SD70MAC - Kato or Athearn Genesis (revisited)

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C

Calafati

New Member
Hi there,

a friend and I both wanted to buy a SD70MAC engine; she wanted a BN, I wanted a BNSF heritage unit. Although I like (and have on my roster) Athearn Genesis models, I went for Kato, as they seem to have the better plastic material, and a decent drivetrain. My friend went for Athearn, because of the photoetched parts, and the engine was "rtr" with no add-on parts to fiddle with.

Without wanting to start a war - we´ve both made our respective decision, we are both happy with it - what are your thoughts on this subject? Would you, personally, have bought the Athearn or the Kato (they were both the same price)?
 
Personally, I would have bought either or. Both have their pros and cons.

Kato engines have those light tubes. I am not sure if the SD70MAC has one tube for all of the front lights, or seperate ones for the ditch lights, but I do know that Athearn Genesis uses seperate bulbs for each light.

Depending on the production run, the Athearn Genesis engine may have a motor that runs too fast to be speed matched with other brands (or other Athearn lines for that matter). There is NO way to fix it. You can try to lower the speed with DCC, but it will not work. The only solution would be to remotor the engine. The SD70 series, SD45-2s, and the LATER run SD70MACs will have this issue.

Kato has a smooth drivetrain (which Athearn cloned, but still is only an imitation as the gears still make more noise) but the motor and gearing is a little different than other brands although it is not a huge problem. Athearn Genesis has the same gearing as their RTR line, but as I mentioned before, you may run into the motor issue.

Athearn Genesis has scale sized wire grab irons. The plastic Kato grabs may be a bit on the thick side, as are their handrails. Athearn Genesis feature see-thru fans while Kato molds them on. (They do a good job so they don't look molded on at a first glance. However, their turbo fan doesn't look very good)

Depending on your production run of SD70MAC, the Athearn Genesis may or may not have a plug for DCC. (Most of the SD70 series did not). It has a standard light board, but no plug. Kato is DCC ready with an 8-pin plug.

If you ever wanted to upgrade to sound, Kato already has a speaker enclosure in the fuel tank. Athearn Genesis should have a speaker enclosure somewhere inside the long hood. If you wanted a unit with sound already installed, you could order a Kato KOBO special where they put in a digitrax sound decoder (not the best for sound, but not too bad). With Athearn Genesis, the older runs (without the motor problem) have MRC Brilliance decoders in them, which are junk. The newer runs (in the dark blue box) have Soundtraxx Tsunami decoders on board, which (in my opinion) are the best sounding decoders on the market today.
 
I know this is an old thread, but in regards to the light tubes on the Kato SD70, they use 3 tubes. 1 going to the rear lights, 1 going to the cab directional lights and number board, and 1 going to the ditch lights.

Diburning summed up the appearance differences very well.

As for performance differences, the Genesis (running DCC with flashing ditch lights) has a slightly higher top end than the Kato (running DC). Both are very strong runners when it comes to torque and traction. Both were able to pull 23 Tropicana box cars (both models were of CSX SD70mac locomotives, #700 "Spirit of Cumberland" on the Genesis and #713 on the Kato) without issue. I didn't get a chance to test the Genesis with more, but I did with the Kato. I managed to get the Kato to pull the 23 Tropicana cars, plus about 30 additional cars (mixed boxcars, hoppers, and a flatbed with an onboard camera). There was some wheelslip with that many cars, but it still was able to pull them. With that many cars, track limitations were it's biggest issues. Several of the Tropicana cars (about 1/3 of the way through the Tropicana cars), which were at the front of the train, toppled over once the train was trying to pull through 3 turns at once. It had no issues pulling about 43 cars around the entire layout.

I was also immensely impressed by it's short radius curve performance (no rolling stock attached) on my 4x8 at home. My home layout uses 15" and 18" radius curves. I was surprised to find that it will make a 15" radius curve as long as the locomotive can get completely straight before it changes direction (I only have about 3" straight between direction changes). On the 18", it had no issues running clockwise, but wanted to derail an axle going counterclockwise (possibly due to my rough track, I'm still new to layout building). My Athearn (not Genesis) SD38 can't even make my 18" radius that well (it always derails at least the front axle in either direction, but usually derails more). I can't say on the Genesis SD70, since the loco was not mine and didn't get to run it on my home layout.
 


I have both as well. The Kato AC4400 is smooth as silk. The SD70Macs are the Athearn Genesis. They are nice looking engines but have a tiny bit of squeak to them at low speed. I was able to successfully speed match them(they are Conrail and CSX) with my Broadway Blueline AC6000cw CSX to make a consist that will pull near darn near anything. I also have a SD70 Genesis that is just as smooth as the Kato.

The only problem besides the slight squeak at low speed ive had with the two Genesis SD70Macs are 1. one had the lightboard short out and 2. both had warped trucks and had to be sent to Athearn for replacement.

Theyre both nice locomotives and I have enjoyed them.
 
Thanks for the reviews on both. I was on the fence trying to figure out if I want Kato or Athearn. I might just go with both.
 
I have both as well but after a few details like the Athearns better. In addition to the Kato's detail deficiencies mentioned above, the radiators are slightly over size, .050" or so.
 
I have puchased the Kato BNSF style of SD-70MAC and find closely runs with my Overland BN SD-70MAC's I have yet to try my Athearn SD-75's to see what they run with. my .02 worth
 
It dissappoints me Kato has appeared to get out of the HO scale market. I would like to get my hands on a few of these locomotives but not at a premium price.
 


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