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Post by amtrakfl9 on Jan 19, 2021 14:54:34 GMT -8
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Post by trainboyy on Jan 19, 2021 15:33:19 GMT -8
Those beefy units look awesome, supposed detail inaccuracy aside. That Conrail unit looks especially awesome... maybe my CR bias is kicking in.
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Post by lars on Jan 19, 2021 17:32:43 GMT -8
I'm very biased towards CR, but I think the NS unit looks better as the logo actually fits on the long hood. There's so much going on there, CR should have used the small 'switcher' logo to make it fit, but that would be pretty funny looking in its own right. Now put that logo on an SD60I...
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Post by severn on Jan 19, 2021 18:04:14 GMT -8
How's the sound? I have two of the sd90macs and I think they sound great. I have wondered how they compare.
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Post by railmodeltroy14 on Jan 19, 2021 18:53:58 GMT -8
Hopefully next year Athearn releases a CSX Dark Future paint scheme.
I am anxious to see how the 5000 horsepower, 20 cylinder recording sounds as well.
Thanks for posting.
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Post by bigblow69 on Jan 19, 2021 19:42:41 GMT -8
Can't wait for the Indiana Rail Road SD90MAC.
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Post by amtrakfl9 on Jan 19, 2021 20:03:01 GMT -8
Those aren't my photos, I found them on ebay listings. I just posted since these are the first I've seen of the production models that are actually available in stores.
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Post by csxt8400 on Jan 19, 2021 20:21:31 GMT -8
I picked up my CSXT 807 today. I'm overall quite pleased with it. The frame seems straight, the ditchlights are straight and I noticed no amount of defect or smudges worth mentioning.
Since mine is patched, I don't have to worry about the font size on the CR, but I will probably slide some white into the area that needs it. Later.
The biggest issue I have is the lift-away top of the cab, the mold line is noticeable.
If I had to rate it, I feel pretty strongly that it's an easy 8/10. Spinning bearings, 100% paint/lettering execution, and different mold technique for the roof would put it into near perfection.
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Post by severn on Jan 20, 2021 8:32:50 GMT -8
I assume the 90 is similar and it's at least very very good. I mean I had to resort to using loupes to look at up close. But nothing from 2 ft... Or even a 6 inches to the eye.
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Post by delta767332er on Jan 20, 2021 16:52:27 GMT -8
What's up with the horrifically too-large gap between the front stepwell and the front of the truck? Multiple pictures show the truck sideframe casting ending just shy of the isolated cab joint and on the model it's like three miles away. I don't have a trained eye for modern junk like 80MACs, but even my time-stopped-in-1993 eye immediately knew that looked whacked as soon as I saw that broadside in the OP. www.sd80mac.com/pics/l-myers/081025_6.jpgBrian Bennett EDIT: Humorous embellishing aside, the location of the front of the truck appears to be several inches off, which, as a percentage/proportion of how big the stepwell/truck gap should be, is visually significant. I don't care enough to analyze whether this could be bolster placement or sideframe casting issue, but the side shots with no dark background really draws one's eye to that potential issue.
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Post by delta767332er on Jan 20, 2021 16:57:45 GMT -8
And as far as there being "no treadplate" on 80MACS, that's of course incorrect. Photos clearly show treadplate welded onto the structural surface of the walkway with a discernible pattern of nubs or some such. Just because an engine doesn't have the familiar diamond/cross stampings of earlier EMD products doesn't mean there's "no treadplate." Tread plate is a plate with some sort of tread stamped or bonded into/on it, hence the name. Treadplate isn't a stamping design.
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Post by cr9617 on Jan 21, 2021 2:50:58 GMT -8
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Post by trainboyy on Jan 21, 2021 9:01:54 GMT -8
And as far as there being "no treadplate" on 80MACS, that's of course incorrect. Photos clearly show treadplate welded onto the structural surface of the walkway with a discernible pattern of nubs or some such. Just because an engine doesn't have the familiar diamond/cross stampings of earlier EMD products doesn't mean there's "no treadplate." Tread plate is a plate with some sort of tread stamped or bonded into/on it, hence the name. Treadplate isn't a stamping design. Show us the photos then.
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Post by edgecrusher on Jan 21, 2021 9:39:47 GMT -8
What we as modelers call "tread plate" is usually referred to as lugged steel in metal fab shops. I don't know much about modern locos but the walkways on these look a lot like what Ryerson steel used to call RyGrit plate. A couple different mills are making similar stuff. Here's a link to one of them. www.slipnot.com/products/floor-plate/
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crocs
New Member
Posts: 9
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Post by crocs on Jan 21, 2021 10:27:44 GMT -8
And as far as there being "no treadplate" on 80MACS, that's of course incorrect. Photos clearly show treadplate welded onto the structural surface of the walkway with a discernible pattern of nubs or some such. Just because an engine doesn't have the familiar diamond/cross stampings of earlier EMD products doesn't mean there's "no treadplate." Tread plate is a plate with some sort of tread stamped or bonded into/on it, hence the name. Treadplate isn't a stamping design. Show us the photos then. I can prove it. EDIT: For the raised walkways behind the cab on both sides.the-boring-the-adoring.com/sd80mac-treadTwo photos I took of a Conrail SD80MAC clearly showing tread plate (not GE style nubs) and with a pattern. The top layer of the tread was painted Conrail blue and a black sandy paint on top of that for slip resistance. My photos show all of the layers. I couldn't attach, so I put them on my site. Conrail was very safety focused and would not leave off such an important feature. You can't go by photos taken above the engine...you have to look at the details. I don't have the model, but if it isn't on it, then clearly it was "missed". Wes
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Post by trainboyy on Jan 21, 2021 11:49:42 GMT -8
Show us the photos then. I can prove it. the-boring-the-adoring.com/sd80mac-treadTwo photos I took of a Conrail SD80MAC clearly showing tread plate (not GE style nubs) and with a pattern. The top layer of the tread was painted Conrail blue and a black sandy paint on top of that for slip resistance. My photos show all of the layers. I couldn't attach, so I put them on my site. Conrail was very safety focused and would not leave off such an important feature. You can't go by photos taken above the engine...you have to look at the details. I don't have the model, but if it isn't on it, then clearly it was "missed". Wes Thanks for the picture Wes. Just wanted to see... maybe the pictures with the tread gone is because of wear and tear slowly rubbing/widdling away at the pattern, which could make it flush with the walkway, which is probably why I haven't seen any pics of CR units lacking the treadUnless it's a case-by-case thing. I don't know whether some of them have tread or not, but I'm gonna guess since some CR-era ones had them and others did not, perhaps the initial ones were delivered without it, and the latter ones came with? I don't really know, or have evidence to back this up. It's all just speculation on my part
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crocs
New Member
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Post by crocs on Jan 21, 2021 11:53:04 GMT -8
No problem. You have to get close to see it for sure, but the pictures tell the story. I can't imagine all of the tread would wear off. I'll have to see if I have any later detail shots.
Wes
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Post by cr9617 on Jan 21, 2021 11:59:16 GMT -8
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Post by gevohogger on Jan 21, 2021 11:59:20 GMT -8
The "black sandy paint" most railroads use is very thick, almost like truck bedliner coating. I can fully understand if it obscures the diamond pattern beneath it.
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Post by delta767332er on Jan 21, 2021 15:24:28 GMT -8
May I suggest that you read my post that you responded to again more slowly and deliberately. For your convenience: I said that people, including Athearn, are confusing the term "tread plate" with the type of non-slip surface applied to a surface, that surface commonly being tread plate. In the context of EMD 35-70 series locomotives, one of two diamond patterns were pressed into steel plate (I think 1/4 inch) that was then welded onto the walkway surface. In every picture I've seen of 80MACs where it would be discernible, this tread plate (sans stamping, apparently) is also seen. What apparently is up for debate, is what technique was or was not applied on or to this tread plate to produce a non-slip surface. In Wes's pictures above, that really only verifies there was the typical stamped plate applied to the elevated walkway. Along the hood in the background, some sort of texture is obvious, but it does appear to be NOT the same stamped treadplate. However, again, every picture I've seen of an SD80MAC walkway, where it would be discernible, shows a welded tread plate on the surface of the walkway, as expected. Similar to Wes's picture, they also show some sort of discernible texture or pattern, whether it's bonded grit, or lugs, or small stamps, I don't know. I can understand Athearn's decision to not try to replicate bonded grit or some such, but their position, as well as others in this thread, that there's "no treadplate" is simply inaccurate, misleading at best. Treadplate has been tooled onto locomotives for what, over a decade? I would expect a brand new Genesis engine to at least have the same level of tooling that locomotive models have had for years. Sure, leave the grit nightmare to the modeler if desired, but the treadplate should be there. Frankly, if I needed SD80MACs, I'd be much more concerned about the appearance of the location of the bolsters and/or size of the sideframes such that there are way-too-large gaps between the trucks and stepwells and fuel tanks, making the model look quite ridiculous. Perhaps Athearn chose to design this new state of the art model to operate on the 18" radius curves of those who are worried about grit not being modeled on the walkway while ignoring that the model overall looks silly-ly wrong.
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Post by railmodeltroy14 on Jan 22, 2021 6:43:13 GMT -8
I have several of the Kato versions of this model.
In 2002, those were considered state-of-the-art HO scale locomotives.
19 years later how far the model railroad industry has evolved and improved.
As nice as the Kato SD90/80mac were, this Genesis 2.0 model offers so much more and Athearn deserves praise for raising the bar for details, paint and finish for 1/87 scale replicas.
The Genesis Conrail SD80MAC pulling 24 of the new Scale Trains Bethgons would be a welcome addition to any layout.
Instead of being critical of minor issues, I prefer to compliment Athearn for an excellent model.
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Post by amtrakfl9 on Jan 22, 2021 16:16:00 GMT -8
Hopefully next year Athearn releases a CSX Dark Future paint scheme. I am anxious to see how the 5000 horsepower, 20 cylinder recording sounds as well. Thanks for posting. Well... it sounds like they just used a 16 cylinder recording. Sounds exactly like one of the versions of 16-710G available in previous Tsunami 2 decoders. Not my video:
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Post by cemr5396 on Jan 22, 2021 17:24:33 GMT -8
Hopefully next year Athearn releases a CSX Dark Future paint scheme. I am anxious to see how the 5000 horsepower, 20 cylinder recording sounds as well. Thanks for posting. Well... it sounds like they just used a 16 cylinder recording. Sounds exactly like one of the versions of 16-710G available in previous Tsunami 2 decoders. Not my video: I wonder if there was some mix up at the factory and they put the wrong decoders in? I seem to remember they had a video a while back showing of the pre-production model and I don't think it sounded like that. You are right though, it sounds exactly the same as the SD75I I got recently.
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Post by severn on Jan 23, 2021 7:39:18 GMT -8
For me the sound is important. Lacking the real thing in truth I have no idea what each kind sounds like. And I've wondered how much trouble these companies go through in this area.
I think the sd90mac sounds great. While there are some similarities with some other diesel I have, it's distinctive enough to be seemingly "the real thing".
But is it? I have no idea.
To me as a possible buyer I'd like the 80 to be different from the 90, assuming it is a different set of internals and I'd rather expect that they went to some effort to get the sound if the real thing exisrs in running condition out there somewhere.
Otherwise they should say really... "Simulated", "reconstructed" sound or some such on the packaging or documentation.
Well if course they aren't going to do that. I'm sure they realize most (many?) of have no direct knowledge of the real sounds.
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Post by 12bridge on Jan 23, 2021 8:48:41 GMT -8
Well, ESU has a proper 20 cylinder recording..
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Post by NS4122 on Jan 23, 2021 8:58:12 GMT -8
There was no mix up, that's the sound they've been showing all along, which is disappointing. It doesn't sound like an SD80MAC. While the other 710 recordings on the decoder are also 16 cylinders, maybe they would sound more appropriate? I haven't heard ESU's V5 file in a model so I can't comment, but their select file was terrible.
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Post by ncrc5315 on Jan 23, 2021 9:47:58 GMT -8
The SD90MAC-H, would have a four cycle engine it, therefore it will sound significantly different than any other EMD, which were all two cycle. I have operated the SD90MAC-H, and the Athearn model does sound like one. I have never operated the SD80MAC, but have operated SD45's. I would assume, but do not know if they sound similar.
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Post by delta767332er on Jan 23, 2021 14:35:51 GMT -8
In the context of a conversation about locomotive sounds, an SD80MAC sounds nothing like a SD45, unless one was to draw a comparison of the turbo sound when an SD45 is set up for low idle, and even those turbo sounds are pretty distinctively different. Otherwise, their shared 20 cylinders don't really translate to a similar sound. Again, depends on the context. I suppose an 80MAC sounds more like an SD45 than a C630 does, but.........
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Post by ncrc5315 on Jan 23, 2021 15:18:11 GMT -8
In the context of a conversation about locomotive sounds, an SD80MAC sounds nothing like a SD45, unless one was to draw a comparison of the turbo sound when an SD45 is set up for low idle, and even those turbo sounds are pretty distinctively different. Otherwise, their shared 20 cylinders don't really translate to a similar sound. Again, depends on the context. I suppose an 80MAC sounds more like an SD45 than a C630 does, but......... As I said, never ran an SD80.
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Post by severn on Jan 23, 2021 18:13:14 GMT -8
Maybe it's a covid thing. I mean how does one go about getting a real recording? It's got to be harder than going to the nearest tracks and waiting. Maybe this time every train in town was busy, or not available...
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