To me, you have the best reviews of anyone. The photography speaks for itself and you don't spend most of the review pointing out details that are already clearly visible. You also show all the vantage points of the locomotives, including the bottom... which is one of the most important viewpoints (e. g.: driven axles, gearing, drive train, the presence, number and location of any traction tires...et al.)! Keep up the excellent work. You are also very polite with regard to suggestions from viewers in these comments, by the way. In other words, you are a class act! Thanks for your attention to the details...
I pre ordered both 7021 and 7022 from OVR. I was so impressed when I unboxed them myself. Now I am having trouble deciding if I like them better than Rapido’s 2860. I guess I will now have to have a favourite Steam category as well as diesel. Hopefully it won’t be long before they announce the other three military units as I want to duplicate the picture of them all sitting in the Calgary yard. Thanks for another great review.
Thats very sweet, tried to grab a few from my hobby shop. They were quickly sold out, i ended up with two new monochrome and two heritage which i really liked as well. They are very well built, up to par with my rivet counters! Its a toss up which one i like better! Thanks
Very nice video Ben. That Arid Region paint job really catches the eye. Here in the UK, I was very lucky to grab the last Tsunami 2 Navy #7022 from a UK dealer - and then also managed to get their last Tsunami 2 Red Beaver (and Class Leader) #7000 a week later. I think they are fantastic locos - but they do have ground lighting, although on yours the brightness appears to be set below the norm. I've made mine a little brighter via CV61 and can now also turn them on and off via F21. Another 0.5 or 1.0 to be added to the lighting score please 🙂 Personally, I'm hoping Athearn do another run of these to include the other Military units - I'd love to have Air Force #7023 and D-Day #6644
Thanks Steve. They are very nice indeed! Thanks for catching that error too, I didn't even notice! That's a good tip on how to turn them up if desired. Score adjusted. Air Force, Army Temperate & D-Day are all on my list too. ~Ben
Tons of details! Looks very nice. There is no light leak either (that i could see) Can't go wrong with Athearn... you won't have to send it back repeatedly to get it fix... Great video. Well done
I was paddling on the Fraser River, Fort Langley, BC 2:30pm today 3/13/22. Although it was some distance away, we believe we saw CN 7021 pulling coal towards Roberts Bank, Vancouver. How can we find out if it was 7021? Why would we want to know? Because for a little over a year, we have been enthralled to see the development of your amazing modelling, your attention to realism and even your persistence (the crossing gates !!) and your introduction to these wonderful tribute engines. Allie & Jonathan
High chance it was at least one of the CP Military Tribute units, there's only a couple grey/tan painted locomotives in the entire fleet. Thank you for the comment Allie & Jonathan!
Of course I have the two that are yet to be out on the street, but your review showed one similarity with most most Athearn SD units, the starting voltage needs to be ramped up. Otherwise gorgeous equipment. Wish I had bought all 4!
Yep, I would like to see them have the same movement delay that ESU has so you can hear the brakes release before it starts moving. Yeah I'm looking longingly at that modern red one too.
Love these engines for sure .. Did some tweaking on the functions tho . I think the Cab Chatter on the Dimmer Function F7 is understated for sure.. I disable the alt mixer and run cab chatter on F9 now .. Started doing this on all my engines now !!! Great Review !!!
Nice model. The only thing that disappoints is the locomotive starts moving then the prime mover ramps up, whereas in the real world it is the reverse. Maybe this can be fixed by configuring CV's. Thank you for the detailed review.
Actually, the Tsunami T2 has the effect you are looking for and it seems pretty realistic. To achieve the effect: Set the brakes by using function 11 (you will hear the air let off) then select function 12. This will rev up the prime mover and turn on the air compressor for approximately 30 seconds to simulate charging the trainline air. When the prime mover winds down, you can go to speed step 1. The prime mover will start to ramp up and when you release the brakes with F11, the train will start moving. To stop the train using the F11 brake, reduce the speed steps, and when you are near your stopping point, activate F11 and the train will squeal to a stop while letting off the air, then set the speed steps to 0.
Hey just so you know there is somebody in Ontario selling this locomotive for $750 and is using your Google review as their front page photo just to let you know. On Kijiji Toronto.
Thanks for clarifying Steve. I leave auto start on because my staging tracks all have power switches. Tomato tomahto but nice to have the option to choose either.
@@SuperFrecciaNera Only Athearn Factory Fitted Tsunami 2 have these settings. If someone has installed the Retail version into an Athearn DCC Ready unit, then the Soundtraxx defaults are F5 & F6 for RPM+/- and FX5 is F26 and FX6 is F27
You need to tear down the gear boxes so we can see the type of gears and if it uses bearings or not. Also a run and crawl test would be nice. In addition you never show it pulling a load. Also no gauging test.
Bearings in the gear boxes? I highly doubt it but I am not curious enough to completely disassemble it to find out. The side detail shots is actually speed step 1, so is that what you mean by crawl? Run test = top speed? I personally don't worry too much about factory speeds out of the box because they haven't been broken in yet. I also will adjust the speed tables to speed match them after break in if they are out of sync with my fleet. The pull and push test goes right until the wheels slip. Trust me, weighing 678 grams with 120 grams of pulling capability, this thing will out pull just about anything on the market right now. It's going right into revenue service on my layout after this so we will see what it is made of : ) I can include a gauge test. That is a possible build. Thanks for the feedback Jim!
I disagree, I have many of both. I'm with you that the ESU files are better and there is more variety, but you can only get so much sound out of a tiny speaker. At the end of the day they both sound like tin cans compared to the actual prototypes. Not even close. For me personally, the Soundtraxx decoders run better on my large layout (aren't as affected by voltage drop as much as ESU) and I can make all the CV changes I want with the free software JMRI decoder pro rather than ESU's proprietary programmer that only works on those decoders specifically.
