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I agree. I really want to regard Athearn as the best budget buy, but in my view they're not - Proto units can be picked up for not much more than a BB kit, Walthers and Bachmann have some specific units that are as good a runner as the best Athearn BB locos (and are equally good bases for a project) but are a lot cheaper. They were heading in the right direction with the most recent batch of BB SD40-2s and SD40T-2s - they fitted single-piece driveshafts to these which really calm down the growling - I have one of each and both are as quiet and smooth as Proto units. The SD40-2 also had decent coupler mountings - a box that takes Kadee #28s as a straight drop-in fit. Having to hunt down weird and wonderful couplers becomes a real pain with BB units after a while, as does having to drill and tap coupler pockets to use anything other than E Z Mates (still not managed to get hold of a Kadee drill/tap set). The motors are also very variable in build quality - it's obviously possible to get hold of good can motors cheaply (witness Bachmann's GP40s - the motors on these are very smooth reliable units straight from the box), so why Athearn haven't followed this route is beyond me. If they were to fix the coupler mountings (even better, upgrade everything in the same way as the SD40-2 - full pilots and coupler boxes that slide in after the chassis is installed), put better motors in, and the one-piece driveshafts from the latest locos (I know the RTR GP60M has them, suspect the other RTRs do as well) they would have a winning product. They have a superb business/marketing asset in their history and the long-lasting running of their locos, and could easily offer locos with these improvements for much the same as they currently charge. Sad to say, unless a specific loco comes up that I'm after (short list - EMD Demo SD45 and maybe an FP45 or two) I'm unlikely to buy any more Athearn BBs. Compared to the prices you can find superior competitors for they just don't have the budget appeal now. My first Athearn loco was an SD9 that I paid £30 for - I can now get Proto units for just a little more in the same store.
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