Model Railroading > Atlas GP38 question.

Now that the Atlas GP38 is out can anyone tell me how good it is? Is it as good as the Atlas GP 40? Is it worth buying? Opinions please.

I have two of the Atlas GP38, they are the best I have seen from anyone. I use DCC by NCE and the decoders work just fine. The detailing is at least the equal of the GP40, maybe better. No side frame problems.

They look and run great, they're at least on the same level as the GP40's. One nice touch is that the exhaust stacks are separate parts, in order to give the correct taper of the prototype, which couldn't have been done if they were molded on. I hadn't planned on getting one, but I'm leaning towards picking one up.

They are of course on the same order as the GP40 with the added "bonus" of the installed decoder. The GP38 is a great locomotive....the PC graphics are done really well. I believe that the sideframes are the same as the GP40....I didn't have any operations problems but the spring hanger does hang down to long and the attempt that Atlas made have sanders on the ends just makes them look a little bulky.. FYI Stewart sideframes from their F-units fit the GP38/GP40 perfectly.

The GP38 is such a nice step up that I would hope that they would produce the GP38-2!! It would be much nicer than the Athearn version which still suffers from a poor cab, poor handrails, unit rides too high, bad coupling mounting system, and despite some improvement a poor running mechanism (but the price is right)

The GP38 is such a nice step up that I would hope that they would produce the
GP38-2!! It would be much nicer than the Athearn version which still suffers from a
poor cab, poor handrails, unit rides too high, bad coupling mounting system, and
despite some improvement a poor running mechanism (but the price is right)


Yeah, but I'd rather see Atlas do something else, like a SD35.

The Athearn problems are a VERY easy fix:
-Cannon cab
-Smokey Valley handrails
-Modify the trucks to fix the height (5-10 minute fix there)
-Proto Power West,Kato,or MicroMark motor.

I heard that the GM&O engines are going
to be about 1 month late due to Atlas redoing
the lettering on the GP-38's. It is great that
Atlas cares enough about accuracy to go to the
trouble to re-do this and at a considerable expense.

I heard that the society told them that it was
not exactly correct and they LISTENED! I am going
to purchase more of them now, that they are right.

Good job Atlas! I watched a CSX GP-38 run last
week and it was excellent and even had the crew
painted inside the cab.
Bill D.

Rustedflange is correct in respect to upgrading an Athearn GP38-2 with all the parts. However, by the time you do all that, and a little more, you have the cost up to about what an Atlas, Kato or P2k would run. I did an Athearn GP38-2 for Santa Fe a few years ago. I used the Cannon cab and nose, an overland chassis, the handrails, air conditioner on the roof, plus the extended height horns from Overland for ATSF, the plane for the antenna, the strobe light, replaced the lighing system, Kadee couplers, and guess what? I had the price right up there. Oh, forgot the wire grabs and the lift rings. There was still more I could have done. With the Atlas GP38, I added, road numbers from old decal sets, the antenna plane, the air conditioner, the strobe lights and left the Atlas horns.
So cost is deceiving.