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Post by richardthomasatal on Jan 6, 2024 7:32:37 GMT -8
Look, I don't know nor care about Amtrak locos, so I don't have a dog in this fight, but road number in the wrong place can actually be fixed if somebody really wants to fix it. Though unfortunate for sure, that's not that egregious of a mistake. Aren't we modelers actually supposed to be able to fix things like this? Can nobody decal anymore, or do a little road number removal, paint touch-up and/or clearcoat? I agree with you, but only up to a point. Eventually the time will come when it's a model for which there are no decals. Or no decals of the right size or color. Sure, the Brian Bannas of the group will just draft up a new decal in CAD and whisk it off to their printer, but most of the rest of us are going to be out of luck. And as simple as it sounds, even a quick re-decalling and clearcoating of a plastic locomotive is beyond the scope of some of their customers. Anyone who has ever been a member of a club knows there's always some guy who can find a way to ruin a very expensive model trying to do something you or I could do in no time.
These models come from "the premium trains from Athearn". They should be held to a higher bar.
I don't think so, companies moving from decaling will be in deep trouble fast. 90% of today's modelers don't know how to do the most basic of tasks including decaling. |
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Post by jonklein611 on Feb 7, 2024 10:48:48 GMT -8
Just got notice that the Via Rail ones have come in. I'll report back once I receive my order.
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Post by win70rob on Feb 10, 2024 18:45:00 GMT -8
I’ve had issues with almost all manufacturers and yes when you pay good money you want a good product. I will say, that with 3 Athearn Genesis issues I’ve had, within a few weeks they made good on it. For me it was B&M GP9s that were missing the winterization hatches and they sent me the parts. I’ve had a GP39-2 and a GP40-2 that they made good on. I’ve had issues with Atlas and Bowser. Bowser did the decals wrong on the blue dip B&M RS3, the 1519 had the number in the wrong spot and the BM was the wrong style.
Most of the time I prefer undec models, therefore if there is a paint issue it’s on me and I also like painting models that no one else has. Nothing like being at a club setup or event and 10 people have the same locomotive
Not to put anyone down in the model train community today but it seems that many have lost the ability to build/paint/detail models and it’s becoming a lost art. I hear excuses at club setups that people don’t have time to build or work on “Model” trains. I’m not directing this towards anyone here but as a full time lineman that works a ton I still find a little time to build and paint.
To end my rant, I’ve had issues with many manufacturers that have made good with me. The only one that wouldn’t acknowledge there fault was Rapido when they Botched the colors on the D&H RS11. Hopefully Athearn overs a replacement shell. I’ve personally had good luck with them. One of the D&H GP39-2s I got a few years back had a crooked shield on the cab. Only 1 out of 4 had that issue and they sent me a shell that didn’t have the problem free of charge
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Post by edwardsutorik on Feb 10, 2024 20:29:27 GMT -8
Not to put anyone down in the model train community today but it seems that many have lost the ability to build/paint/detail models and it’s becoming a lost art. I hear excuses at club setups that people don’t have time to build or work on “Model” trains. I’m not directing this towards anyone here but as a full time lineman that works a ton I still find a little time to build and paint. Your perception that "...the ability to build/paint/detail models...becoming a lost art." may be correct. I will say that I was there way back when, and I don't recall model railroaders being all that talented. However. It can be really grating when a purchaser of a product is expected to repair the failings of the manufacturer, or be labeled a "bad modeler". We, as modelers, are doing a FAVOR to manufacturers when we fix their mistakes. And, admittedly, to ourselves. It is not our natural obligation to do so. These are two separate questions: Are model builders' abilities failing? Are manufacturers' products crap needing repair? Ed |
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Post by cemr5396 on Feb 10, 2024 23:02:24 GMT -8
These are two separate questions: Are model builders' abilities failing? Are manufacturers' products crap needing repair? I tend to think that the answer to the first question is generally yes, and the answer to the second is generally no, and the two issues are inverse to each other. As the models get better and better, there is generally less need for the average modeler to put any work into them to be happy with their purchase. So in general, the skill of the 'average' modeler has probably gone down. Now, the companies certainly mess up once in a while, (some more than others) but in general we have things pretty good right now. Now that's not to say nobody knows how to model any more. Many members here are proof of that. Sometimes you want to make a variation of something that the model maker didn't, sometimes you have to fix someone else's mistakes, sometimes the thing you want is not available at all and you have to build your own. I've done all three. |
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Post by jonklein611 on Feb 11, 2024 10:09:03 GMT -8
No major issues here. The loco is quite heavy for its size. Shockingly it might be heavier than my Kato P42 units. Slow speed performance is fine at 128 speed steps, it ran a bit quick when set to 28 steps though.
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Post by NS4122 on Mar 6, 2024 13:49:15 GMT -8
Athearn sent out an email today saying that they will be offering replacement body shells for P42 #46 to fix the number placement error. The new shells will be available in April and they will release more info on how to get them.
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Post by snootie3257 on Mar 6, 2024 14:08:16 GMT -8
Athearn sent out an email today saying that they will be offering replacement body shells for P42 #46 to fix the number placement error. The new shells will be available in April and they will release more info on how to get them. I received this e-mail too and immediately thought “This is what separates the men from the boys” (Athearn from Rapido). Although it doesn’t affect me I’m glad to see this response to issues from the manufacturer. Steve |
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Post by grahamline on Mar 6, 2024 14:46:01 GMT -8
What the 3/6/24 message says:
We wanted to share the latest news with you pertaining to the Amtrak 50th Anniversary Phase V #46 locomotives. Unfortunately, shortly after shipments began, an error was discovered that impacted the quality of these offerings from Athearn.
Operationally, the locomotives work as expected. The difficulty noted was an aesthetic defect. Specifically, the road number on the right side of the locomotive was not positioned correctly during the decoration process of the production. While a number of customers do not care about this detail, it’s something that we take very seriously.
We immediately stopped shipping goods from our distribution centers and held all remaining inventory onsite.
Additionally, our team began working to develop a solution that will be acceptable to all parties and ensure that the locomotives continue to not only function properly but offer the prototypical accuracy for which Athearn, and our valued customers, have come to expect in the over 76 years we’ve been supporting the modeling community.
The proper resolution is to offer a fully painted- and detailed- body shell to all impacted models and modelers. We are happy to report that these bodies will be ready for shipment in April 2024 and will be sent to all customers/retailers accordingly.
We sincerely apologize for this error. We will have additional information available as to the process to request a free body shell replacement shortly. In the meantime, if you have one of the impacted units, continue modeling and enjoy your time on the rails!
Impacted SKUs:
ATHG81117- AMD103/P42 Amtrak 50th Anniversary Phase V #46
ATHG81317- AMD103/P42 with DCC & Sound Amtrak 50th Anniversary Phase V #46
Again, we apologize for this error and will have a replacement shell for you shortly.
The Athearn Team
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Post by simulatortrain on Mar 6, 2024 14:59:27 GMT -8
It's nice to see them fix things, but I don't get why some goofs get fixed and others don't. See that run of F7s a few years back with all sorts of phase mishaps where they said it is what it is.
Yeah, it would hurt the bottom line to fix everything. Maybe that's incentive to listen to those who freely provide input as so many do, so that it's right in the first place.
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ictom
Junior Member
Posts: 83
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Post by ictom on Mar 11, 2024 7:46:59 GMT -8
Athearn sent out an email today saying that they will be offering replacement body shells for P42 #46 to fix the number placement error. The new shells will be available in April and they will release more info on how to get them. I received this e-mail too and immediately thought “This is what separates the men from the boys” (Athearn from Rapido). Although it doesn’t affect me I’m glad to see this response to issues from the manufacturer. Steve For what I've purchased of their stuff, everything I've asked of Rapido they've sent it - for free. That includes a traction-tireless driver set for a Royal Hudson and dozens of parts for the E8s and passenger cars I have. |
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Post by sd80mac on Mar 12, 2024 10:18:59 GMT -8
It's nice to see them fix things, but I don't get why some goofs get fixed and others don't. See that run of F7s a few years back with all sorts of phase mishaps where they said it is what it is. Yeah, it would hurt the bottom line to fix everything. Maybe that's incentive to listen to those who freely provide input as so many do, so that it's right in the first place. Never forget the brown PC F7s! |
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Post by NS4122 on Mar 12, 2024 11:41:04 GMT -8
I couldn't resist getting one of the "Midnight Blue" P42s, but this time I opted for the Sound/DCC version. I'm happy with the Tsunami sound and the lights seem quite a bit brighter than they are on the nonsound 108 that I have. I may replace the factory speakers with Scale Sounds speakers. Also, I did have trouble programming the address with decoder pro. I couldn't get it to take for some reason so I ended up setting it by programming it with my NCE throttle and it worked fine.
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Post by packer on Mar 12, 2024 13:17:28 GMT -8
It's nice to see them fix things, but I don't get why some goofs get fixed and others don't. See that run of F7s a few years back with all sorts of phase mishaps where they said it is what it is. Yeah, it would hurt the bottom line to fix everything. Maybe that's incentive to listen to those who freely provide input as so many do, so that it's right in the first place. Don't forget about that GP18 where they advertised it as having 4-step wells but was delivered with the normal 3-step wells. I did make a part to fix that though, but I shouldn't have had to. |
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Post by drolsen on Mar 25, 2024 10:52:33 GMT -8
I received this e-mail too and immediately thought “This is what separates the men from the boys” (Athearn from Rapido). Although it doesn’t affect me I’m glad to see this response to issues from the manufacturer. Steve For what I've purchased of their stuff, everything I've asked of Rapido they've sent it - for free. That includes a traction-tireless driver set for a Royal Hudson and dozens of parts for the E8s and passenger cars I have. Same here. Rapido initially released their B&O USRA boxcar in an odd mud color that was apparently a mistake by the factory (since the other paint schemes in the release were done in normal brown / boxcar red colors). Rapido sent out complete replacement bodies for both the regular run B&O cars and the special run that the B&O Historical Society contracted with them to produce. I received a 6-pack of boxcar bodies in their plastic clamshells and swamped them out with the off-color bodies - just pulled out the underframes and inserted them in the new shells. Rapido told me to keep the original bodies. If I can strip them cleanly, I may eventually put them on cheap Accurail underframes. Before (top) and after:  I'm pretty sure Rapido has replaced the shells for one of their diesel releases for a similar issue. Yes, the paint mistakes shouldn't happen in the first place, but Rapido has fixed them in at least a few cases. I know they've had some tooling issues that were identified after a release that they didn't want to fix, but that's a different story and a much more expensive proposition. I've seen some manufacturers fix tooling issues when releasing a subsequent run of a model, but I understand why they are reluctant to invest in those changes based on uncertain returns. Dave |
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