timberley
Member
Posts: 189
Primary Railroads: VIA Rail Canada, AMT (Montreal)
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Post by timberley on Mar 5, 2014 12:54:26 GMT -5
A while back, George's Trains and a few other hobby shops/distributors announced another custom run of HO scale VIA Rail P42s from Athearn. Unlike the previous runs, this current production will be done in the bright blue colour that most of VIA's P42s now wear, rather than trying to match the original teal or the newer "Renaissance green" (the teal/green that is on all of the F40 rebuilds and P42s 902, 903, 915 and 917). For anyone interested, it's still possible to place a reservation for these locomotives. They got delayed substantially by Athearn due to production issues, but are now starting into production and are ETA with the new Amtrak run this summer. There are 2 road numbers available: -920: this is a George's Trains exclusive. You can still make a reservation on their website (requires a $50 deposit). -908: this is the number being received by several other shops. These are available from PWRS and Custom-Trains Canada, among possibly others, and PWRS is still showing them available (requires a $75 deposit), and Custom-Trains may as well ($50 deposit required). The latest updated ad image from George's has an image of the pre-pro sample, showing off the awesome shade of blue they're going with. Have a look:  Since Athearn seems to have no intention of including VIA paint as a standard release anytime soon, if you want a factory-painted VIA P42 I'd say get on it and order one (or both!). I'll be getting both numbers (920 from George's and 908 through my LHS, which is getting a few), and look forward to adding them to my expanding fleet of VIA P42s. They'll join Hobbycraft custom-run #912 and previous George's custom run #905, plus 3 of my own custom paint jobs (#903, 915, and another #TBD). Locos from past custom runs show up from time to time on eBay and demand a steep price (well above retail), so if you want one, it's best to get it now. I've never figured out why Athearn's normal runs have never included VIA paint, since the P42s form the backbone of VIA's corridor fleet (in the most populated part of the country), and VIA is one of the primary owners of these locomotives (with 21). Heck, Athearn even released their SW1000 in VIA paint, and VIA only ever had 4 of those between 2 yards! |
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Post by backshophoss on Mar 5, 2014 18:42:17 GMT -5
The only thing I can think of would be a license issue,VIA's logo and paint scheme are copyrighted
(Crown Copyright?)as Amtrak's and all the commuter operations logos and paint schemes in the US.
Athearn caught a little heat from NMRX,to renew their license for the last known run of the F-59phi
and BBD cars with NMRX logos and colors.
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Post by acelaphillies on Mar 5, 2014 19:50:52 GMT -5
Maybe if they were not chartered by the hobby shops then Athearn would have run them by now. When the hobby shops run them, Athearn probably likes that better because the hobby shops are the people taking the hit if the run doesn't sell.
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Post by backshophoss on Mar 6, 2014 2:19:07 GMT -5
True,but still need the OK from VIA to use the logo.
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timberley
Member
Posts: 189
Primary Railroads: VIA Rail Canada, AMT (Montreal)
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Post by timberley on Mar 6, 2014 13:18:34 GMT -5
I'm not sure if licensing is such a big deal, because that's also an issue on most paint schemes/logo use these days, so it would just be one more license to work out. Besides, Athearn didn't seem to have any issue with producing SW1000s with the VIA logo on them.
I do think that Acelaphillies may have hit on something though - the original run of VIA P42s years ago was done as a custom run for Canadian Hobbycraft. As some of you may know, Hobbycraft's main business was putting out Canadian versions of US models, primarily in an arrangement with LifeLike/Proto (which brought the HO RS10/RS18, Canadian RDCs, N scale GP9s, etc.). The P42 run was effectively an extension of this. When Walthers bought the Proto line, the agreement with Hobbycraft ended, and what was left of Hobbycraft effectively morphed into True Line Trains. So it's possible that Hobbycraft had an exclusive arrangement to use the VIA Rail image for those locomotives, and perhaps that exclusivity has been passed on in some way through licensing to other shops/distributors. If that's the case, it would explain why there has been no general run.
It might very well be similar to the modern Amtrak units and how Walthers had the exclusive rights to the PhVb scheme in HO, hence requiring those runs to be done as Walthers exclusives. I presume that agreement has expired, because Athearn now has a bunch coming in Vb that aren't through Walthers.
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timberley
Member
Posts: 189
Primary Railroads: VIA Rail Canada, AMT (Montreal)
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Post by timberley on Aug 21, 2014 17:41:19 GMT -5
George's recently posted some photos of the latest sample over on their Facebook page (you should be able to see it whether you're on Facebook or not). Here's two of the photos:    I think they look absolutely fantastic! So nice to see the later blue colour represented on the model as well. There are also a few exciting improvements from Athearn (which also showed up in the photos of the newest upcoming Amtrak production), namely: the windshield is FINALLY actually two separate pieces with a solid divider! That was probably my #1 issue with the Athearn model, so wonderful to see it improved. They have also added etched wipers (yay!), and according to George's the new models will also have functioning ditch lights installed for the first time, though still no red markers. |
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Post by backshophoss on Aug 22, 2014 1:46:30 GMT -5
Walters still has the "offical" license from Amtrak,but has "sub-contracted" some things to other
manufacturers(i.e.Athearn).
Believe Rapido has the "defacto" license from VIA,has been allowed to use VIA's colors/graphics
on their Canadian, LRC models,and the UA Tubro Train.
Depending on the decoder to be used,there might be some unused fuctions to allow for the red markers
to be made "working".
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Post by mgwsy on Aug 22, 2014 16:58:44 GMT -5
Looks like etched mirrors too.
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timberley
Member
Posts: 189
Primary Railroads: VIA Rail Canada, AMT (Montreal)
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Post by timberley on Aug 22, 2014 21:27:54 GMT -5
Walters still has the "offical" license from Amtrak,but has "sub-contracted" some things to other manufacturers(i.e.Athearn). Believe Rapido has the "defacto" license from VIA,has been allowed to use VIA's colors/graphics on their Canadian, LRC models,and the UA Tubro Train. Depending on the decoder to be used,there might be some unused fuctions to allow for the red markers to be made "working". I don't think there's any exclusive licensing stuff going on with VIA, apart from the special runs of passenger cars and now the upcoming F40PH-2d that Rapido has done for them. All of that is separate from the other VIA stuff that Rapido has done. There have been general releases of VIA equipment from Walthers (passenger cars and F40s), Bachmann (F40s), Athearn (SW1000s), Con-Cor (passenger cars), Proto (RDCs), etc. Kato has also done VIA equipment in N scale. As for the red markers, yes, many decoders would allow for that function to be added. However the units won't have the bulbs in there, so you'd have to wire them in. But if you're like some of us and want to replace the Athearn bulbs with LEDs anyway, that would be easy enough to do at the same time. |
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timberley
Member
Posts: 189
Primary Railroads: VIA Rail Canada, AMT (Montreal)
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Post by timberley on Aug 22, 2014 21:28:09 GMT -5
Looks like etched mirrors too. Yes indeed, hadn't noticed that before. Also an improvement! |
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Post by mgwsy on Aug 23, 2014 20:32:14 GMT -5
I noticed it as it was always the first part to break off, LOL
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timberley
Member
Posts: 189
Primary Railroads: VIA Rail Canada, AMT (Montreal)
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Post by timberley on Mar 3, 2015 11:34:54 GMT -5
The VIA P42s have finally arrived! George's Trains has theirs (#920) now and are sending them out to customers. The others through Puce Creek (#908) should also be showing up soon. George's posted one photo of the new version, and I definitely think this looks like the best run yet:  I should have mine soon, and I'll be sure to post a few more photos when it arrives. |
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timberley
Member
Posts: 189
Primary Railroads: VIA Rail Canada, AMT (Montreal)
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Post by timberley on Mar 5, 2015 8:33:51 GMT -5
First off, George's has now posted some better photos of the new model:  ^LOVE that new windshield and metal wipers!^   ^There's a little bit of the yellow paint in the door/hatch seams, and from looking at several units in my LHS this appears to vary from unit to unit. A sharp knife and a steady hand should take care of that.   ^One bell on the horn looks a little bent here, but mine didn't have any issue.  Still waiting on my one from them, but last night I was able to pick up #908, which is the unit being done through Puce Creek and available at a variety of outlets across the country (mine came through my LHS). Haven't had a chance to run it yet, but visually it is hands-down the best of the custom runs that have been done yet. My only big disappointment was the price. Thanks to the recent plummet of the Canadian dollar, these ended up being even higher than the original high MSRP (had been $169, ended up being $200+tax) The improvements Athearn made are really quite nice, and move the model up a notch. I'd still love to see a Genesis-level (or Rapido-lvele) update, but the model is definitely the best it has been yet. The new windshields, wipers, horn, mirrors, and antenna are all nice additions. The colour of these units is spot-on for the blue repaints, and the overall paint quality is fantastic. Another big improvement is that for the first time, Athearn has actually painted the metal cover on the radiator fan to match the body colour, which really lets the silver fans underneath stand out. Nicely done! I have 908 sitting out right now next to the old Hobbycraft and previous George's runs, and it's really interesting to see the differences between the 3 of them. I'll have to take some side-by-side-by-side photos to really show it off. |
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Post by backshophoss on Mar 5, 2015 13:09:34 GMT -5
That US west coast longshoremen strike is finally over,and freight is moving thru the ports, there should be other items caught in this backlog,should be showing up shortly. The Container ship companies have tacked on "waiting" time charges to the freight bill.  |
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Post by rails4dmv on Mar 5, 2015 13:23:49 GMT -5
That is a nice looking locomotive!! I'm not a fan of Athearn's P42 locomotives but the paint looks nice & crisp.
I would love to know Athearn's reasons for not doing a mass produced VIA P42. Maybe Kato will do one in HO since they did do a VIA P42 in N scale.
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