2000 locomotives with sound as opposed to 1 Genesis. I can recommend both as well as Atlas and the newer Bachmann DCC locomotives (once you replace the included Bachmann decoder). The Bachmann locomotives are less expensive with great motors, however, they have less body detail.
All the best.
Reinhard
Joe F
Hi Woody,
Both the P2k and the Genesis are to a far better standard than the Lifelike and Blue box lumps of 20/25yrs ago. Different tooling, different quality finish (OK you get the odd hiccup) they ain't in same ballpark though, I reckon.
Be in touch.
pick.
Either of these engines should make you a happy modeler. I have a number of Proto engines myself and I can recommend them personally. You'll find that DCC and model quality are two things that have made the hobby a much happier one over the last 20 years.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
While I don't own any Genesis locos, I do have 3 Proto 2000s with DCC and sound. They are great engines and I would not hesitate to purchase more if Walthers produced a model and paint sceme I wanted.
I operate pretty much all Athearn Genesis locomotives with factory equipped DCC & sound and love them! Very reliable, extremely well detailed (very fine detail on some that may not be the best for little fingers if they will be operating trains) with sound that is just fine for my needs. But honestly, either of the two brands you mentioned will serve you well and you can't go wrong with either.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that both engines have failed, and we will be stuck here for some time. The good news is that you decided to take the train and not fly."
You can't go wrong with either engine.
There's a pretty big difference in the sound of the prime mover--I much prefer the Soundtraxx over QSI and own both. You really have to listen to them personally to make that decision. The QSI decoder uses indexed CVs which some find intimidating. But with JMRI, it's no big deal. As far as the quality of the loco itself--Proto2000 is hard to beat and probably slightly better than the Athearn unit--we own both of what you're considering. Again with the sound and other differences it's really best to look at them personally at a good shop that will let you at least run them a couple of feet.
Richard
woodmanI am looking for some opinions on Walthers Proto 2000 and Athearn Genesis locomotives.