General Discussion (Model Railroader)

Has Athearn ever done a production run of the General Electric P42 (in HO) decorated for VIA Rail or am i just dreaming in technicolor?

Yes they did. I have one. I don't know how many road numbers were in the run but they never reissued any. Nice details but fragile.

Martin

Québec City 

There was a Custom Built P42a that sold for 283.00 on Ebay which  was very well done, may have a Youtube feature on it as their was a small Video on how the lighting system functioned. This person had it DCC equipped, Headlight, Ditch light and operating Red lights just above the Headlight. 

Correction, He had it on his Photobucket.

Magnum

 Athearn produced them several years ago and my LHS in Moncton sold them for $100 CDN.  I have seen them on eBay going for as much as $295.  Decals and paint are available if you want to make an undecorated P42 into one.  I made 3.  The only question is about the actual color blue/green the origional ones were painted.  There are differing opinions about the correct color. 

Magnum019:

There was a Custom Built P42a that sold for 283.00 on Ebay which  was very well done, may have a Youtube feature on it as their was a small Video on how the lighting system functioned. This person had it DCC equipped, Headlight, Ditch light and operating Red lights just above the Headlight. 

Correction, He had it on his Photobucket.

Magnum

Thanks ! - That was MY engine ! 

Athearn did a couple short runs of the VIA engine in six different numbers. There were some discrepancies in the Athearn unit's details and color, but over-all pretty decent.

There has been a lot of debate over which model color appears correct. The problem being the fact the real engine is painted with a Dupont automotive type metallic. This metallic finish takes on an appearance anywhere from dark green to blue depending on how the light hits it. What was determined to be an accurate representation of this color was "Chezoom Teal" which can be found in Testors line of model car paints under the Boyds section. The color has an extremely fine metallic to it which represents the real engine very well.

I forgot I still had the pictures and video in my Photobucket account, so here they are if anyone is interested ....

And a quickie video showing the lighting features ....

Mark.

I had 3 of them but sold one that was running right off my club layout at a show around 4 years ago for the rediculous price of $250 Canadian.  For some reason they command a lot of money.  I almost fell over when the guy offered me what he did for it considering thats what I payed for all 3 of them, lol.   Over all Athearn did a nice job on them and they look great pulling a few LRC coaches.  The steps are delicate but other then that they look great.  Mine are a little noisey with the normal Athearn growl but they perform just like any one of my Atlas or Kato loco's.    Good luck finding one and if you do expect to pay big for it. 

Hmmm,

 Maybe I should bring mine to your train show Dave!

 Gord