Athearn compared to Kato or DI Coal Hoppers

[basementcalling]

How do the Athearn Bethgon hopper 5 packs stack up compared to the Kato or old Deluxxe Innovation versions in terms of decoration, trucks and tracking and such considerations?

[w neal]

If you want to talk decoration, you need to specify which "roadname". Generally, I think the decor is quite good on the Athearn versions. I remember the Detroit Edisons looked much better to me via DI with the "duller" silver. The Athearn versions were a "shinny" silver which detracted from their looks. Again, this is to my eye. Also, this was only on the Detroit Edison versions. I'm sure other "roadnames" looked just fine.

The Athearn versions always seemed to ride too high right out of the box to my eye, as compared to Kato and DI.

I replaced trucks on all of them, except Kato, so I cannot comment on tracking.

In general, I like the Kato versions, if you can find enough of them. They come with metal wheels, installed internal bracing, and a coal load that is easy to remove. DI is second in my book.

[basementcalling]

I have a bunch of DI in CWEX and PGEX. The former I don't think will make any appearances on the Idaho Belt, but CMO for UP could, if I can ever win a damn auction for them.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I think IM will be coming out with the old LBF versions soon as well.

[John]

I like the Kato . . they seem heavier .. DI is good, but seem more fragile ..

[ljudice]

I think IM will be coming out with the old LBF versions soon as well.

Last I looked they were all TBA, so preorders must not have been there.

[Chris1274]

How do the Athearn Bethgon hopper 5 packs stack up compared to the Kato or old Deluxxe Innovation versions in terms of decoration, trucks and tracking and such considerations?

I haven't seen the most recent releases, but past releases had an extremely wide gap between the cars when coupled. Here's a photo comparing the distance between the cars using the stock trucks and couplers (top) and body-mounted MT 905 Z-scale couplers (bottom):

[Denver Road Doug]

Last I looked they were all TBA, so preorders must not have been there.

That is exactly what the Intermountain rep confirmed to me yesterday at the OKC show.

To the o.p., I prefer the Athearns...as a general rule, and IMHO, they are superior in just about every way to the competition.   Better decoration, running, value, looks.  Only knock is their couplers but I will eventully body-mount couplers so that's not a huge issue for me.  And the newer one's have McHenry's which at least work fairly good even if they look ugly.

Intermountain claims they are fixing the bolster issues and decoration issues of the LBF cars so we'll see, assuming they ever actually produce them.  If so, they would be a good option.  And, for the Aluminators and AeroFlow cars they're the only option anyway.

I like the Kato's in every way except their thick walls which are very evident looking from the top down.   Alone it's not a terrible thing but if you mix/match them with any of the others it really detracts from the look of the train, again IMHO.  But if you're running them in solid trains of Kato, go for it....the trucks and couplers are really nice and decoration is good too.

I doubt we'll ever see any DI's ever again, but a few comments.  Overall, they're ok...their side walls are thick-ish too....they can be mixed with Kato and not look too bad, and also with the thinner Athears/Intermountains without being so outside of their range of normal.   But overall, I will go with Athearn over DI anyway...I do have a couple still.

In general, the trucks are decent...most are Micro-Trains or knockoffs, the Athearns are good, and the Kato's are really good.   Couplers are all acceptable except any that use Accumates (early Athearns mainly) and of course the MTL couplers will "slinky" which really takes away from the looks of a unit train, but are dependable nonetheless.  The best "runners" are the Kato's, but the Athearns perform well they just have more spacing between cars.   

In summary:
Decoration: Athearn, Kato, DI, LBF/IMRC
Trucks: Kato and Athearn, (tie) LBF/IMRC, DI
Tracking: Kato and Athearn, (tie) DI, LBF/IMRC
Other: Athearn, LBF/IMRC, Kato, DI

[cjm413]

I haven't seen the most recent releases, but past releases had an extremely wide gap between the cars when coupled. Here's a photo comparing the distance between the cars using the stock trucks and couplers (top) and body-mounted MT 905 Z-scale couplers (bottom):

FVM currently offers the former PM/RC Unimates - they aren't as nice as the MTL 905's, but the lower cost ($3 MSRP for 8 couplers) makes them a more cost-effective way to address the huge gap between the stock Athearn cars.

 http://www.foxvalleymodels.com/NParts.html

[basementcalling]

Good info gents. Thanks to all.

[cjm413]

Re: the bolster issue on the LBF cars, was it just a matter of the bolster being offset for either the Con-Cor or MTL 70T trucks that they came with vs. being in the correct location to accept a proper 100T truck with a centered bolster?

If so, would a Trainworx 100T truck with an offset bolster solve this problem?

[genemaddox]

I like the Kato BethGon's, they track very good and the spacing is better than the others I have tried, I have pulled over 220 Kato's on our NTrack layout with 5 Atlas engines and they gave me no trouble at all. Kato also sell the Bethgon couplers separately and you can use them on other cars to get a closer spacing.

gene maddox

[genemaddox]

I forgot to mention that when I first started buying Deluxe Innovations, I discovered that the trucks were pulled in too far from the ends. The wheels are supposed to stick out past the end of the cars and the DI's don't do that, so I sold all of my DI's and bought Kato's bethgons. I did purchase some Athearn coal gons but the spacing between the cars were a turnoff, thought they did look good as far as decoration. but I got rid of them too, so I will stick to the Kato's

gm

[unittraincoal]

Most of the models are not representing the same car either..... The Deluxe cars are a early version of the  coal porter.  I belive the Kato and Athearn version are newer versions of the car. not sure about LBF. There are grab iron and side sill differences..... Compare with the prototype for the given car. The correct paint scheme has never been put on for BNSF, the paint scheme done has been a different prototype builder....

[cjm413]

I like the Kato BethGon's, they track very good and the spacing is better than the others I have tried, I have pulled over 220 Kato's on our NTrack layout with 5 Atlas engines and they gave me no trouble at all. Kato also sell the Bethgon couplers separately and you can use them on other cars to get a closer spacing.

gene maddox

The spacing issue on the Athearn cars is due to the coupler pockets rather than the couplers. 

In theory, clipping off the coupler boxes from the Athearn trucks and replacing them with body mounted Unimates seems like the most practical solution, but I haven't had a chance to try this yet...