# athern genesis sd70 or mth sd70



## joed2323 (Oct 17, 2010)

I hear good and bad of both companies, Im looking to buy a good dcc sound loco.

I was originally looking at a sd40-2 or a gp38-2 but then i was thinking of one of these.

I want them all, but for now i gotta buy one.

Which would you guys buy if you were in my shoes, and needed a good loco to start out with, out of the 3 i stated.

Im looking at a kato, athearn genesis, and mth. dcc & sound. Want something that likes to pull, not just some 200 dollar fancy looking loco that cant pull its own weight

Buying tonight unless i cant make up my mind, grrr

Also- on a side not how much bigger in length is the sd 70 over a gp38-2? they look pretty long im doing ho scale btw


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

Athearn Genesis are REAL nice engines. I've got an SD60i. Very strong puller (20 cars up the 2.4% grade on my old layout no problem)

I'd guess my SD60 is maybe 2" longer than my GP38-2. (the 60 is about the same length as a 70)

MTH are nice, but they have a proprietary DCC system (DCS I believe?) that isn't necessarily 100% compatible with others on the market (like NCE, Digitrax, etc.)


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## joed2323 (Oct 17, 2010)

kewl.

Im going to have nce, so should i stay away from mth?

Is there a big diff with sound from the proto 3.0 vs the soundtraxx tsunami?

wish i had the money to buy a gp38 and a sd70 but i can only buy one today, maybe in the near future i can get the one i dont buy today, i should say i will 

With the extra length of the sd 70, could a person run into derailment issues since its a longer loco, or is this not true?


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

With the curves your layout is designed with you shouldn't have any problems. Minimum radius on there was 24" - you should be able to run anything. I wouldn't think you'd have problems until you got down around 18-20" radius.


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## joed2323 (Oct 17, 2010)

hows the locsound on the kato diesels? how is kato, i like the kato sd40-2 also, im going to have to flip a coin and decide either the kato sd40-2 or the athern sd70. 

Nobody ever said buying a diesel was easy ha


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## sstlaure (Oct 12, 2010)

My father has TONS of Kato engines (sound/DCC) and loves them. Again nice quiet, strong runners.

Someone else will need to chime in on the differences between various sound modules.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

Between those 2 I don't think you can make a bad decision.
Both are strong dependable locos. Its a shame the MTH is
not all friendly with other dcc systems. You pretty much have 
to run them with their dcs system. They do seem like nice locos.
Flip a coin, either way you win.


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## joed2323 (Oct 17, 2010)

the kato sd 40-2 is 199 and the athern sd70 is 204 in price, not much of a difference if you ask me. why do all my decisions seem like tough ones, unless i just make it tough and it shouldnt be, jeeze


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## gc53dfgc (Apr 13, 2010)

Here is the point where you look at the amount of detail each engine gives you for the price. MTH and Athearn are big competitors as far as detail for the price goes so google some pictures of them and then of the kato and compare as for the sound they are all almost identical.


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## joed2323 (Oct 17, 2010)

For those who may wonder-

I went with the athearn genesis sd70m-2 dcc sound.
picked up some other needed items as well. Another $325 on trains/layout 

Whats up with modeltrainstuff.com saying it may take 3 days now to process the order? I just ordered from them last week and they didnt say that. I should be getting last weeks order tmrw.

Im not bitching, i can wait the extra days as long as they do a good job with handling my orders, and packing my items good in the boxes 

Oh well atleast i should be getting presents each week


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## tankist (Jun 11, 2009)

congrads, genesis are really nice engines. i wand SD70ACe however


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