03-17-2012, 10:10 AM
I went ahead and got a second Athearn UP GP9:
After all, who ever heard of just one GP9 behind a turbine? There's also a great sequence in an Emery Gulash DVD of two GP9s on a UP wayfreight in Nebraska, so if anyone comes out with a good GP9B or Omaha GP20 that will mate with an Athearn (or any other) turbine, these will have a good use as a pair by themselves.
I was looking at the model even before I took it out of its plastic sleeve, and I thought it was pretty good, despite all the complaints about it. Here it is in a closer view:
And since a lot of the complaints make invidious comparisons with the Life Like P2K version, here's one of those:
Some of the complaints say the Athearn version has the wrong hood top-to-side radius (!!!), but I frankly don't notice anything there. I think the paint is somewhat better on the Athearn, it has the side mirrors on the cab window and cab interior detail, it has fan blades where the P2K doesn't, and the grabs are better on the Athearn. More to the point, my P2K never ran at all. At all. I kept putting off remotoring it, but I'm thinking harder now about simply turning it into a dummy, now that I have acceptable UP GP9s to run it with.
I notice that one major online retailer has the pre-upgrade Athearn GP9s on sale -- the badmouthing they've had on Another Forum has had its effect, but heck, I'm gonna pick up the bargains here. I think that even with a minor error here and there -- and what's perfect? -- they're still much better than the P2Ks, especially since they actually run. As some guys have pointed out here, you get what you pay for. I wonder if the complainers mostly just don't like that idea.
I was looking at the model even before I took it out of its plastic sleeve, and I thought it was pretty good, despite all the complaints about it. Here it is in a closer view:
I notice that one major online retailer has the pre-upgrade Athearn GP9s on sale -- the badmouthing they've had on Another Forum has had its effect, but heck, I'm gonna pick up the bargains here. I think that even with a minor error here and there -- and what's perfect? -- they're still much better than the P2Ks, especially since they actually run. As some guys have pointed out here, you get what you pay for. I wonder if the complainers mostly just don't like that idea.