GP38-2 Athearn RTR shell on Trainman drive

[faraway]

We're talking individual preference here,....

And even more what factors count more and what factors are less important for each of us.
The noise of the motor as well the trucks and the noise of the engine on bad isolated tracks like mine are the key point for me to avoid the RTR drives of GP38, CF7 etc. (not the very new ones like SW1500 etc.). But the is me and my extreme sensitive ears on poor isolated track in a very silent room.
But I do absolute agree they are great runners. My preferred DCC decoder has no problems to get a smooth low speed start, run steady and pull much more than I need on my small layout.

However, I wanted to demonstrate how easy that shell can be transplanted for what reason ever.
I did add a small brass sheet over the front window to isolate the window glass from the head light and road numbers.

Some weathering will cover the difference between Athearn and Polly Scale CSX blue.