Athearn Genesis AC4400 - Review and Weathering

[@3006USMC]

Athearn Genesis 2.0 with the body contact points is genius. Game changer.

[@signalupproductions]

Yes, I wish there was a way to retrofit this type of connection to existing engines!

[@StormySkyRailProductions]

Very nice models and installs! You did a Great job simulating a toaster too! Chug, Chug Chug, the G.E. chuggers! (Dave).

[@Crookedriverandeasternrr]

Nice models. Love the weathering

[@petere4540]

I have the cefx bluebird version, highly detailed indeed. Great video

[@signalupproductions]

I really thought about getting a CEFX too. But I have an old Blue box and a bunch of detail parts and decals. So I'll probably make a video on the old school way of getting highly detailed custom models!

[@petere4540]

Both Athearn in rtr and Kato did good models of the cefx ac44 in the past so if you have any of these you may not need this one

[@csxns]

I have three Kato's CEFX like them.@@petere4540

[@hillbillyrailfan]

FANtastic

[@luvindemtrains]

Very nice units. Nice demonstration and run. What type of geep is 8217, around 19:26? Do you have a run session with those?

[@signalupproductions]

That's an Intermountain GP10 from their first run years ago. It's paired with 8394. Both have LokSound decoders that are programmed to operate with our ProtoThrottle. They get run regularly! I'd be happy to make a video of those engines running a local job if you're interested.

[@luvindemtrains]

Nice and please do!@@signalupproductions

[@OffroadTrucker740]

I'm disappointed there is no currentkeeper plug. Are any of the unused soldering pads available for that?

[@signalupproductions]

I'm not sure, because I personally don't use keep-alives. The motherboard is a standard Athearn board, for LED's and the 21-pin decoder. I would assume there are videos on adding capacitors to this boards.

[@jimo5361]

Thanks for review - what ESU sound file did you install?

[@signalupproductions]

I believe s0540 or s0813. I used a couple of different sound files from their website, so it wasn't the exact same sound coming from the different GE's in my consist. I didn't do any tweaking to the file, just used the defaults.

[@jimo5361]

@@signalupproductions thanks

[@upmodeler73]

How is the brightness of the lighting. I have thought that they look dim with ESU decoders.

[@signalupproductions]

The headlight was fine looking straight at it, but maybe a little dim at an angle. The head and rear light LED's are on PC boards mounted to the frame, that line up with the housings when the shell is on. The ditchlights and ground lights are SMD LED's attached to the body. So the ditchlights were plenty bright.

[@CentralJerseyRailfan]

It’s worth noting the the resistors on the Athearn boards are 20K ohms

[@gregginter5867]

Your lighting was poor. Lots of dark video w/minimal viewing of inside/outside of model.