A friend of mine uses pearl drops toothpaste on the gears to break them in, cleans out the gear box, and then applies lube - they run like Swiss watches and quiet.
Steve, the "decals" are actually pad printing which if you look at edge you'll see a little bit of bleeding into the blue. The number boards were left blank and you had to add your own decals. The motor is a Builer or a copy thereof, Athearn used the same motor in its original run Genesis models. I always found them, Overland, to be noisy models with not great pickups.
I had an extensive collection of brass at one time, had to sell it due to financial issues. If I hadn't had those issues, I'd still have them. The OMI diesels are pretty simple to work on, and I have done DCC in them. Albeit not all the way as you would, but still relatively simple. I'd recommend a 6 pc. set of Mascot screwdrivers, the shanks are long enough and small enough in diameter to get to those hard to reach spots.
I’ve acquired some Overland and a few Samhongsa brass models over the years, like you when I find them at great prices. There is something about the feel and heft of these hand-built creations. I mainly model SP but I did score an Overland C32-8 a few years ago from a German eBay store that was professionally weathered and it compliments my ScaleTrains C39-8’s very well. To my eye the main area where modern plastic has the edge is the fine air vent detail and the decals in some cases. Otherwise they are very close. I really enjoy your vids, keep up the great work!
Have u done a video on installing dcc??? And ditch lights???? I really like ur videos. Going to b adding u to my list. Thank u!!!! Love the build. Also trying things on my 3d printer too.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! I got back into the hobby after a decade and half of being out of it in 2016. I have been learning and watching hundreds of youtube vids and slowly buying and weathering and building custom Conrail models since then. You did a fantastic job on weathering and building all of your models and I can safely say it is likely the best custom Conrail channel on youtube. I have a bunch of the Athearn bethgons and some of the scaletrains too. I hope scaletrains does the earlier G52s so I can make some real long coal trains going to Beesley Point in South Jersey. I have the Walthers bethgons in CSX colors and they seem to derail alot so I am replacing the trucks with Athearn Genesis 100ton .88 trucks and that seems to fix the issue. Same issue with E&C shops and the other kit build bethgons.
Might I ask what you used to make the ore loads? Also would you ever do a vid on your weathering techniques for the ore cars. I am building a few dozen and just a week ago a dozen more in the mail to fix and weather up.
All around fantastic job on the weathering, scenery and keeping it faithful to the prototype. You got a new sub. I model Conrail in HO and have been slowly adding sound and red marker lights to all my locos. As I type this I have a real old blue box superdetailed SD40T-2 sitting next to me that I was bending brass handrails for today. Thank you for a great layout and neat editing.
Thank you! When I purchased fiberoptic cord last it was from Ebay from a random seller. I don’t have a specific one to recommend but did find a few on there recently when I was looking for more.
Excellent build!!! One thing to try for marker lights is Red fiber optic which they sell for bow hunting. Been tinkering with it for my n scale CR units.
Thank you! Ill have to hunt down some red fiberoptic cord for doing markers. I have been painting the lenses red with acrylic paint when needed and its been working decent but I always like to improve when I can.
Thank you! Ill have to hunt down some red fiberoptic cord for doing markers. I have been painting the lenses red with acrylic paint when needed and its been working decent but I always like to improve when I can.
Thank you! I have a similar feeling with watching people rebuild engines! Its always interesting to see how they work and are rebuilt but I am definitely no mechanic! 😂
Nice autorack Train Steve, I saw the very last car, the one with the yellow paint lettered for Conrail several times delivering auto parts to Laredo Texas, the UP main parallels I35 South the last 100 miles or so from San Antonio to Laredo!!!
@ConrailSteve GO to Google earth sometime Steve and check out UPs Laredo Yard, it was stub ended with a Y coming off the entrance for trains south or trains back to San Antonio, pretty cool!!!!
ESU and SXT all the way. I sold off my recent Athearn GE purchases. SXT looks better in my opinion. I also prefer ESU decoders. Even if I purchase an Athearn, I go for DCC Ready so I can pop in a Scale Sound Speaker and an ESU decoder. I do still like Athearn's EMD locomotives and again, just add ESU and sound, LED's if required. If I was looking at purchasing what you reviewed .. I'd pick SXT any day of the week plus twice on Sunday! Thank you for the review Steve!
I have not tryed as of yet. If I did I would use the scale MPH method on both so they match the rest of the fleet. I have done that with all my ESU equipped units but have yet to try it on a Tsunami equipped locomotive.
Thank you! Its a little of both really. I have seen a good amount of video as well as photos of SP units making their way on to Conrail in the late 90’s so I tend to lean a little heavy on that and have a good bit of SP power around.
I have both Athearn and scale trains I prefer the scale trains better sound and detail for the money. You get a better sound with scale trains and a keep alive. Athearn getting up there on the price and for that price you might just as well buy the Cadillac right off the hope. Plus i like ESU better i can always tweak the settings . Great share and video really enjoyed this one Thanks
Too bad you couldn't test the drawbar pull. With those weights, I would expect over 4 oz. Ever thought of putting them both on the same address, one forward and one reverse, then run them back to back to see which direction they finally move? Looks like swapping in Kadees would be easy on both.
Hopefully ill figure out a way to make a drawbar test work in the future. And may also include a pull style test with each as you mentioned. Coupler swaps would definitely be a breeze with each of these models.
Both company's models of the ac4400cw are impressive and well detailed and both have produced the most accurately detailed models available in ho scale outside of brass series models. Scaletrains is an excellent manufacturer of model railroading products and Athearn finally upgraded to LED lighting about 5 years ago, the ac4400 is one of my personal favorite modern GE locomotives and both of these models are outstanding & have incredible detail features- Tom.
All of my backdrops are from Trackside Scenery and are from their Hickory Hollow collection. tracksidesceneryshop.com/index.php?id_category=38&controller=category
I may have to try out on of their speakers for the Athearn unit before I fully commit to swapping it over to Esu. I am curious how much of a difference it would make with the Tsunami.
As someone who has owned both brands of dash 9, Scaletrains wins easily. The esu sound is much better for the fdl engine, air compressor, horn, bell, etc. Detail wise they’re about the same, but the scaletrains engines feel more solid to me. I ended up selling my Athearn locos and now have more locos from scaletrains.
I own both Scaletrains and Athearn Dash 9's. I prefer the Athearn Dash 9's mainly because they have much better sound quality than the tinny and weak ESU sounds and weak keep alive. Additionally, it is extremely easy to add Keep Alive to the Athearn Dash 9. The TCS KA1 Keep alive with a Soundtraxx Current Keeper Harness will plug right into the mother board and fit easily on top. It will also provide several more seconds of power compared to the 6 seconds (at most) on the ESU. Also, I have had several motor failures on my ScaleTrains Dash 9's. which has soured me on their quality.
Ill have to mess with the settings on my Athearn unit in JMRI. The sound had almost no definition to it and sounded rather flat when I tested it almost like something is wrong with the sound programming. TCS makes excellent keep alives and I used to used them with all of my V4 Esu decoders in the past. Will definitely go that route provided I can get the Tsunami to sound better.
