Athearn Genesis HO F3A review

[Darth Santa Fe]

This review is on Athearn's Genesis F3A with the newer drive system.[:D]



When I first pulled this out of the highly protective water-proof box, all I could think was that this is the most amazingly detailed F unit I've ever seen.[:D] There's not a single seem in the plastic shell, and every detail is as fine as can be.[:D] Almost all the details (lift rings, grills, windshield wipers, door handles...) are stainless steel parts, which are either blackened, polished, painted or left in their natural un-polished look. The entire shell is plated with a metal that looks like stainless steel or aluminum, which is more realistic than chrome plating. Most of the plating is painted over with the red and silver Warbonnet, but they left some exposed to make it look nice and shiny.[:D] The paint is 99% perfect, with only a few very small spots that were missed, showing more plating. The roof vents are blackened stainless steel, with fans visible through the four rear vents.[:D] All the glass is flush mounted and looks excellent, with no white lines around the rims where it was glued. I was surprised when I found that the number boards were printed and then covered with glass, instead of leaving the printing exposed.[:D] The truck sideframes are exact copies of the ones Athearn developed 25 years ago, except for the mounts. They're some of the best detailed plastic sideframes anyone's made so far, which is pretty good for being made 25 years ago.[:D] The Genesis F units now have McHenry scale-size knuckle couplers installed, which improves the appearance of how the engines look. The couplers were very tight in their boxes, and I had to loosen them a little before they could center themselves. The cab interior is very well detailed, but the dashboards are too far inside the cab. There was an article in the October 2002 Model Railroader on how to fix this.[:D]



The lighting for the two headlight versions have some pretty neat lighting effects. When getting forward power, both of the bottom lights and the upper light bulb in the upper headlight come on. When getting reverse power, a small red light in the lower part of the upper headlight comes on.



the F3 ran a little tight right out of the box, but got a lot better after a few minutes of running. At 12 volts, it runs at 71 scale MPH, which is a little slow for a passenger unit, but just right for a freight unit. the engine ran very quietly and smoothly through its whole speed range, with a very faint buzzing coming from the gears. The buzzing is unnoticable if it's pulling some cars. It takes about 4 volts to get the engine started, but this isn't really a bad thing because it allows the lights to come on first.[:D] I could get it to run steadily at only 3 scale MPH. the current draw running free at 12 volts is around 0.08 amps, which is quite an improvement over the older Genesis diesels. The stall current at 12 volts was 0.85 amps. This is one of the newest versions of this engine, but I was surprised to find that it isn't DCC ready, so you'd have to either add resistors to the lights, replace the lights or get a special DCC board. The engine is very heavy for its size, and could probably pull 45-50 free-rolling cars. There's room for a sound speaker in the back, but you may have to mill a little weight out for it to fit very well. The sideframes are slightly warped, but it's not enough to cause problems. I didn't even notice until I looked reeeal closely.[:D]

Athearn's Genesis F3 and other F units are most likely the best F units ever made. The detail and paint is some of the best I've ever seen, and it runs well enough that there's really no-longer any point in replacing the drive system.[:D][:D][:D]

[Anonymous]

Those lights ARE neat!

I always look in amazement at my two F-3 A-B Santa Fe Freight Engines I got like 4 years ago. I just HAD to have them. I just now outfited them with DCC this week and I am in the final stages of getting them matched up.

I may just have to look at getting at least an A Unit.....Yours looks so nice!

Thanks for the Write up!

Chris

[Anonymous]

The lighting on your F3A is cool.I have two Genesis F3s painted in Maine Central livery(F3A #683 and F3A-B set #672). Mine only have one headlight, so they don't have that neat lighting feature, but they do have all the stainless details that your does. They are extremely well painted. I happened to be at my LHS one day last year, when they were opening thier latest shipment of goodies, when I spied the Genesis boxes with Maine Central as the road name[:0].....and curiosity[:D] ran through me and I opened the boxes. I don't even model the era they are from, but they were SO beautiful, I just couldn't behave myself, and I gave them a home before they even made it to the shelf. They performed flawlessly right out of the box, and they start smoother and at slightly less voltage once they get broken in. You will DEFINITELY be happy with your purchase........ I certainly am!!!

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the great review. I find it VERY hard to believe it's not DCC ready, tho. In the pic you posted w/ the shell off it appears to have the same PC board as my AC4400, which is DCC ready

[Darth Santa Fe]

The PC boards do look very similar, but mine doesn't have a plug. The only wires connected to it are the truck, light and motor wires. The plug wouldn't be on the bottom, because it would be right by the flywheel, which would be a bad thing.[:O]

[Anonymous]

mine does appear to have some type of plug between the motor and the rear flywheel but you can barely see it in that pic. I thought they had to be DCC-ready to have directional lighting? (with the exception of the split frame Spectrums) I was under the impression I got DCC ready for that much $$. If they're not DCC ready I WILL NOT buy any.

[Anonymous]

thanks for sharing, it sounds like a beautiful piece of machinery. Now I'll have to find another reason why I went for the cheap Intermountain Erie F3's-with-ugly-windows instead of doing it right the first time. But IF for instance a Genesis CNJ-set comes along I'll grab it...

[Southwest Chief]

I have the DCC/Sound version....my favorite F unit ever too.

Has anyone figured out how to get the red light effect with the factory DCC/Sound units? In real life the red light was used to display an emergency brake application...so fairly rare if ever used.

Athearn did a great job on the Santa Fe versions and are almost perfect to the prototype. Out of the box the model represents very closely an as delivered Santa Fe late phase passenger F3. The biggest mistake that bugs me is the simulated MU door in the nose. These where not present until later on Santa Fe F3's. And by that time a lot more had changed too.....side skirt removal, horn change, and various other details. Wish Athearn had modified the shell to omit this detail. Oh well apart from that I can't complain.

[Anonymous]

But does his upper headlight simulate the mars/gyralite, or is it just a single steady beam? My sound unit has the ocilating gyralight in the upper housing, and I to wish I could figure how to activate the red gyralight beam in reverse. All in all they are an awsome representation of the F unit. Cheers Mike

[Darth Santa Fe]

The red light is just a single steady beam. The PC board is a very simple one , containing only a few resistors and a couple diodes.

[Anonymous]

Man, am I dissappointed that they're not DCC ready. I just don't understand that. But athearn's site doesn't say DCC ready. But it doesn't say that for the AC4400 either, which is DCC ready.

WAY TO GO ATHEARN! couldn't you give us DCC ready for $90? My Atlas GP40 cost me $90 and it came with a decoder installed all I have to do to change it to DCC is flip a plug in the PC board.

[Darth Santa Fe]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dingoix

Man, am I dissappointed that they're not DCC ready. I just don't understand that. But athearn's site doesn't say DCC ready. But it doesn't say that for the AC4400 either, which is DCC ready.

I know, they aren't DCC ready, but everything is already isolated from the frame, so installing a decoder should be pretty easy. All you need to do to install a decoder is:

1. replace the PC board with a decoder
2. add resistors to the lights

All this is probably a 10-15 minute job at the most.[:D][:D]

[Anonymous]

So I guess it's designed for DCC but no quickplug. I guess that isn't so bad. I will get a bunch when / if they release them in CGW.

[Anonymous]

My Athearn Genesis UP SD70M is the same way. It says DCC ready, but you do need to swap out the stock PC board for one with a plug (availible from Athearn, I believe). So in a matter of speaking, the are DCC ready.