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Observations: Athearn RTR GP60M

I just received Athearn's Santa Fe GP60M with the Warbonnet paint scheme, which looks very good. However, there are a few things folks here should know:

The unit is very light - hardly any weight inside the shell.

Athearn wasn't kidding when they said they were installing a new DCC "harness". In order to use this in DCC mode, you must have a decoder with a

9-pin JST connector! If you want to use a decoder with an 8-pin connector, you will need to do some soldering.

Taking the shell off is simply a matter of removing the couplers and lifting off the shell - it's that easy.

The lights are what we've come to expect out of Athearn - tiny grain-of-wheat incandescents. However, they are nice and bright and do not require resistors.

Reply to
Frank Eva
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Frank,

You said "Athearn wasn't kidding when they said they were installing a new DCC "harness". In order to use this in DCC mode, you must have a decoder with a

9-pin JST connector! If you want to use a decoder with an 8-pin connector, you will need to do some soldering." Why does this not surprise me. Over that past couple of years, Athearn takes a decent idea, includes in a product, but does in a way that dealing with it becomes a pain in the neck for the modeler. I.E. the size of the coupler box on the Trinity hoppers not taking KDs with major surgery. The pre-built cars, losey couplers and trucks that do not roll well. Pre-built engines with handrails installed making it necessary to partially disassemble to get extra detail parts such as grab ons installed. I for one am getting just a little tired of Athearn for the way they do things.

Bob

Reply to
EBTBOB

Well, I do think that the GP60M is a step in the right direction for Athearn. The car comes fully assembled, and it's really easy to get at the internals to do the DCC upgrade. The use of a 9-pin JST connector seems a throwback to their early steam engines that were DCC-ready, though, and in that respect, they haven't been as revolutionary as we've been led to believe prior to the release of the GP60M. The really disappointing aspect to the new design is that with virtually everyone going to decoders with 8 pin connectors, folks will either have to do some soldering (which is not my idea of plug 'n play), or they'll have to forego the use of decoders they may already have and buy new ones specifically for this loco (which is what I had to do - I had some DigiTrax DH121s on hand that worked fine, but the motor in this loco makes a lot of noise and the DH121 does not support silent running. So, I bought some NCE D15SRs to accomodate the special needs of these locos).

BTW, can anyone explain the brass rings at the top of the trucks? They really look out of place and I intend to paint them to match the rest of the truck.

Reply to
Frank Eva

With every major DCC manufacturer making decoders with JST connectors what is the problem? You can get a basic decoder or an advanced decoder with a JST. No problems.

Bill Dixon

Reply to
W.R. Dixon

Well, at least they upgraded the radiator fans from the RPP molded ones. These look much better and this alone is a huge thing for me - since I was expecting the old RPP shells as they were! The grabs are nicely installed. The glazing is fine. I replaced the plow right away with the DA open door model and added MU hoses. The unit is pretty darn light, however.

Reply to
Marc

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