I lkie the Athearn Genesis F2's, F3's, and F7's. Excellent pullers and very smooth running.
Perefect for any transition era railroad!
What to say? Thanks for all your replies: I really appreciate your help about all these informations....
Another "ditto" on the general recommendation. I have a couple Athearn Genesis F9 A/B sets (Milwaukee Road, not Santa Fe), and yes both A and B are powered, and although I'm near the bottom of the expertise ladder they look extremely accurate to me and run very well.
Bella Napoli!
Dean
Hi!
I'm a certified ATSF "nut" and have been so since the '50s. Its a popular road to model and the MR industry has given us a lot of locos to choose from - but of course we always want more.
The F9 was not a mainstay of the ATSF, for they only had 36 units in 9 LABC consists (#s 281 - 289), all were built in 1956. While they had the cigar band scheme at first, those that survived got the "yellow jacket" paint scheme later on.
As with the prototype, my "F" roster is mainly FTs, F7s, and F3s. These were relatively common, and their numbers were as follows:
The FT consisted of 155 cab units and 165 boosters. Forty of these units were painted/geared for passenger service. All were build between 1940-1945.
The F3 consisted of 92 units, built between 1946-1949. All were passenger except for two LABC consists painted/geared for freight.
The F7 consisted of 462 units, all built between 1949-1953. Of the total, 79 LABC consists were in the freight scheme, the remainder in the passenger scheme.
All of my F units are Stewarts, with either the Kato or Stewart drives. These are out of production but do come up on Ebay quite often. They are terrific runners, but detail is sparse. The good news is you can add details as you want, and I have gone with the American Limited diagphrams (spell?) and of course the special KD couplers. For the money, IMHO these are an excellent value.
Athearn Genesis and other higher end mfgs also make the F units, and from what I have read/heard, they are all pretty good.
By the way, if you are really into the Santa Fe, I urge you to join the ATSF modeling and historical society.
ENJOY,
Mobilman44
PS: The above data came from Dr. Cynthia Priest's "The Santa Fe Diesel".
ENJOY !
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
ETR:
Like WPAllen, I do not model the Santa Fe, but on the subject of the Genesis F-units, I can say that I have a powered F-3 A/B set lettered for Rio Grande (straight DC, no sound) and I am extremely happy with them. They're smooth running throughout the speed range, quite powerful haulers and extremely quiet. The painting is crisp and clear, the added details are very nice.
I model Rio Grande steam, so these are the only diesels I have on my layout, but I have had no problems with them in the two years they've been running on my layout.
So I would say that you'll probably be satisfied with your Santa Fe units--Genesis seems to be quite accurate with their paint schemes, as far as I have seen.
Here's a photo of my set with my "Prospector" streamliner. Hopefully it will give you an idea of their attention to detail.
Tom
Tom View my layout photos! http://s299.photobucket.com/albums/mm310/TWhite-014/Rio%20Grande%20Yuba%20River%20Sub One can NEVER have too many Articulateds!
WPAllen,
really, I say Thank You for your kindness.
"Are these the so-called "Modernized" Athearn F units? Moreover, does anyone know how accurate is this Genesis F9 A/B Santa Fe Cigar? And, finally, how does it perform? Are A / B units BOTH powered?"
To Athearn modernized generally means the units have been deskirted and grab irons added. Generally Athearn does pretty good on their research so I would think they are pretty accurate as far as they go detail wise but as you stated over time Athearn keeps adding details. I don't model the Santa Fe so someone else will have to answer that portion. I'm not aware of Athearn ever making a dummy Genesis unit so I would say they are both powered. I have a few Athearn Genesis Western Pacific F-7 units and they perform quite well.
Any reply....?
Hello....
I'm looking to buy the above mentioned Genesis model, announced in March 2008, after having considered for a long time other manufacturers' F series' proposals. Now, I've seen that, in the last two or three years, Athearn Genesis F locomotives have been updated and "improved", with respect to the comparison with pre-2007 models, through adding several more details, such as eyebrow grabs, nose side ladder grabs, sunshades, de-skirting et cetera. Are these the so-called "Modernized" Athearn F units? Moreover, does anyone know how accurate is this Genesis F9 A/B Santa Fe Cigar? And, finally, how does it perform? Are A / B units BOTH powered? Consider that I'm interested in NO sound ones, such as items n.G22082 or G22081, so, from my point of view, sound quality doesn't matter (for now.....)
Really.....many, many thanks for your kindness and helping.