MTH SD70ACe BNSF 9370

[hamltnblue]

No traction tires. I'm looking up info but holding it seems about the same or a little heavier than the Athearn SD60 and a little lighter than the Blueline AC6000. That being the case with all wheel drive it would naturally pull well. Ask away with any questions and I'll include them with my upcoming post including any pics requested.

 

[Ericsauto]

No traction tires on this one and trust me even on steeps grades it is not needed.

 

[BNTorsney]

No traction tires

Do these miracle machines by chance have traction tires? Inquiring minds want to know! MTH is putting these on their steam models, so I'm curious about the diesels.

These two MTH products have standard wheels. They are also much heavier than any of my other locomotives.

 

[jbaakko]

:O did that get leaked? The official announcement isn't until Jan 19

Yeah, seems it went out to a few people that someone at Athearn knows. The emails said something along the lines of "send this out to anyone interested".

Maybe he/she was hoping to steal MTH's thunder even w/o announcing the locomotive. Looks better then the MTH (in photos) to me. I'll save my judgment for when I can compare them side by side.

Do these miracle machines by chance have traction tires? Inquiring minds want to know! MTH is putting these on their steam models, so I'm curious about the diesels.

I'd hope not. I dislike traction tires. If they should decide to, please make it something you can add yourself, not the default option...

 

[hamltnblue]

An athearn unit would be interesting since they now have soundtraxx. The shell quality of the MTH sd70 is similar to the Athearn but the handrails and lighting are much better. Sound is almost identical in quality to the Soundtraxx. The drive train is hands down MTH which is close to Atlas quality. The only down side so far is the limited DCC compatibility of the MTH, but they did loosen up some since their introduction.

 

[Espeefan]

Yeah, seems it went out to a few people that someone at Athearn knows. The emails said something along the lines of "send this out to anyone interested".

Maybe he/she was hoping to steal MTH's thunder even w/o announcing the locomotive. Looks better then the MTH (in photos) to me. I'll save my judgment for when I can compare them side by side.


I'd hope not. I dislike traction tires. If they should decide to, please make it something you can add yourself, not the default option...

Their steamers come with traction tires, with a spare axle that you can replace yourself if you don't want them. In this month's Model Railroad News, the removal of the traction tired axle reduced the tractive effort considerably on the Challenger and the 4-12-2.

The diesels being disscussed here are way too new for me in any case, and the MRN review pretty much agrees with my own thoughts for these. Not really my cup of tea. I'm too much of a rivet counter

 

[diburning]

An athearn unit would be interesting since they now have soundtraxx. The shell quality of the MTH sd70 is similar to the Athearn but the handrails and lighting are much better. Sound is almost identical in quality to the Soundtraxx. The drive train is hands down MTH which is close to Atlas quality. The only down side so far is the limited DCC compatibility of the MTH, but they did loosen up some since their introduction.

The sound in my opinion is not on the same level as soundtraxx. The MTH model sounds more like a 710ECO prime mover (sounds like a washing machine) rather than the deep throbbing 710.

I also don't like the maytag machines on the deck (ditch lights a tad too big)

Athearn really stepped up their game to compete with MTH because they know that they had to be better than the MTH model or it won't sell.

I don't know if Athearn will be repainting the SD70ACe and re-releasing them as the SD70M-2, but I heard that MTH is going to use new tooling for the SD70M-2 to fix the issues with the SD70ACe. (If so, then I might buy one. I model NS so SD70ACes don't work!)

 

[jbaakko]

Their steamers come with traction tires, with a spare axle that you can replace yourself if you don't want them. In this month's Model Railroad News, the removal of the traction tired axle reduced the tractive effort considerably on the Challenger and the 4-12-2.

See we diesel guys just add another unit...

 

[lmackattack]

Im a steam/diesel transition guy and pay little attention to anything after 1965. the only thing that I did notice with this engine when I saw it was that the top radiator fan louvers looked over sized for the scale. nice looking engine over all. the athern detail looks a little better but again Im a steam guy and I could be all wrong. I dont like the MTH DCS as it goes away from a DCC standard. may be simple to use but makes owning one a little uneasy. just my opinion...I do love MTH for their puffing smoke for steam engines. yes its toy like and adds a film but the first time I saw one draging 50 cars at 10 mph with the 4 puffs per wheel rev I thought that was the coolest thing ever.

enjoy your model!

 

[Cjcrescent]

The MTH Sd70ace can pull a house over. This thing has great detail and great power. It will pull some long trains with no problem. My other MTH k-4 is pretty darn strong too. Now my BLI's ( Hudsons) pull ok but nothing like the MTH. I love my BLI's ( Have 3 steam, 3 diesels) but they lack a lot of pulling power. I don't mind because they will be dedicated to pulling smaller loads. I plan to by more MTH. The remote couplers work pretty good too.

Goes to show you get what you pay for and If I have to wait longer and save up, I will.

How many cars are you talking here?

I own very few diesels but they all pull very, very well. My three favorite diesels, pulls studs out of the walls. But they should, they have Hobbytown chassis. My PA-1 has had 225 cars behind it, while my F-7 is slightly weaker, only averaging 175 cars. The newest of the bunch, a GP-7 hasn't been really broken in yet, cause on the club's layout, its only pulled 95. It needs more work.

 

[Espeefan]

Im a steam/diesel transition guy and pay little attention to anything after 1965. the only thing that I did notice with this engine when I saw it was that the top radiator fan louvers looked over sized for the scale. nice looking engine over all. the athern detail looks a little better but again Im a steam guy and I could be all wrong. I dont like the MTH DCS as it goes away from a DCC standard. may be simple to use but makes owning one a little uneasy. just my opinion...I do love MTH for their puffing smoke for steam engines. yes its toy like and adds a film but the first time I saw one draging 50 cars at 10 mph with the 4 puffs per wheel rev I thought that was the coolest thing ever.

enjoy your model!

We have one member at the club that has one of these and he really likes it, but like you, I'm steam to diesel era modeler with steam heavily emphasised, though I did make a concession to the 1960's or so with Athearn's SW-1500 and MP-15s

At the club, we have banned smoke generators, so you don't see much of that.

diburning's observation on the sound is also not the first time I have heard that it isn't uip to the Tsunami, but I'm not a modern diesel expert, though I have heard that Gomez Addams loves the train wreck sound effect! Saves himself a bunch of money on dynamite!:

But seriouisly, MTH seems to be going after a specific market segment, and seems to be doing well at it. Mike's has announced Daylight passenger cars, and I will take a look at those.

 

[Ericsauto]

How many cars are you talking here?

I own very few diesels but they all pull very, very well. My three favorite diesels, pulls studs out of the walls. But they should, they have Hobbytown chassis. My PA-1 has had 225 cars behind it, while my F-7 is slightly weaker, only averaging 175 cars. The newest of the bunch, a GP-7 hasn't been really broken in yet, cause on the club's layout, its only pulled 95. It needs more work.

Well considering that my layout has some steep grades and unless I consist locos together I can pull maybe only 8 to 9 cars. I gather that your layout is very large compared to my layout. With the MTH I have put 6 heavy Passenger and 15 box cars behind it and I could run up the steepest grades at very slow speed to very fast speed with no problem what so ever. That is a major improvement.

I try to model from the 60's to the 70's and I know this does not fall into this category , but to me I buy what I want to let people that come to look at it enjoy watching all types of trains.

I just pre-ordered the new Veranda by Mth and can't wait to run that one, it looks great.

 

[Cjcrescent]

Well considering that my layout has some steep grades and unless I consist locos together I can pull maybe only 8 to 9 cars. I gather that your layout is very large compared to my layout. With the MTH I have put 6 heavy Passenger and 15 box cars behind it and I could run up the steepest grades at very slow speed to very fast speed with no problem what so ever. That is a major improvement.

I try to model from the 60's to the 70's and I know this does not fall into this category , but to me I buy what I want to let people that come to look at it enjoy watching all types of trains.

I just pre-ordered the new Veranda by Mth and can't wait to run that one, it looks great.

My own layout is only 17' x 23'. The super long trains I pulled were on a club layout. I'm really not sure what the PA could pull as after all slack was pulled out on that 225 car train, there was only about 6-8" from the front of the loco to the end of the caboose.

This was also with about 3.5lbs of lead stuck on the chassiss. Right now I'm trying to locate a new body for it so I can turn it into a SRR PA-4.

The pulling power of that MTH loco sounds impressive indeed. I have always admired great performing locos. I have always re-worked all of my locos (no matter what brand), to get the best performance out of them. I've regeared/repowered just about all of my locos and each one runs and pulls better than the stock locos out of the box.

However, while MTH makes great performing locos, due to their "toy train shortcuts" they have taken on each loco, their control system thats not compatible with any other, and their (Mike's) business practices, means that I will never own anything from them.

 

[hamltnblue]

Not ready to get totally into the new unit yet but after playing around with it for about a half hour I find that the automatic coupler is garbage when using it with Kadee's I run mostly #5's and both coupling and uncoupling are unreliable. I'll be replacing them with kadee's. They do supply an extra mounting hole and coupler box for this. The sound is very crisp but as someone noted on the prototypical points I don't know them so it's all good to me. They seem to have the same philosophy as BLI paragons with the auxiliary sounds. I don't care for them and will turn them off. The literature says it has a cab light but I haven't figured how to activate it of if it's actually there. The running characteristics is right up there with the best of them. Smoothe as a baby's bottom at the slowest speeds. I'll try to match it this weekend with my paragon and athearn. The literature says when running in 28 speed step mode the speed curve is linear so I should be able to match it with the others and run the old style consist. At 128 speed step mode it runs in scale MPH, which should be compatible with the scale mph mode in Atlas engines. As far as rating it against my others, I say it's as good as the other top end manufacturers, but overall not any better. Probably a little worse because of the lack of advance consist and not being able to control sound volumes individually in DCC.

 

[Espeefan]

This was also with about 3.5lbs of lead stuck on the chassiss. Right now I'm trying to locate a new body for it so I can turn it into a SRR PA-4.

The pulling power of that MTH loco sounds impressive indeed. I have always admired great performing locos.

However, while MTH makes great performing locos, due to their "toy train shortcuts" they have taken on each loco, their control system thats not compatible with any other, and their (Mike's) business practices, means that I will never own anything from them.

Carey,

I think I have a P2K PA shell up here that is orphaned. It's lettered for St Louis & Southwestern, and painted Daylight (what else?); I'll look & see if I can turn it up. If I can, want it? I'll be sending the Captain one of his locos back with a sound install & can tuck the shell in the same box. It has the removable skirts and I think the PA-4s had no skirts. Not sure, you tell me.

Let me know.

On the MTH performance, I did get a chance to check out their GS-4/psuedo 6 that a club member bought. It did pull very well, being of diecast construction, so they have a grip on the whole "more properly distributed weight = better pulling power" thing. Unfortunately, it didn't sound anything like a GS-4, and the whistle they used sounded to me like a Class A N&W whistle, so: you can have sound, but it may not be the correct sound.

With the cost where it is, I can buy a brass model (bought a factory painted Key GS not long ago) and dump a Tsunami into it, and have one that looks and sounds right. I can pack enough lead into it so that it pulls well. I still have some sheet lead from the old Pullman building that I got from Jim Gibson

David Otte did a nice review on their Challenger and 4-12-2 this month, and said "they will probably not meet the needs of all HO modelers".

His positives were:

Their ability to negotiate smaller radius curves so that owners of small layouts can handle them.

Their pulling power.

Negatives were:

Prototype fidelity (not great)

Lack of ability to utilize all of the features on DCC

David though that they were going after a different market segment, modelers who grew up on computers & video games, hance all the animated effects.

I think he nailed it, with one addition: guys who had Lionel in their youth who are returning to the hobby now, and liked the Lionel features & animation

I am curious to see what their Daylight cars will look like, if we ever in fact see them. MTH and BLI both got into this thing where they were announcing everything, but building very little. It is unlikely we'll see any more Athearn Genesis passenger cars, at least for a good while, and Athearn has the designs for the Challenger Imports cars. That 77-C-3 was the nicest non brass passenger car I've ever seen.

 

[hamltnblue]

After spending some time trying to figure out how to activate the cab light I called MTH tech support. Very little wait time and curtious support.
It appears that the advertising is incorrect. The tech says that his sample doesn't have a cab light and his documentation matches mine which has no cab light function key. In most of the advertising I've seen F12 turns off the cab light, and cab light is in the main feature list. Looks like an oops and the marketing people weren't informed.

 

[BNTorsney]

I repeat MTH 1, Athearn 0

After reading ALL the replies to this post, it is obvious that there are some people who are more Zealous about this hobby than I.
Simply put, to me, this locomotive is still a W O W !! I will go further, Kato and Atlas, Athearn and ALL the rest of the manufactures have something to FEAR from this company, in a VERY short time MTH is going to out sell them ALL.
When the Japanese FIRST started to import cars to America MANY years ago, Detroit laughed at their effort; are they laughing NOW?
Quality combined with value lasts FOREVER!
Thank you MTH for entering the HO diesel market.

 

[Espeefan]

After reading ALL the replies to this post, it is obvious that there are some people who are more Zealous about this hobby than I.
Simply put, to me, this locomotive is still a W O W !! I will go further, Kato and Atlas, Athearn and ALL the rest of the manufactures have something to FEAR from this company, in a VERY short time MTH is going to out sell them ALL.
When the Japanese FIRST started to import cars to America MANY years ago, Detroit laughed at their effort; are they laughing NOW?
Quality combined with value lasts FOREVER!
Thank you MTH for entering the HO diesel market.

Well I'm glad you enjoy the loco.

As for them taking market share from Athearn, or Kato or anyone else, not until they quit trying to force DCS on everyone. Especially now that Athearn has dumped MRC and is using Soundtraxx Tsunamis in their models. It is good to have choices and competition, it expands the market place for all of us. Like I said in an earlier post, MTH is a pretty polarizing company. They seem to drive people to opposite ends of the spectrum. Mike's penchant for lawsuits has offended many in the hobby. They have yet to come out with anything I'd consider buying, but who knows what the future will bring.

 

[hamltnblue]

I agree. Atlas, Athearn and even Bachmann have their spot and nothing that MTH does will change that. If they want to play in the HO market they have to provide at least the standard. They don't want to but we're already seeing them slowly open up more to DCC with the additional functions and a few open cv's. They are starting to understand that they aren't in a position to dictate anything. The product so far seems to be good quality and has the potential to compete with the other top brands but they also have to stop trying to shove their proprietary DCS down everyone's throat.

 

[Cjcrescent]

After reading ALL the replies to this post, it is obvious that there are some people who are more Zealous about this hobby than I.
Simply put, to me, this locomotive is still a W O W !! I will go further, Kato and Atlas, Athearn and ALL the rest of the manufactures have something to FEAR from this company, in a VERY short time MTH is going to out sell them ALL.
When the Japanese FIRST started to import cars to America MANY years ago, Detroit laughed at their effort; are they laughing NOW?
Quality combined with value lasts FOREVER!
Thank you MTH for entering the HO diesel market.

Speaking of being zealous, your statement is one that a zealot would make, IMHO.

But I have to agree with the others. The other companies have nothing to fear, except maybe a lawsuit, from MTH. Before MTH can outsell anyone, they have to make something that the majority of modelers want. No company's been able to do that.

Until MTH stops putting "toy train" details, and "toy train" effects on their models, and they stop trying to shove DCS down our throats, MTH will never be anything more than a minor player in the HO market.