ATHEARN SF C44-9w

[bigblow69]

I just bought two of these without DCC and indtalled Lokpilot decoders and just have mixed feelings about them. Performance for moving the the 20 car of mostly walthers pig flats is excellent. Those are quite heavy with fully loaded trailers. The finish leaves something to be desired. The red lacks all pop. It's way too dull and flat. I know some modelers like it like that but I'd have preferred semi gloss. The silver looks better than the offering by Scaletrains. There is a black wire that came loose inside and I don't know where to connect it. It's for the rear hood steplight. It's colored black so I suspect it's ground. Anyone that can help with that I appreciated. I will continue running them, I may upgrade to sound at a latter date. These locos with sound are just getting to expensive.

[prr 4467]

I owned all 3 road numbers of the Santa Fe C44-9W. They are the best detailed loco, imo, that Athearn has made, even better done than the recently introduced new from the ground up (so they said) AC4400CW. My son has one of those, so we can make a reasonably valid comparison.  The Santa Fe C44-9W just looks better assembled and a bit nicer.

On the recent run of C44-9W's they did tone down the red a bit, perhaps for the plethora of modelers who want to have weathered red/silver warbonnets. I did not care for that finish either, myself, but Athearn had factually already made the shiny new red/silver warbonnet version, so with the second (and several years later) release they clearly went for the not pristine look. I didn't care for it either, but the models were fantastically well done, and they sound pretty good. Certainly a worthy competitor to the other guys.

I subsequently did sell my red warbonnets and then switched to steam locos.

It is very understandable that some might want a remaining red warbonnet to look fresh...forever...and not the ragged-out look that the survivors had by 2019.

[tony]

There is a the Ready-To-Run (former Blue Box Updated) and there is the Genesis (all new tooling) - am I correct?

I recently saw a much of Athearn Dash 9's hit the market which I believe are the R-T-R version. I'm curious what, if any, changes (improvements) were done with these. Do they have an updated frame for additional weight? Are they sound speaker ready? Are the ditch light working or fake? is the coupler box just a box and lid or was the pilot area re-done to make it more like the Genesis style? Is the air horn plastic or a brass casting?

[NS4122]

The latest Athearn Dash 9's are Genesis 2.0. There are many videos on YouTube that show all the features. Here's one:

Sept 23, 2024 11:32:27 GMT -8 tony said:

There is a the Ready-To-Run (former Blue Box Updated) and there is the Genesis (all new tooling) - am I correct?

I recently saw a much of Athearn Dash 9's hit the market which I believe are the R-T-R version. I'm curious what, if any, changes (improvements) were done with these. Do they have an updated frame for additional weight? Are they sound speaker ready? Are the ditch light working or fake? is the coupler box just a box and lid or was the pilot area re-done to make it more like the Genesis style? Is the air horn plastic or a brass casting?

[spsf]

Sept 23, 2024 11:32:27 GMT -8 tony said:

There is a the Ready-To-Run (former Blue Box Updated) and there is the Genesis (all new tooling) - am I correct?

I recently saw a much of Athearn Dash 9's hit the market which I believe are the R-T-R version. I'm curious what, if any, changes (improvements) were done with these. Do they have an updated frame for additional weight? Are they sound speaker ready? Are the ditch light working or fake? is the coupler box just a box and lid or was the pilot area re-done to make it more like the Genesis style? Is the air horn plastic or a brass casting?

Some pilot details, working ditch lights, 21 pin DCC plug and come with speakers installed.