Model Railroading > Athearn botches CSX YN3 AC4400W models

I got to take a look at the newly released Athearn CSX YN3 GE AC4400W models today. While the units are in the Athearn Ready-to-Roll line and have plastic handrails and metal grabs installed, they made a major error. The model they used is the two vent dynamic version instead of the proper three vent dynamic version. Athearn makes both versions, so someone must have screwed up big time. Another thing that caught my eye was the locomotive identification lettering on the cab. The real CSX units are labeled by CSX as CW44AC, but Athearn has their models painted with AC44CCTE labels.

Glad I waited to see these in person instead of pre-ordering them.

LBB

The truck sideframes are wrong too. They should not have the "cantilever" struts with the brackets on the engineer's side front truck and the conductor's side rear truck. Instead, they should have the older style struts on all 4 sideframes. Not a big deal to fix if you have some spare struts around..

WOW....Let's flog them within a scale inch of their money grubbing lives!!!

How can they sleep at night!

Was that noise I just heard the sound of the Earth stopping in it's tracks?

Don't take life too seriously, you'll never get out of it alive.....

Are the handrails incorrect also? I looked at pic's of the CSX AC4400 and they have the wide handrails. The models look as though they have narrow handrails.

And if visitors to your model rr can spot that and point it out to your from 3 feet away, then thats a problem...

---Sheesh.

Pj Wrote:
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> And if visitors to your model rr can spot that and
> point it out to your from 3 feet away, then thats
> a problem...

While that's true, if they make the correct body, there's no reason why they shouldn't
use it!

I could easily spot all of the big problems:
A) Incorrect number of dynamic intake grills
B) Incorrect front handrails
C) Incorrect ditch light placement

from 6 feet away...

and the two other minor problems:
D) Truck sideframes
E) Incorrect unit class printed on cab

from more than a foot away...

The BIG problem here is that Athearn has the tooling to do the correct body with 3 dynamic intake grills, the correct truck sideframes, and the wide front handrails (and all three were used on the prior "blue box" CSX AC4400s), and the correct ditch light placement (which was done on the UP RTR AC4400s), and even knew the correct CSX loco class (as they had printed it on the "blue box" CSX AC4400), but yet they still made those errors on the RTR one. Detail inaccuracies when a manufacturer doesn't make the correct body or have the correct parts is to be expected. Such inaccuracies when that manufacturer DOES already have the correct molds and the correct parts is unexplanable except as a manufacturer error...
- BCM

You poor people...can we say SPOILED!?!?!?!

Looks to me that everyone is now spoiled over this 'ready to roll' stuff, that they are afraid to come within the same room of an x-acto knife, glue, and paint!!!!!! So the time you use to complain about Athearn's MISTAKES, why not use the time WISELY and correct the problems to your liking!!!

Everyone who bickers over this kind of nonsense should take a look a few threads down at some of the MODEL RAILROADING going on. The BN TEBC6, CR SD38, and EJE SD38-2's. That kind of extensive model railroading/kitbashing is what I do, and as well as a few of my buddies, and we are all proud of our work, no matter how it turns out, because in my case, I can look at it and say to myself that *I* did that. And if people actually pick up tools and supplies to BUILD these models, they are building that model to their liking, because odds are there never will be a *PERFECT*, most accurate you can find model.

As for Athearn having the actual correct tooled parts, yes I agree with everyone that this is inexcusable. Do these errors make you wonder for just one second that this stuff is rushed to get to the shelves? Competition? Just goes so show you how valuable QUALITY CONTROL is to these companies. They don't make mistakes on their price tags though, do they? They make certain they are set at a high level, not the quality of the product. My 2 cents...

-Scott, Philly PA

I expected the wrong handrails and ditch light placements to be used since that's how they have been on every C44-9W/AC4400 ever produced, even the blue box CSX AC4400s. Even the RTR UP AC4400s didn't have the correct ditch light placement (they were pilot mounted instead of being deck mounted). However, not using the correct body when they have it, that's strange.

BCM Wrote:
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> I could easily spot all of the big problems:
> A) Incorrect number of dynamic intake grills
> B) Incorrect front handrails
> C) Incorrect ditch light placement
>
> from 6 feet away...
>
> and the two other minor problems:
> D) Truck sideframes
> E) Incorrect unit class printed on cab
>
> from more than a foot away...
>
> The BIG problem here is that Athearn has the
> tooling to do the correct body with 3 dynamic
> intake grills, the correct truck sideframes, and
> the wide front handrails (and all three were used
> on the prior "blue box" CSX AC4400s), and the
> correct ditch light placement (which was done on
> the UP RTR AC4400s), and even knew the correct CSX
> loco class (as they had printed it on the "blue
> box" CSX AC4400), but yet they still made those
> errors on the RTR one. Detail inaccuracies when a
> manufacturer doesn't make the correct body or have
> the correct parts is to be expected. Such
> inaccuracies when that manufacturer DOES already
> have the correct molds and the correct parts is
> unexplanable except as a manufacturer error...
> - BCM
>

Maybe with Horizon handling the distribution, Athearn will have more time to do the proper research to avoid such atrocities in the future.
I wouldn't bet on it!

Baltimore

I would like to apologize for all the people who complained. Just because Athearn could do a better, more correct model at no additional cost, doesn't give people who spend hard earned money the right to complain. I am sure everyone else out here appreciated maufacturers going that extra step to make it more difficult to have a prototypical model railroad. Why should I spend time scratchbuilding unavailable stock or building resin modelers when a manufacturer can waste my time fixing a model they should have done right the first time? Thanks Athearn, for giving us all the chance to correct your mistakes! Greg

AlexanderCasset Wrote:
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Thanks Athearn, for giving us all
> the chance to correct your mistakes!


And charging you extra for it too...

Theres no excuse for Athearn. Simple as that, doesnt matter if your a scratch builder or not, they're is just no excuse for this.

There are a lot of good points brought up with the comments both positive and negetive about the YN3 CSX units. If the correct shell,rails etc were available in the blue box then they should have been used with the ready to run, no excuses !! Some are crytycal of the guys unwilling to get out their knives etc and model. Don't be, as with most things some are going to. Some would like to but can't, and the balance wouldn't even dream of it. It does take some skill to model and a great deal of hand and eye coordination which all are not blessed with. I custom paint and am not afraid of the knife, but by the amount of work I'm backlogged even as good as some of the RTR is these days there are a lot of Model Railroaders that can't do there own. Some of my customers are just to busy and want to spend the time running trains. Some are old with failing eyesight to bad do detail work, and I even have a great customer who used to do his own, but know his nervous system is being ravaged by a virus he received from being bit by a patient at the VA hospital he works at. For the amount extra these RTR units are costing they need to be done more accurately, especially the really obvious things. While a small decal sayind AC44CTE etc isn't a mistake that jumps out at you, using the wrong shell or handrails will. Yes the majority of the guys that aren't happy are like me, a very serious modeler. Most that just "want to run trains" as they say aren't worried about it. My solution is and will remain to paint and detail my own. I didn't get these units, knowing I could do better myself. Since Athearn is'nt offering the 70 MAC's in unpainted And I have orders in for all of the BN/BNSF numbers, as long as they are taking to get these out at over $100.00 each I only hope they are close to being correct.
But if not,I will fix them. I may bitch a little but I'll still make them right until I can't anymore.

BNSFCSX

I was going to purchase that model. I'm glad iI didn't. I purchased the CSX YN3 SD70M instead. Is there anything wrong with that model???

Tim H

Some will tell you "good luck keeping them on the track" but I've had no problems with the SD70's.
The ready to run stuff including the YN3 CSX, BNSF and UP's are all really well done. Not to mention the standard cabbed NS,Conrails etc.
The only thing I've seen is some of the shell/walkway assemblies seem to be glued to the chassis. The painting and lettering is really sharp on them and they're easy to add any extra details that you may want. One thing I would do though is change the lights they use over to the miniatronics as the ones Athearn is using seem to burn out really fast. Use the 1.5v,15mA 500 hr bulbs.

BNSFCSX

bnsftim Wrote:
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> I was going to purchase that model. I'm glad iI
> didn't. I purchased the CSX YN3 SD70M instead.
> Is there anything wrong with that model???
>
> Tim H

Those are excellent models in detail and paint and about as close as any model could be. I have heard only a few negs on them (1 body that was glued on and a couple with trucks that were warped) but those were individual model problems that apparently weren't common and didn't apply to most or all of them. I probably would have bought one (or three) myself if the prototype CSX SD70Ms strayed out of Florida more often... (I opted to get one of the BNSF RTR H2 SD75Ms instead)
- BCM