Post by dieselgiants on Nov 7, 2014 12:26:04 GMT -5
Recently purchased the brand new Athearn SD70ACe EMD Demonstrators in the Blue Scheme, Road Numbers 1202 and 1205 and the UP SD70ACe from the same production run. Houston, we have a problem. First, there has been a lot of anticipation for the EMD demo units with a lot of fanfare over the EMD 1201 Caterpillar paint scheme unit (which is delayed with no predicted delivery date). This model has been over ordered for all road numbers 1201-1205. Fans will be disappointed with the EMD Blue series. Here is what I found wrong with them;
Warped frames - the subframe assemblies are sloppily glued out of plane creating a bow in the center and area closest to the back of the cab. A very noticeable hump that transfers to the shell. The EMD Blue units are so bad it looks like 1202 has a hunchback. Worse on my 1202 than the 1205. The EMD 1202 unit also has a twist to the frame which is severe enough to affect tracking. I didn't run it much since I had contacted Athearn with the issues and want to return or get replacements (there are none).
Warped shells - the warped frame is bowing the shell to the extent that the screwed on isolated cab is separated at the top where it joins the rear of the shell by as much as .050". Quite visible.
The fuel tank was so loose on 1202 that it fell off when removing unit from packaging as well as several other detail parts. The screw holding the tank on was stripped.
Glue spots can be seen in several areas protruding under the frame and sloppy glue marks where handrails are attached.
Severely distorted Celcon handrails. Why Athearn doesn't go to brass or stainless is beyond me.
Paint separation is blurred, sloppy and inconsistent. There are areas where there should be sharp delineation between colors that show overspray. The paint metallic finish is hard to achieve correctly and Athearn botched it. The paint is worse than the old BB DD40X EMD demo unit metallic paint. The paint also looks to be weak in spots with poor coverage and underlying show-through. There appears to be paint runs around the rear radiator fan sections and the lines on the roof are so heavily painted they have lost their definition. They decaled over the metallic paint which causes the image and text on the decaling or pad printing to become most illegible as the image has show through. Overall, not a very impressive job. The unit lacks the sharp and crisp delineation and clean lines we have all known to love from their heritage series.
The speaker sound has static and rattles at volume. Athearns sound execution has been in want lately.
The UP unit was the best of the bunch but still shows a pronounced bow at the center of the unit. The deck should be flat and is not.
Thumbs down on what should have been an exceptional well executed unit.
I did send the information to Athearn coupled with quite a few pictures. They let me know they hadn't had time to look at it as they were too busy packing up for Trainfest. Really. You have a Athearn customer from 1975 on who lets you know you have a production QA issue and you blow them off to get ready to vend more substandard product???
When we the consumer spend hundreds of dollars of our locomotives we expect that the units will be of equal quality. Athearn is resting on its laurels again. There are lots of competitors out there with great product: Proto2000, Bowser, Intermountain, Atlas, Kato and so on. Enough so that they should consider this an issue. Since they still have two more versions coming in of the SD70ACe release; Caterpillar EMD1201 and Canadian National, they should really hit this one hard to alleviate any further quality issues and potential loss of customer.
Athearn is capable of producing some of the finest models out there when they want to. They are listening less and less to the customer base. A good example is offering the SD45, SD40T-2 and SD45T-2 in RTR only. Really. These were some of the most popular locomotives at the time and deserve to be issued in full Genesis regalia with Tsunmai sound and DCC. Standy by for Athearn feedback.
Warped frames - the subframe assemblies are sloppily glued out of plane creating a bow in the center and area closest to the back of the cab. A very noticeable hump that transfers to the shell. The EMD Blue units are so bad it looks like 1202 has a hunchback. Worse on my 1202 than the 1205. The EMD 1202 unit also has a twist to the frame which is severe enough to affect tracking. I didn't run it much since I had contacted Athearn with the issues and want to return or get replacements (there are none).
Warped shells - the warped frame is bowing the shell to the extent that the screwed on isolated cab is separated at the top where it joins the rear of the shell by as much as .050". Quite visible.
The fuel tank was so loose on 1202 that it fell off when removing unit from packaging as well as several other detail parts. The screw holding the tank on was stripped.
Glue spots can be seen in several areas protruding under the frame and sloppy glue marks where handrails are attached.
Severely distorted Celcon handrails. Why Athearn doesn't go to brass or stainless is beyond me.
Paint separation is blurred, sloppy and inconsistent. There are areas where there should be sharp delineation between colors that show overspray. The paint metallic finish is hard to achieve correctly and Athearn botched it. The paint is worse than the old BB DD40X EMD demo unit metallic paint. The paint also looks to be weak in spots with poor coverage and underlying show-through. There appears to be paint runs around the rear radiator fan sections and the lines on the roof are so heavily painted they have lost their definition. They decaled over the metallic paint which causes the image and text on the decaling or pad printing to become most illegible as the image has show through. Overall, not a very impressive job. The unit lacks the sharp and crisp delineation and clean lines we have all known to love from their heritage series.
The speaker sound has static and rattles at volume. Athearns sound execution has been in want lately.
The UP unit was the best of the bunch but still shows a pronounced bow at the center of the unit. The deck should be flat and is not.
Thumbs down on what should have been an exceptional well executed unit.
I did send the information to Athearn coupled with quite a few pictures. They let me know they hadn't had time to look at it as they were too busy packing up for Trainfest. Really. You have a Athearn customer from 1975 on who lets you know you have a production QA issue and you blow them off to get ready to vend more substandard product???
When we the consumer spend hundreds of dollars of our locomotives we expect that the units will be of equal quality. Athearn is resting on its laurels again. There are lots of competitors out there with great product: Proto2000, Bowser, Intermountain, Atlas, Kato and so on. Enough so that they should consider this an issue. Since they still have two more versions coming in of the SD70ACe release; Caterpillar EMD1201 and Canadian National, they should really hit this one hard to alleviate any further quality issues and potential loss of customer.
Athearn is capable of producing some of the finest models out there when they want to. They are listening less and less to the customer base. A good example is offering the SD45, SD40T-2 and SD45T-2 in RTR only. Really. These were some of the most popular locomotives at the time and deserve to be issued in full Genesis regalia with Tsunmai sound and DCC. Standy by for Athearn feedback.
