Packer,
You should try Standard Hobby and Trainworld. They seem to have both good inventory and good prices on Athearn and from what I can tell, carry all roadnames with no prejudice.
And my LHS has always ordered anything I wanted at fair prices.
Sheldon
Ebay. The LHS don't really do western or northern roads.
Vincent
Wants: 1. high-quality, sound equipped, SD40-2s, C636s, C30-7s, and F-units in BN. As for ones that don't cost an arm and a leg, that's out of the question....
2. An end to the limited-production and other crap that makes models harder to get and more expensive.
PackerWonder if they'll be as hard to come across as previous genesis F-units?
Where do you shop? I have never had any trouble getting the Genesis F-units I wanted.
Wonder if they'll be as hard to come across as previous genesis F-units?
I'd like to see a BN version.
Athearn-Genesis is doing the Reading units first as a sort of a test run to work the bugs out of the design. Look for them to do the full line up of railroads that owned the FP7 in the coming years.
Hey, S.P.
I guess if you didn't read the first post that Athearn IS going to do the FP-7A and hadn't heard THAT news maybe you haven't heard that Uncle Irv won't be slipping much by any of us!
Roger
I had been planning on getting a WP FP7A from Intermountain and missed the first run. Now that Athearn Genesis is offering the FP7A, I may just go ahead and wait for Athearn to offer WP. That was the only case I expected to buy an Intermountain diesel.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Athearn is planning some western roads soon. S.P. had 16 of these in their inventory an W.P. had 4.
The offical announcement was is the Athearn News e-mail this morning, but so far just the 6 Reading pieces.
Well I'll be dogone. Ol Irv slipped one by me. I had looked on the new products page at Athearn and the FP7's weren't there.
Thanks for the photo and the info.
I'm not sure, but I think A Line might have the Front Range GPs. They have entire FR shells with detail sets listed on their website. http://ppw-aline.com/bdfrgp7.htm
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My bad, I guess I meant Trains Unlimited (hey, it was close!).
Paul A. Cutler III*******************Weather Or No Go New Haven*******************
The Front Range GP did not go to Train-Minatures. ( I believe they may have already been out at that time). I was at the auction when Front Range was sold off, specifically for the GP. Unfortunately in all the turmoil, the tooling was no longer complete.The cab or parts of were missing as were the guts for the gear boxes. An outfit called Trains unlimited bought what was available and scrounged together some units to sell, I suppose by buying parts from Athearn or somebody. They did have enough to sell some complete units as I have one. They sold chassis and seperately, the body kit - factory painted and lettered. At the end, I think they only sold bodies.
Paul3I think the Front Range GP9 tooling went to Train Miniatures...and who knows where after that.
If it went to Train Miniatures, Walthers has it now, that's where the TM line went.
Mr. SP,Um, actually Athearn is coming out with an FP7. There were pictures recently shown on the Atlas Forum. In fact, here's a pic of the new unit at the Athearn display booth at the WGH San Antonio train show in February:http://forum.atlasrr.com/forum/data/drolsen/2009222165721_AthearnFP7.jpg
The thread is here:http://forum.atlasrr.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=52002
aloco,I think the Front Range GP9 tooling went to Train Miniatures...and who knows where after that.
Well, I just bought two Intermountain FP7's undecorated and waited a long time to get the undecorated versions - I like the Highliner/Athearn F units, but it is unlikely an undecorated version of the this new loco will be forthcoming soon - so minor inacurracies or not, the Intermountains will do fine.
I do agree with Paul that the Highliner F is the best F shell ever, but I have seen no real difference in the performance of the drives between Athearn Genesis, Intermountain or the new Proto2000.
For me Athearn is a first choice brand if they have what I need, I consider most of their products to be excelent values. But as a free lance modeler it is important to be able to get unlettered/undecorated models.
RDG1519I would actualy like to see an SW 1001 or a new GP 7 or GP 9.
I would actualy like to see an SW 1001 or a new GP 7 or GP 9.
That got me to thinking... whatever happened to the dies for the Front Range GP9 shells? They had excellent detail, scale width hoods, and they were designed to fit on an Athearn chassis.
Some of the revamped locos in Athearn RTR line and the Genesis F-units use shells that were designed by other manufacturers (e.g. Rail Power Products and Highliner). This is a great way of cutting production costs and bringing finely detailed locos to market. If Athearn got hold of the Front Range GP9 dies, they could offer an awesome looking Geep.
Mr.SP,
If you go to Athearn website, search for RDG you will see the Reading FP7A's show up. There is at least one road, RDG, that will be available. I will probably get one to support Athearn's Reading effort. That will make 5 for me. I might also paint one in SEPTA "circus" colors (ex Reading).
Chris
I would be concerned about the sound units, since they use MRC decoders. The MRC decoders have a very poor service record, and frequently die within days of purchase.
Maybe, just maybe, MRC will have resolved their quality issues by the time this engine comes out. I'd like to hope so, but until the frequent posts about dead-on-arrival decoders go away, I'm not buying a sound-equipped Athearn engine.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Athearn dosen't make a FP7a. The Athearn F unit is a F7A and F7b. The FP7 was made years ago by Atlas and presently Intermountain is making FP7's. The FP7a is about five feet longer than a F7a. The Intermountain FP7 is an excellent model. The Athearn Genisis F unit series are also a big improvement over the Blue Box body.
The Atlas FP7 is "squinty" and has several other dimensional flaws. Since it was introduced around 30 years ago, that's not unusual for the era. Comparing the new Genesis FP7 shell to the Atlas FP7 shell is like comparing the Athearn GP9 shell to the P2K GP9 shell.
The IM FP7, while much better than the Atlas, has it's own issues in accuracy. Not that it's bad and the flaws are minor, but there is a better shell on the market. That shell is the Genesis.
The Athearn Genesis F-unit is, according to sources, the most accurate model of an F-unit in any medium in HO scale. The new FP7 is actually a factory chop job of Genesis shell parts, so it should be the most accurate (and best looking) FP7 ever made. If one cares about accurate models and one likes FP7's, then the Genesis model is something to get excited about.
If it's anything like their Genesis/Highliner F units, and with all the new details they've been adding recently, it should be the best we've seen outside of brass. I just hope they'll make it in more than one railroad (RDG is all that's showing up so far).
I was on the Athearn website looking at Reading items and noticed a run of sound equipped and non sound equipped FP7A's. Introduced 3-23 and expected November.They do not show on new products or HO scale products yet. I guess we will see them first on an e mail. I have mixed feelings about these. Not because Athearn doesn't make a quality product, they do. I have two ATLAS FP7A's and two Intermountain FP7A's I do not need another FP7A. It's a little like trying to get excited about another Pennsy K4 Pacific. Having said this many of you may find this exciting. I would actualy like to see an SW 1001 or a new GP 7 or GP 9.