Athearn SD70ACe review....again

Jesse Durbin

Watch Athearn SD70ACe review....again - Jesse Durbin on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Hey guys, welcome back.

00:01I've got my new sidekick Henry here and this is my four-month-old son and he and I are going

00:08to go over the Atheron Genesis SD70-Ace.

00:12Now you might be thinking to yourself, didn't you do a review a while back on the Atheron

00:16Genesis SD70-Ace?

00:17Yes, I did.

00:19And it was quite controversial because I took the Atheron SD70-Ace and I compared it to

00:23the MTH SD70-Ace.

00:25Well as everybody knows by this point in time, Atheron had a few problems with their

00:31first SD70-Aces or a few things that a few customers weren't happy with.

00:37Some people were happy but some people weren't.

00:40But now we've got more SD70-Aces coming out from Atheron here in the next few months and

00:45they've really stepped their game up and addressed the issues which to me says they listen to

00:50the customer's voice.

00:51So let's go ahead and take a look at the Atheron SD70-Ace in Western Pacific Scheme.

00:57This was just released a few days ago.

01:00And this locomotive is really nice.

01:03And one of the critiques that some customers had on the previous versions of the SD70-Ace

01:09was the sound.

01:10Let's go ahead and see how Atheron has addressed that.

01:17Now Atheron has made some tweaks inside.

01:21The sound is excellent now.

01:22I don't know if they just sealed the speaker box or if they've done more internal adjustments.

01:26I haven't yet busted this one open but the sound is greatly improved.

01:32Let's take a listen to the bell and horn.

01:34So the sounds overall, the bell, the horn, the running motor, the startup, all sound improved.

01:50Now, for those of you that are wondering if any other problems existed on the Atheron, like

01:59I'm not really sure what other problems were on the other SD70-Ace, but this is a smooth

02:04runner.

02:05It's got the, uh, it doesn't have LED lighting, but it does have white lights in the front

02:13and back.

02:14Let's go ahead and take a look here.

02:15Uh, as I move this forward here, you should be able to pick up the lighting.

02:20And when you hold the horn, just like on the prototype, the Dix Lights don't flash, which

02:30doesn't have any difference between the, uh, MTH, the Dix Lights on the MTH, but, uh,

02:35Atheron has made it phototypically correct by not crashing the Dix Lights on this model.

02:41And another thing is that Genesis drive.

02:44I'm at one speed step right now in my MRC Power View Big Square, and it's crawling along

02:50smoothly, and this thing really has some good, uh, speed to it.

02:56It has a very smooth drive.

02:58No problems there either.

03:00The details are great.

03:01Uh, they did take off the sanding lines from the previous SD70 Aces where you can put them

03:07on.

03:08We've also got that cab, uh, camera that you can install, and you know, the roofs come

03:12off on these things.

03:13But overall, the detail is great all around.

03:15I've got it pulling a passenger special here to go around the layout or by the layout, but,

03:21uh, just to show you how this thing crawls along, it does a good job.

03:25So that's just one speed step an hour.

03:29One speed step, mile per hour, or MRC controls on.

03:32And then we're going to rub it up here, and send it around the layout, one quick time.

03:44full speed.

03:45Absolutely smooth drive, quiet drive.

03:59runs really great.

04:04So just, just wanted to update you guys that Athlon has definitely stepped up their game,

04:09and made improvements over the previous model.

04:11And, uh, just a great, great experience with this new Athlon SD70 Aces.

04:16And I look forward to these other ones in the heritage scheme coming out and collecting

04:21those.

04:22So, another thing you may notice is, uh, Athlon already installs their snow plows, and they

04:28put their NU cables in the front.

04:30You can see on both sides there's a couple there, the NU cables, uh, they're uninstalled

04:37and they look really nice.

04:38But the, uh, MTAs have got it dragged them through the snow plows and installed the snow plows.

04:43So, pretty happy with this new and cleared SD70 Aces that Athlon is releasing.

04:49It looks great, sounds great.

04:50Still a little light on the weight aspect, but it is heavy enough.

04:54There's no truck problems, there's some truck warping problems on the previous models.

04:58These trucks are good, in good shape.

05:00So, overall a great, great model.

05:03And it has enough weight to pull this pretty heavy passenger set along.

05:08And, uh, it's a good model overall.

05:11Great improvement, great job by Athlon stepping their game up and actually listening to the customers.

05:15Anyway, thanks for watching.

05:17We'll see you next time, where, uh, me, and maybe I'll have my sidekick here, helping out

05:23with, uh, future reviews.

05:25I've got Xactrail things to look at, Intermountain things to look at.

05:28And you'll see those in a few coming weeks ahead.

05:31Thanks for watching.

05:32See you next time.

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