Model Railroading > Athearn Genesis ATSF F7's Yellow Bonnet's

Hello All, 
 I’m reaching out to see if anyone has notice besides me that the latest Athearn Genesis F7 Yellow Bonnet's G19548 have CN&W dark green truck side frames and fuel tanks. Does Athearn know about this and was a fix made that I’m not aware of? Thoughts please. Thank you , Joe
 

Paint em.

tomstp Wrote:
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> Paint em.

For the price that you pay for models,they 
need to be
correct

I wonder if yours is a one-off mistake, or if the wrong shells got put on the wrong drives for a whole run?

Sounds like an assembly mistake.   This happened with a few of the P42s.  The units to have dark grey trucks, and tanks, ended up with silver ones.   Contact Athearn.
 

I have seen this on several ATSF units on both ebay and in my local hobby barn. 

I sent a message off to Athearn so lets see what they have to say. 

Well that was a waste of time to discuss the issues with Athearn. Here is their reply. I'm sure this purchase will be the last purchase from them I will have made. I would have a better feeling about them if they actually recognized the issue. 

Thank you for contacting Athearn Horizon Hobby.

ATHG19548 is discontinued and sold out from our distribution centers. Due to the cosmetic discrepancies we suggest contacting your point of purchase for exchange should or refund.  


Regards,


Athearn Horizon Hobby

Wow, what a bunch of jerks!    I have switched to WAL/PRO F's.   They have much better smoother drives, no electrical pick up issues and the number boards and class lights can be lit.   I also use Intermountain F's.   They also run better as long as it is a latter run with the better motor.   Also they have lit number boards and class lights.   The only drawback is the cab interior is not as nice but you can't tell unless you peer through the windows.

Richard.

The models sound like something someone would dump on eBay and then say, "Hey, didn't you look at the photos!"

Victor B.

Joe -
I looked at my ATHG19548 set, and under bright daylight lamps they are indistinguishable from my Genesis SD80MAC demonstrator sideframes.  (Hey, you use what you have handy!) If there is any color difference on these it is indistinguishable, and the A and B units match each other. That's not saying yours aren't, because things like that can happen in a run of hand-assembled units.

As for the comments about fixing the color, readers need to understand that retail on this AB set is $600, and the street price is still $480. At that price a purchaser has reason to expect the colors to be fairly accurate, especially for locomotive black.

Dano

For the money we are paying these days it does suck when something isn't right, and that's how we justify the expense by not having to do things ourselves. But in this case be thankful the body doesn't need modifications. Its just chassis and tanks needing paint. The easiest thing to do.
Often manufacturers will make claims that they have correct axle bearings and journals, but rarely do. We all know shops change things all the time and you have to model a locomotive for your specific time period off photographs. In some cases you'll have to paint trucks anyway. It will take longer to clean an airbrush than it will take to fix the problem. In my opinion its not a big deal and certainly not a deal breaker, dude you got a yellow bonnet on the best, most accurate F unit made.

TomG Wrote:
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> For the money we are paying these days it does
> suck when something isn't right, and that's how we
> justify the expense by not having to do things
> ourselves. But in this case be thankful the body
> doesn't need modifications. Its just chassis and
> tanks needing paint. The easiest thing to do.
> Often manufacturers will make claims that they
> have correct axle bearings and journals, but
> rarely do. We all know shops change things all the
> time and you have to model a locomotive for your
> specific time period off photographs. In some
> cases you'll have to paint trucks anyway. It will
> take longer to clean an airbrush than it will take
> to fix the problem. In my opinion its not a big
> deal and certainly not a deal breaker, dude you
> got a yellow bonnet on the best, most accurate F
> unit made.

I sorta agree with this approach, but not in this case. It seems like Athearn made a fundamental mistake. Nobody buys a new car with mismatched quarter panels. We all know mistakes get made. After all these are complicated projects made by humans and reasonable people make allowances.

However Athearns response is really not exceptable. In the MR hobby hobby business model today we're being asked to commit good money to pre-order a product sight unseen that will usually take over a year to get to us, and the only thing we have in our corner is the manufacturer''s good will to make and deliver what they promised. This means we consumers have to trust whom we're doing business with to deliver the promised product and take care of us when the inevitable mistakes are made. We've seen other manufacturers do this with side frames, and even motors. If this is how Athearn chooses to go about owning up to their mistakes, then they won't thrive, and that's bad for the hobby.

If a batch of these suffered this mistake, it would be reasonable to expect Athearn to have properly painted side frames and fuel tanks shipped to those who care about it. 

To SantaFeJoe, is is possible for you to post a photo of your F7 model so those of us unfamiliar with this possible color discrepancy can more clearly observe and understand it? At the moment, I personally do not see the issue between the model and prototype...
Looks pretty dark and dingy under that yellow stripe.


Photo(s) of the Athearn model...
https://www.overlandhobbies.com/ATSF_339L_348A_EMD_F7A_F7B_Standard_DC_p/athg19348.htm
https://www.horizonhobby.com/product/ho-f7a-f7b-with-dcc-and-sound-sf-freight-339l-348a/ATHG19548.html


Photo of the prototype...
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/382665299563805467#imgViewer

found another proto photo...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/402292086169



~ Mr. MRL



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/22 11:15 by MrMRL.

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Another discrepancy -- the model is all silver paint, while the lower and rear panels on the prototype are stainless steel.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/22 10:49 by CPR_4000.

CPR_4000 Wrote:
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> Another discrepancy -- the model is all silver
> paint, while the lower and rear panels on the
> prototype are stainless steel.

May just be the photo angle? Artwork shows the different "silvers"...
https://www.athearn.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=ATHG19348

~ Mr. MRL



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/22 11:11 by MrMRL.

It might very well be paint instead of plating. All the WP passenger F units have come plated until the recent FP7s which is 2 different silvers instead or plating and paint.

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Current release of SF F3s shows a drawing of 2 tone silver but the release appears to lack plating as well. I've heard in the past the plating if a difficult process and a lot of failures occur. I wonder if Athearn just said screw it or if the plater is no longer providing the service.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/22 14:38 by TomG.

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Santa Fe Joe: If you are not happy with your Genesis F units and would like to dispose of them. Please contact me via PM and i'm sure we could work somthing out.

Steve Kelly ssk1047@aol.com

Looks like the dark gray with a little bit of green in it that Athearn uses to represent faded black on primed for grime models.
 

Michael Mosher
Millville, NJ