Athearn Genesis P42DC Review & Testing
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Full review and standardized testing of the 2024 run HO scale General Electric P40DC/P42DC, by Athearn Genesis.
Locomotive weight: 702 grams / 24.7 oz
Drawbar Pull: 102 grams / 3.6 oz
Drawbar Push: 111 grams / 3.94 oz
MSRP:
DC/Silent - $219.99 USD
DCC/Soundtraxx Tsunami II - $319.99 USD
This model was announced in May 2022 and delivered in March 2024 in 7 different paint schemes, 13 unique road numbers with Soundtraxx Tsunami II DCC/sound or DC/DCC ready:
VIA Rail Canada:
Road Number Specific Features
#908 “Love the Way” scheme
English left side
French right side.
#911 “Love the Way” scheme
English right side
French left side.
#916 “Poppy” Scheme
#8 Phase IV repaint, large and small Sinclair antennas, original style nose
#24 Phase IV repaint, large and small Sinclair antennas, original style nose
#97 Phase IV repaint, large and small Sinclair antennas, original style nose
#203 New Special Operation Lifesaver paint scheme, various grouped antennas, bolted nose
VIA Specific Features:
VIA-added extra nose light
VIA style antenna array
Dual 5-chime forward facing horns
Forward and reverse red marker lights
VIA approved artwork
Starting in 2017, VIA began to add wrapped schemes for their P42DC fleet. By 2019, “Love the Way” in both English and French was applied to a few select units with each side having a different version. In Nov. 2019, VIA applied the “Poppy” scheme, a tribute to veterans, to a small handful of units.
Amtrak:
• #813 As-built configuration, Ph III faded stripe scheme, front strobe lights (Function in DCC mode), Rear hostler window
• #816 Later Phase V repaint, bolted nose and revised headlight, removed hostler window
• #822 As-build configuration, Ph III faded stripe scheme, front strobe lights (Function in DCC mode), Rear hostler window
• #824 Later Phase V repaint, bolted nose and revised headlight, removed hostler window
• #837 Later Phase V repaint, bolted nose and revised headlight, removed hostler window
• #839 As-built configuration, Ph III faded stripe scheme, front strobe lights (Function in DCC mode), Rear hostler window
REVIEW:
Detail - Very good. Excellent artwork and paint job. Athearn did an great job recreating this unique paint scheme right down to the smallest details. Printing and lines are crisp. Extra detail parts bag included. 9/10
Operation/Drive train - A bit jerky out of the box in speed step one out of the box. Will likely smooth out once we get some run time on it. Drive train is quiet. 8.5/10
Weight - Weighing in at 702 grams / 24.7 oz, this is an extremely heavy locomotive that is coming in much heavier than the SD70ACu at 678 grams / 23.9 oz. Very impressive that they were able to get this much weight into a 4 axle unit. For context, this thing outweighs the old Kato SD90/43MAC which weighed in at 611 grams and is third to only the recently released Athearn Genesis SD90/43MACH at 722 grams / 25.4 oz and then the Scaletrains ES44AC at a whopping 739 grams. This is reflected in its push/pull ability which outpulls many 6 axle units that I have tested. 9.9/10
Sound - The horn and prime mover are too loud out of the box. You will have to go into the EQ and turn down the horn. I also like the alternative EQ in the function 9 spot where it immediately cuts the volume in half. 8.0/10
Lighting - Headlights, ditch lights, marker lights and number board are all LED. No step lighting when comparing to the Dash 9. The marker lights are perfect in person, not too bright, just like the prototype. 8.75/10
OVERALL SCORE: 8.83 / 10
Athearn did a very nice job recreating this special wrap in HO scale. The paint scheme looks accurate faithfully recreating the road specific detail of which side has English/French. This unit is incredibly heavy and should have no problem rocketing commuter trains around your layout with its extremely capable drawbar push/pull power. Once the volume levels were adjusted and EQ tweaked to favour the low end, they are nice sounding units. The LED lighting is nice and bright. The number board has some bleed around the edges but that can be fixed with a little bit of black paint. It doesn't have all the extra bells and whistles that the recent dash 9 has, such as rolling bearing caps, step/ground lighting but I feel it more than makes up for that with its unique paint job and extremely heavy chassis.
For comparison, all of my other review and tests of HO scale locomotives can be found in my playlists.
Horizon Hobby:
www.horizonhobby.com/trains/
Пікірлер: 39
FYI, F3 activates the emergency horn. You have to latch F3, then the sound it makes with F2 changes (it took us a little while to figure this out) 🤣🤣 The main detail inaccuracy that you might want to fix is that VIA has covers on the plow where the MU hoses come through, and those covers are always kept closed with the hoses tucked behind the plow.
Nice video and review! Glad to see you making review videos again.
I am glad they had their restraint to not put a K5CA on this model instead of a K5
Good to have you Back Ben! Great review!
Another fine review video Ben! Glad to see you making videos again.
Picking mine up this wknd
The extra parts are side steps, a mirror/wind deflector, a GPS dome, and the protective cage for the fireman’s side air dryer.
@timberley512
4 ай бұрын
Oddly, it's the cover for the Amtrak style air dryers, which aren't the same as the VIA ones - so not sure why the included it with the VIA model (perhaps just a standard issue parts bag)
A great review as always! I hope all is well 👍
Nice video Ben. Please keep making them.👍
That is an excellent review. Very well done [as usual] very helpful and insightful too.
Hi 👋🏻 Ben. Hope you and all your family are doing well 👍🏻 Lovely looking model and great review 😀🏴
Great to see you back. The P42 would need the pulling power to pull my Bombardier cars.
hello Ben & it's is Randy and i like yours video is cool & Thanks Ben & Friends & Randy
Very nice loco for sure. Via #1 & 2 go past my town in both directions four different times a week. I make every effort to get out and watch it go by. I really should source one for my collection.💰
Lone time no see Ben great review
I concur with the comments but all decoder manufacturers should have either Keep Alive or Current Keeper built in to keep the performance running smooth over switches consistent. It pulls my five LRC easily. This has a Tsunami2 decoder and I am not sure yet whether it has the snap in connection on the decoder for the Current Keeper. I was was pleasantly surprised with this ATHG product. Kman
Sweet! Awesome.
Indiana here, Whats up Ben!!!
Absolutely gorgeous Ben. I have the older Ready to Roll version, very credible model but lacking a lot of the detail found on your Genesis model.
Good review even though I got a Dcc ready unit no book came with mine Also all the wrapped units have E bells and the front safety horn use all the time and the plow on the front was grey on 908 in pictures now yes it’s black because of the grime build up but she was painted grey on the pilot also the flashing lights what number was it that you used to turn it off But great review glad to see you back at it Cheers
From outside nothing impressive in comparison to older release. Huge difference is weight. BTW the Scaletrains GE ES44AC Tier 4 weights 750g if I good remember.
@BArailsystem
4 ай бұрын
Oh man I totally forgot about that one and I even weighed it myself. Thanks for the reminder I will correct the video info. Scaletrains ES44AC: Locomotive weight: 739 grams / 26.1 oz Drawbar Pull: 126.4 grams / 4.46 oz Drawbar Push: 120 grams / 4.23 oz
I've seen one in Kamloops, BC
I did an Amtrak unit form the last run of these up and right after I finished they announced these. Also the blue roof is a symptom of tbis scheme being a vinyl wrap, one that looks awful in person as these units all have scuffs, dings and rips in the wraps.
P42DC Leading the next Westbound Intermodal on the Laggan Sub when😁
@Elliottblancher
4 ай бұрын
yeah thats a bit inaccurate. the P42's were used for The Corridor Service to replace the aging LRC locomotives, It would be a bit interesting to see if they did run out west
@BArailsystem
4 ай бұрын
We could make that happen :D
Any idea if you can change the bell? Beauty for sure but the bell throws it off a little
If you review the rsc14s , just a heads up the thing has wheel silp to the point of wanting to pull your hair out
Thought the running quality was pretty poor. Like you said, hopefully running in will help.
@pokeyrailfanning
4 ай бұрын
Big part to a locomotive running good is breaking them in! Distributing the lubricant around the gears and in the motor, most run a little tough out of the box, but after a little while of run time it’ll smooth out
@F40Productions
4 ай бұрын
I did up an Amtrak unit from the previous run in this scheme and it runs pretty good, it just has something in the software that makes accelleraction and decelleration slightly janky.
What function is the Red Marker lights ?
@KingTrump2024
4 ай бұрын
Ahh, their direction based...
Ancient internals, they've certainly got their money out of that tooling. Paint looks mediocre. But some really nice features and updates along with the new paint schemes.
Hey didn’t you actually run the locomotive. The rear coupler is drooping noticeably, also the ditch lights flash alternating which is correct for the USA but not Canada. I don’t know if this configurable but is in excusable on a brand new expensive locomotive.
@kuyag68
4 ай бұрын
I would like to know if there is a way to turn off the flashing too.
@BArailsystem
4 ай бұрын
Coming in another video we ran it for a solid couple hours. We were able to change the ditch lights to solid as well with just one CV.