I received two P2K GP7s a few weeks ago and two Athearn GP7s today (all DCC with sound), so I compared them to check out the differences. Theoretically, there shouldn’t be any differences, but
read on. I was pleased with the P2K version, which came complete with steam generator, overnight heater, horns in the right places, proper Mars light and headlights, and very nice tooling. The gray looked just right to my eye. The Athearn gray was too dark,
there is no steam generator, the short hood horn is mounted in the middle, which will have to be moved when I install steam generators. The long hood horn on 241 was mounted on the top of the long hood, while the long hood horn on 218 was mounted on the left
side of the long hood behind the overnight heater, as they should be according to the photos I have. Athearn tooling doesn’t measure up to P2K. Hindsight says that I should have bought the two P2K DC road numbers and installed my own decoders instead of buying
the Athearn models. I haven’t run these models, just programmed the long addresses, so I can’t comment about the mechanisms. Both versions are nice model unless you put them side by side, so I won’t run mixed consists with these GP7s, mainly due to the gray
mismatch.
Nelson Moyer
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