Layout #2, Video #33 - Unboxing Athearn Challenger from Denver, Rio Grande & Western RR

[@VeekerStudios]

Great video! I enjoyed your review and layout, a lot of cool action going on (love the Kaiju!). I'm in a similar situation, go the BLI challenger on pre-order but also eyeing an Athearn one, especially with train worlds' insane sale going on. I'm still hesitant based on skepticism of Athearn's build quality and quality control, but if just a little bit of oil is what's needed to make them run fine, that's reassuring. I'd be keen to doublehead by BLI and Athearn Challengers together. Have you tried putting a functional coupler on the front? Just subscribed, and added a few of your past videos to my watch later list. Cheers, Michael

[@Rothstein_Model_Trains]

Thanks for the compliments and the subscription. I know exactly how you feel about the Athearn quality. I am really surprised since they had such a good reputation in HO from what I was told. Their rolling stock is good on my layout, but their locomotives seem to leave just a little to be desired. I have some problems with their Big Boy (I think it is the decoder more than the basics of the loco but I am not sure), but I have one of their Diesels (an FP45) that I am really happy with. I have not worked on the couplers yet, but I do like the idea of double-heading the two together. I am still talking with my son about how to get the couplers all working together. The BLI and Athearn seem to work together reasonably, but the Kato doesn't. He wants to change everything to Kato and I want the more common all MTC couplers. I am willing to leave the Kato on the trains that are always going to be run as a single train (like the C&NW set or the CB&Q set) since there is no problem with them.

[@VeekerStudios]

@@Rothstein_Model_Trains For the couplers, KATO can be made to work with MT with a little modification. The KATO couplers have a nub on one side of them that prevents the glad hand of the MT coupler from fully seating. Once you cut that off, they're perfectly compatible.