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Sticking to the HO side of the discussion, Athearn's 'blue box' engines can all be improved, at least older ones (since I am just returning to the hobby after about 10 years doing other stuff-just got a basement finally!), by improving the power pickup on top of the motor housing to the trucks- that long stamped flat steel? strip that clips on top of the motor. "Model Railroading" (not Model Railroader) magazine published a book re: Improving Athearn blah blah blah-can't remember exact title-it is a great source of simple, inexpensive mods to improve most all Athearn products. Only problem with their GP7/9? and SD7/9? was the body shell is too wide due to width of Athearn's motor; don't know about other later diesels since I'm stuck in the early 50's. Remember when that kind of thing went unnoticed? I believe the W althers' Alco FA units were once upon a time tooled by now defunct Train-Miniature- the first decent rival to Athearn 30 years ago but they never went beyond the FA units when they went out of business, Model Power made a couple of decent low cost diesels a while back-very smooth running and powerful Alco FAs and Baldwin Sharks-and at a time when FAs weren't available from anyone except in brass, and Sharks still aren't. Lets forget the forgettable TYCO/Mantua Sharks-they never even counted. As far as cost is concerned , a little judicious shopping at train shows and mail order shopping enables one to get earlier releases of Proto 1000 /2000 or Spectrum stuff at just a few $$ more than Athearn Blue Box. Frankly, Athearn had not kept pace with their competitors who have been able to offer a lot more accuracy, better paint /markings and performance for a little more money. I was shocked at the price for Athearn Genesis F units but also amazed at the differance in a side by side comparo with a Blue Box F unit. The lattter looked just fine until I saw their Genesis piece! Best bang for the buck, in my opinion, are the Proto 1000/2000 and Spectrum offerings
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