Roundhouse CSX C4400AH

I decided to take a chance on a Roundhouse CSX C4400AH in the YN2 scheme. "Roundhouse" seems to be a recent rebranding of the former Athearn RTR line without too much other change.

This in turn is based on Athean bluebox tooling from the 1990s, although there have been gradual upgrades over the years. I've been a little less than lukewarm about Athearn in recent years, with key disadvantages from my point of view being the incandescent headlight bulbs that quickly burn out, and the wires to which make shell removal and replacement difficult; flimsy and brittle handrails; and the unreliable 9-pin DCC plug connectors -- the failure rate for these in my experience is probably over 30%.

A plus in this loco from the box is that, although it's priced comparably to equivalent Bachmann and Walthers Mainline locos, which don't have separate grab irons inserted at the factory, this one does. The paint is quite good. It and the detail with the loco makes it pretty accurate for later C4400AHs delivered in later 1990s orders, but the cab roof detail does not include more contemporary GPS dome or PTC antenna array.

The dynamic brake vents on the shell match the CSX variation, and the high-adhesion steerable GE truck sideframes match those on the later CSX prototypes.

I replaced the brittle McHenry factory-supplied couplers with a Kadee 146 long-shank centerset coupler on the front and a Kadee 158 coupler on the rear. On most locos, I also replace the factory coupler pocket with the new style Kadee supplied with their whisker type couplers. This is much easier to handle and place preassembled in the pilot than factory supplied versions.

As pointed out in product descriptions, the ditch lights on this model are dummy. The nose headlight is the standard Athearn two incandescent bulbs. Prototype locos operate with only the nose headlight lit in the yard or in situations where ground personnel could be blinded by ditchlights. The rear hood headlight is also lit on the model. I plan to bypass the headlight-ditch light issue mainly by running this loco as a trailing unit.

CSX ACs turn up fairly frequently in California.

So far, I like this Roundhouse loco. Shell removal and decoder installation were quite easy. It's a smooth runner, although the drive train is dated by this point, and it's noisier than my recent Walthers SD70ACe.