I'm seeking one or two Santa Fe pinstripe SD-45s. Kato, Proto2000, Athearn, Bachmann? I see the Bachmann viewed with grudgingly minor approval, Athearn is the old Rail Power Shell (?) and I've divested most of my Athearns for Proto (PAs, E8s and GP7s), Atlas (S2s, GP9s), and vintage Walthers H10-44. Leaning toward Kato or Proto2000. Don't need sound or DCC. Ideas?
Speaking of my limited experience, I have 4 Kato SD45's, non of which came with sound, and DCC was "ready", just pull the plugs from DC, and plug in the DCC decoder, and add address. I am completely satisfied with the DCC results.
I use Digitrax, and the only problem I had was with a decoder that they no longer offer, I had to do some minor milling with a Dremel, to get things to sit correctly.
I also have five Athearn BB SD45's, and they run perfect on DC, so they will get converted to DCC.
I do not have any P2K SD45's.
Mike.
My You Tube
I will recommend the Kato SD45 because I've seen these engines in action and they are very smooth runners.
Not to mention I am extremely pleased with my Atlas/Kato engines and my Kato GP35.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
I don't have any KATO SD45s,but I do have GP35s and if they are any indication I think I would go with the KATO.
I do have a Bachmann SD45 and I don't care what other folks say I like the way mine runs,it's smooth and quiet and a great puller.
As for the Athearn,yes it is the old Rail Power shell but Athearn has worked their magic on it.The only Athearn SD45 I own is one of the chubby ones.It is a great runner and puller.
If you can get KATO SD45S in ATSF pinstripe or can paint your own KATO then go that way.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I have 2 Kato's and they are great, quiet, smooth running machines.
TomO
I can't speak for the Atlas SD45's because I don't own any, but I do have two Atlas C424's and an S2 (S2 is yellow a box release), as well as a pair of GP7's, Atlas yellow box. All very smooth runners and great pullers. You pretty much can't go wrong with either Atlas or Kato; many of the Atlas, especially the yellow box releases, have Kato drives in them.
I do have a pair of Athearn R-T-R SD45's though and they are very quiet runners and very smooth.
E-L man tom I can't speak for the Atlas SD45's because I don't own any, but I do have two Atlas C424's and an S2 (S2 is yellow a box release), as well as a pair of GP7's, Atlas yellow box. All very smooth runners and great pullers. You pretty much can't go wrong with either Atlas or Kato; many of the Atlas, especially the yellow box releases, have Kato drives in them.
I've never seen an HO Atlas SD45. AFAIK, HO SD45's have only been made by Bachamann (Plus & Spectrum), Athearn (BB & RTR line), Proto 2000 and KATO. Rail Power Products made SD45 shells in the 1990's but Athearn aquired the tooling and incorporated an upgraded shell into their RTR SD45 line.
So far the Athearn RTR SD45's that I have run have been smooth and quiet - I've got a bunch. They sure seem almost on-par with KATO's which is pretty good. Athearn RTR line are based on upgraded Rail Power Products (RPP) tooling which were originally pretty crude. Athearn basically re-vised the cab, nose/pilot and roof of the RPP tooling and has been offering RTR SD45's with quite a bit of prototype detailing. The SP SD45's have truck side frames generally matching early low brake cylinder or high mount brake cylinders, SP full light packge on the nose (and rear) as appropriate, separate grab irons, snow plow, coupler lift bars, MU hoses, cab roof details etc. About the only thing that is still a detractor is the long hood still has the old RPP hing and door detailing which is a bit crude. On my D&RGW RTR SD45's with the black paint, that detail isn't that easy to see. The D&RGW SD45's also have some nice prototypical details including the low nose signal (Mars) light, plow, MU hoses, coupler lift bars, appropriate truck side frames, and nice paint. The UP versions I have have 3 brake cylinders per truck, matching the prototype and other details.
There is a discussion on TrainOrders a few years back comparing the HO SD45 brands Pro's and Con's. Non-members should still be able to read the info on Page 1 which is pretty much everything said.
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?3,1844085
I have a couple of Bachmann Spectrum SD-45s and I am very satisfied with them.
They are very quiet smooth runners that don't back away from any load I have for them to pull.
I would certainly recommend them. But, I am not a rivet counter.
Johnboy out.......................
from Saskatchewan, in the Great White North..
We have met the enemy, and he is us............ (Pogo)
I don't count rivit's but I do like the prototypical details that really say "SP" or "D&RGW". Athearn has put on the signature light packages of SP and D&RGW RTR SD45's which strongly identify with those railroads.
As always, YMMV, and it depends on the RR you are interestd in. Bachmann may be good good matches to some railroads. If Bachmann is under consideration, their latter day Spectrum were improved a great deal over the early Plus models, forgetting about rivits, the truck site frames were very one dimensional and didn't look very good, and the winshields look too small. Those issues and a few others were greatly improved on when Bman took their SD45's to the Spectrum line. Unfortunately they never did the light packages or plows, but Athearn did and considering they are in the RTR line, they look almost like brass models and run almost as good as KATO's.
Athearn Makes SD45's and SD45-2s, the SD45's are RTR, the SD45-2's are Genesis
they come with either DCC Ready/DCC Sound options.
Kato's are great, quiet, smooth running yet a bit expensive, Athaerns have good ones in this model too