Dont buy Athearn Genesis GP9


doct0rnic

doct0rnic

Member
my friend had a large order of athearn gp northern pacific gp 9s and was not happy, the biggest issue was the hood was two scale inches shorter than it should, the paint was off, the window was larger than prototypical and numerous other detail problems. I cancelled my order of BN gps because even though no other manufacturer is making units, 250.00 a unit with sound as advanced reservation is too much to spend for a unit that might be wrong, if I spend that kind of money I want the engine to be perfect.
 
Wow! 2" - that's approximately .020, or the thickness of a human hair. You're right, I couldn't live with myself knowing that! Good thing I model the 80's and don't need any GP9's.
willie
 
If I threw away every item I have that is not 100% perfect in every way, I would have an empty house. One of the shoes I am wearing is 1/16" longer than the other, and 1/32" narrower. The floor in my train room is an inch and a half lower on one end than the other, and none of the windows in my house are less than a millimeter different in size. One side of my truck is 2 millimeters longer than the other, and my brand new refrigerator makes a growling sound like an idling truck that the appliance repair guy can't find.
I have some of the GP9s, and I can't tell without a micrometer if the hood is too short, so I'm not going to worry about it any more than I'm going to worry about most of the other things in my life that are not perfect, which is everything.
 
Crazy rivet counters. All I have to say is wow, if you can measure the length of human hair, and notice the difference?
 
Have someone take a picture, straight on, of your face and use a image editing program to make images of two new faces, one from the right half of your face (cut, copy and flip as needed) and one from the left half of your face. If you expect perfection you are going to be one unhappy camper. ;)
 
What surprises me is the expectation of perfection for $300.00. You could spend $100,000.00 on a car and it is not perfect. I go by the 5 foot rule, if I can not see it 5 feet away, close enough. At 5 feet my 20 year old BB GP-35's look good.


Buzz.
 
So let me get this straight,ur friend already has his &
you have a preorder in? So his was the first run& ur preorder
Is the zecond run?
 
There were minor issues like the too large windows on the first run. Athearn fixed these for the second run. My SP black widow units were first run and had these problems. The still look better than any other GPs I've seen and the issues are so minor they don't bother me. I have a third GP ordered from the second run, the "torpedo boat" unit for passenger service, and will compare them side by side. I guess it depends on how big of a rivet counter you are. I got myself slightly disliked on the Yahoo SP list by saying: "So what, they look fine to me!" There are scale problems on every model made, some by necessity, some by mistake. We deal with comprimise in just about every stage of layout building. That's why we have selective compression and the three foot rule. I bought mine for $139.00 each and added Tsunami's later. To each his own, but I don't mic my models, I just enjoy them. ;)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Think middle of the night might play into this "2 inch fiasco"?

Nice thing about N scale is you don't have to be five feet away for it to look good!
 
I picked up 4 BM units and I am happy with them. I guess I can be called a rivet counter to some degree but these are just toys and they are not that far off to worry about it. If I was that picky about all the trains then I would have to get rid of 98% of everything I have as nothing is 100% accurate. Even real locos vary in their dimensions by a few inches here and there, I remember the RR I worked for had a fleet of GP38's and each one was different and even the paint job varied where the two colors started and ended along with the angles, lol. Life is to short to worry about every little thing and you just have to enjoy the hobby for what it is.
 
And don't get me started about airplanes that go from sea level to 33,000 feet, from 120 degrees F to minus 60 and from internal pressure to less. All these things making the plane changing in length and size.
While working at Boeing Wichita in the 1990s the word on the floor was that the (2) 747 Air Force Ones were 6" different in length.
During the 1950s they built the airplanes off a wire stretched between 2 posts fore and aft. One time a problem developed - good set up in the morning - off in the afternoon. Finally someone noticed that the sun came through a window about noon, right on one of the steel posts and when it heated up the post bent a bit.
Even the curvature of the earth is enough to throw off small dimensions.
This attitude is why I am going forward with my new effort, "Itza Duck Models'. "If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, Itza Duck!" Stop by my blog to watch the progress. http://armchairmodelbuilders101.com

Armchair aka Glen Wasson
 
MGWSY said:
I picked up 4 BM units and I am happy with them. I guess I can be called a rivet counter to some degree but these are just toys and they are not that far off to worry about it. If I was that picky about all the trains then I would have to get rid of 98% of everything I have as nothing is 100% accurate. Even real locos vary in their dimensions by a few inches here and there, I remember the RR I worked for had a fleet of GP38's and each one was different and even the paint job varied where the two colors started and ended along with the angles, lol. Life is to short to worry about every little thing and you just have to enjoy the hobby for what it is.
Click to expand...

Great to see another aircraft nut in the crowd. I'm a full-scale pilot and you can fly two planes of the exact make/model and each one might fly a little differantly because of rigging. Cables of differant lengths (by inches sometimes) can make a differance how you trim it for straight and level flight. How the aircraft is loaded (fuel/passengers/baggage/weight & balance) aside, they all fly just a little differantly that you have to pay attention and make notes. Even my R/C aircraft are the same. It goes for everyting I guess in mass-production.
 
Armchair said:
Shadow, you really don't want to see how they build them ----- but they fly.
Click to expand...

Yea, I've thought about that before. What scares me the most is maintenance...who did it...was it to spec...who signed-off on it and whose friend is a friend of the A&P and...well, you get the idea.

The 78's sure are having problems though. Right off the bat.
 
Burlington Bob said:
Think middle of the night might play into this "2 inch fiasco"?

Nice thing about N scale is you don't have to be five feet away for it to look good!
Click to expand...

yes Im starting to feel sorry for the OP surely the 2 scale inches is a miscalculation that's .022 of an inch.
About N-scale..... I have always thought that because it is smaller it gives the perspective of being further away and the mind doesn't expect to see as much detail. G-scale models often look toylike even though they have more detail than a similar HO model.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top