This review is on Athearn's Ready-To-Roll Gas Turbine, with the fuel tender included.
According to everyone's favorite Wikipedia (because I'm too lazy to search for a more credible source), the 10 first generation turbines were built for the UP starting in 1952. They had what was then a very impressive 4,500HP (pretty average these days), and their massive turbine engines earned them the nickname of "Big Blows", due to the huge noise they made. They used about twice as much fuel per horsepower as a diesel engine, but the use of what was then the very cheap Bunker C fuel oil made up for the cost. The fuel tenders were added in 1955 after successful testing with the Veranda Turbines. Soot buildup and blade erosion were common maintenance problems throughout the life of the Turbines, and the rising cost of Bunker C in the 70s made it pointless to use them anymore. The B+B-B+B chassis were reused on the U50B diesel, and I believe the C-855 as well. None of the first or second generation Turbines are left in existence, and only 2 examples of the third generation Turbines are left. I saw the one up in northern Illinois, and it was quite an impressive sight!
I personally think Athearn did an excellent job with their model of the first generation Turbine. Not quite as good as OMI brass, but still excellent. The plastic body shell is very cleanly molded, with only a light seam barely visible on each side of the nose. Very little is actually molded on, and most of the details are fine wire and etched metal. The larger and more complex parts, like the rear handrails, lift bars, ladder, and roof piping, are made from plastic. The acetal plastic details (handrail and front roof pipe) were left unpainted, which is one of my few complaints about this model. The handrail looks fine, but the roof pipe is way off color and should be painted. One of my other complaints would be for some of the etched details. The parts themselves are excellent, but they were placed over a completely flat surface, eliminating almost any see-through effect they might have had. Very careful work could fix this, but that's something that most people will not want to do.
Although I don't have so much of a problem with it, the biggest detail complaint that someone might have is for the large vents along the sides. They are very finely molded in plastic, but they can't be seen through. It doesn't matter for the louvered vents, but the chicken wire (or whatever you want to call it) type would've looked better if Athearn had used etched metal or a fine wire mesh.
All of the windows and lenses on the model are flush-fitting and super clear with no mounting points visible, which is something I've always liked about Athearn's high-end models. Inside the cab is a full and well detailed interior, lacking only a crew. There's no cab lighting like on Lionel's Veranda, but I don't think that's ever been much of an issue with anyone. The engine's trucks are very nicely done, with super-fine and deep detail. A speed recorder cable is mounted over the front left wheel.
The tender looks just as good as the engine. The main body is very cleanly molded, the metal and plastic detail parts are finely made, and the etched roofwalk looks great! The trucks, although finely molded, are very flat in appearance and could have been a little better. But overall, it sure beats Lionel's Turbine tender!
The paint is all very smoothly coated, with bold coloring and good separation. Some of the paint is a little fuzzy around the edges, but it can't be seen from a typical distance. The lettering and Union Pacific logos are all extremely clear and sharp, with absolutely no breakage in the long crevices (good job, Athearn!). As is typical of most models, the printed lettering is shiny compared to the rest of the paint. Weathering should hide this, along with some of the shiny clear glue that is slightly visible under some of the etched parts.
Athearn provides a bag of additional details for the owner to put on (which are installed in the picture). The details are the side ladders, a brass underframe bell, verticle brake lines, and a full-height front pilot skirt. The ladders, bell, and brake lines should only be installed if your layout's minimum radius is, I'd say, about 30". The pilot skirt, as I'll call it, is for display only, and the Turbine will not run properly with it installed.
Although only four axles are driven, this is without a doubt my best running engine next to my Kato diesels! It obviously uses a Sanda-Kan drive (same people who make stuff for Atlas, P2K, etc.) rather than a standard Athearn drive. The gearing is smooth and completely silent at all speeds, and the motor is the same one used by Atlas and Life-Like (Walthers) Proto. The Turbine accelerates smoothly with its especially large flywheels to a speed of 65 scale MPH at 12 volts, and glides around even tight curves of an 18" radius like it's no big deal, although it looks a bit weird on curves that tight with its pilots swinging out from under the engine. Current draw running free was 0.15 amps, and the stall current was about 1.3A. The minimum sustained speed was just over 2.5 scale MPH with smooth, filtered DC. A pulsing signal, like from a DCC board, will allow even greater low speed control. The traction is about the same as any heavy 4-axle diesel, and I would expect it to easily pull around 60 free rolling cars. If that's not enough, Bullfrog Snot can be used on a couple wheels to improve traction without worry of killing electrical pickup (all 16 wheels!). The wheels are blackened and plated, with slightly oversized flanges (0.035"?). All of the wheels were about 0.25mm or so narrow in gauge, which isn't a real problem, but it's an easy thing to fix. The frame is a solid metal brick, giving the engine a huge amount of weight, and the trucks are also metal (minus the sideframes). McHenry scale-sized couplers are used on both the engine and tender. All but the front coupler are below the recommended height. The tender's couplers can be shimmed pretty easily with a tiny piece of thin plastic or metal below the coupler, but the engine's rear coupler may be more difficult.
The model has two different types of plugs for DCC decoders, and mounting areas for two 1" speakers. If upgrading to DCC, I would also suggest getting the lighting kit from Ulrich Models, because Athearn's headlight system in the Turbine is downright awful for such a high-end model. The stock front end lighting shows poorly through the lenses, and it flickers badly at around 4 volts. The reverse lighting looks fine and doesn't need replacement, and the tender's backup light gets its power from the engine through a small plug under the rear pilot.
I would give Athearn's Turbine an overall very high rating. Sure, it has a couple issues, but it's still a great looking engine that runs as well as the best stuff out there, and it's even pretty modestly priced next to other past Turbines. If the new Veranda Turbine and U50B are made as well or even better than this one, Athearn will have some real winners out there!
For those wanting to see more pictures, here's a photo gallery I posted when I got my Turbine last year.
EDIT: I just took another look at my Turbine, and it appears the printed lettering didn't quite make it through the crevices like I thought. I couldn't see it under normal lighting, but it shows up with a brighter light on it. Still looks great though!
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