Athearn SD40T-2 Review

[Kevin Johnson]

Question for the forum. How do you rate the Athearn SD40T-2 for accuracy and detail. As I sit and wait, and wait, to gather all the parts for my Alco units I have 3 NYSW tunnel motor's crying for attention. What improvement's need to be made to these units?
I'm looking for guidance.
I had a brain fart to do these units, as delivered from the SP pool, before the glossy paint. Sort of an era within an era deviation. One of the things I love about NYSW is the eclectic mix of "pre owned" motive power. The alternate units are/ would be separate Athearn SP painted units. I appreciate a newly paint job as much as the next guy but it never stays that way. Dirt, bangs, scrapes, rust, and modifications all tell another story.

The idea is to detail and lightly weather the Athearn NYSW units and add the same 3 SP units as delivered, detailed ,heavily weathered with the NYSW patches and mix them chronologically with the shopped units in a lash up. Am I going to far or just having fun?
Or am I just late to the party?
I'd really like to take this on to notch 8.

I think a Forum review of available production units would be helpful, regarding accuracy, scale and detail. The Good, the Bad and the UGLY. No Junk, unless it's suppose to look like junk.

[deez]

Well Kevin, Since Athearns SD40T-2 is the only model of these locomotives in HO scale. Thats your best starting point. Theres really no other SD40T-2 model to compare it to. I think Athearn has done a great job with these as far as all-around accuracy. I think they even have recently improved the certain details on newer runs of thes loco's also. Your best bet is to pick the prototypes you want to model and detail your models accordingly. Look at the prototype photos you have and then check Athearn's site for the closest model.

You're right about the forum review on locomotive models. I also think there should be a section on the accuracy and details of manufacturers production scale models ONLY (nobody's separate works). Whats wrong, whats right, what can be inproved etc. I mean not necessarily to put down a manufacturers efforts but to help everyone make their best representation of the locomotive they want to model. A section where nit-picking and rivet counting is welcomed!

[DRGW 5398]

I would not say there is anything wrong with the Athearn RTR model, they did a very nice job updating the old tooling and they now have far better detail overall.

Really, I don't care for the added detail parts that they add, like the plow or horn, they look chunky compared to DW and DA parts, so I replace them anyway.

The model Mfr. will never be able to make everyone happy, as long as they supply the base model I'm happy!

However, the old runs of them are lacking in the added details dept., the new runs look far better and are normally equipped with the right plows, air lines. coupler cut bars, etc.

Unless the modeler wants to go brass, the Athearn model is your best bet for an accurate model of a SD40T-2.

Here is a photo of a Rio Grande Athearn SD40T-2 that I updated and weathered.

[deez]

Now thats a nice T-motor! I take it that Athearn even got the fuel tank length right for the Grande units. I love it!

[Kevin Johnson]

Thanks guys!
Andy, you do some amazing work! I checked out your website.
I have a weakness for the D&RGW T motors.
Compared to the old BB engines I was impressed with the level of detail right out of the box. I was wondering if there were any glaring
mistakes that I wasn't seeing. It seems that the mfg's are paying closer attention to the prototype and not just slapping on different paint jobs or road numbers that were never used by the RR they're
offering.