#trains #modeltrains #modelrailroad
The wait is over! In this video, we check out the new Athearn Genesis GP38-2 locomotives in Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad colors. These engines make a great addition to my layout's roster!
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Katy modelers had been anticipating these for a few months now. Now that they finally arrived and I've broken them in a little, I figured I'd give you a quick rundown.
Athearn has been producing the GP38-2 in various road names for a few years and there are a ton of reviews online, highlighting how these run, their quality…all that good stuff…so i don't want to rehash what's already out there. I'm just going to touch on some of the things that make these stand out.
The MKT had 18 GP38-2s on the roster…all of them were delivered in three batches in the 1970s.
These two units represent two variations…320 has dynamic brakes and 313 without.
Up until this point, most of Katy's new engines were ordered without dynamic brakes- a feature that came in handy for railroads in mountainous territory…which the Katy was not. But the third batch in 1976 had dynamic brakes…the plan was to use these as pool power on Burlington northern coal trains- operating from the mines out west. BN basically told Katy these smaller four axle units weren't going to cut it…so MKT orders six axle SD40-2s for working with BN's six axle units….and the GP38-2s were relegated to general freights…they were perfectly fine for that.
Athearn released these Genesis models in December of 2022 in three road numbers: 320, 318, and 313.
As I mentioned before, this is actually the second run of Athearn Genesis GP38-2s in Katy colors. The first was a handful of years ago- and the models weren't the most well received by MKT fans because of the very-wrong shade of green- almost a lime of fluorescent color. With these new ones, the shade was spot on…some fellow MKT experts worked with Athearn to make sure the run was correct- and we appreciate their hard work.
The paint and lettering on these units are very crisp. The shade matched Athearn's first run of the Athearn Genesis MKT GP39-2s.
They sound great with the Tsunami 2 DCC decoders…the LED lighting- from the headlight to the strobes- is nice and bright.
The details are good…nice fine handrails- which are typical of Atheran genesis units- are very delicate and you have to be careful. Other nice items you find on genesis units like these are prototypical underbody details, a cab interior, and see through fans on top.
313 and 320 include a feature seen on some units during the latter years of the Katy and that is the yellow safety stripes along the sill. 318 represents the engines that did not have those.
There were a couple of very minor issues with my units. One of the front handrails on 320 was a little bowed. I was able to finagle it back to where it needs to be. Also, some of the handrails on both units had some burrs…those were fixed- easily with an Exacto knife.
On 313- one of the CV settings was off…the strobe was set to F6 when it should be set to F5. And the light itself- flashes in a pattern closer to a rotating beacon, where it should be a strobe. But again that's easily fixed in the CV settings. Be sure to check out our follow-up video on how to fix this issue.
14 окт 2024
