How much can we justify spending?

[Green_Elite_Cab]

they are proportionally inferior to the Athearn equivalents.
-----------------------------------------
Actually the BB locomotives and cars was pretty generic exception being some of the newer(the scale hood engines) releases like the SW1500,SW100,SD40-2,GP40-2 and the near generic GP50/60..The BB GP38-2 remains the best GP38-2 shell on the market.

Yes, ignoring the older wide body shells (and there were scale width Rail Power Products shells for that), Athearn is pretty good. In fact, generic is just how I like my models. As long as they get the basic proportions right, and don't try to add a crap ton of unnecessary molded on detail, I'm happy. They might not have been 100% accurate, but they weren't quite "wrong". In many cases, you could just replace the generic details with more accurate ones from Detail Associated or Details West, or where ever. It might not even be necessary to do major work to the model itself in many cases.

As far as comparing them to Bachmann... just put an Athearn GP40-2 next to the Bachmann one. As you've noted, the athearn GP38-2 is pretty fantastic. Ultimately, You could probably pick up a blue box GP40-2, fix it up yourself, add a decoder and details, and still cost less than buying the DCC On board while having a much nicer model.

Sadly Athearn has botch some paint schemes on the Genesis locomotives and the QA/QC is spotty at best and these are Athearn's top of the line.Their RTR has spotty QA/QC as well.

The good news is Athearn QA/QC issues is improving.

Here's a example of Athearn lagging QA/QC. Note the headlights.

Athearn did send free replacement handrails after I advised them of the problem..

I've heard of a lot of complaints on the internet, but I personally have only encountered two issues, one with an MRC Sound decoder for the SD45-2 (apparently, MRC sound decoders are inherently unreliable), and my GP15-1 arrived with the roof of the hood partially pressed into the body shell, but it wasn't bad enough to justify sending it back.

Still, these are mostly issues with the factory, things like the paint jobs and the actual shape of the models are things that should be done right on the drawing board. This is why I am less forgiving for these sorts of mistakes.