What’s in the Box: HO Athearn Genesis SD70
Athearn Trains recently released a new group of HO-scale EMD SD70 diesel locomotive models. The group includes a pair of Legendary Liveries offerings depicting Illinois Central’s “green diamond” paint scheme from its early diesel era and Illinois Central Gulf presented in the early 1970s orange and white look.
Athearn offers multiple road numbers for these two offerings. This Genesis-series offering comes in standard DC version ($234.99) and in releases with DCC-sound ($334.99) using SoundTraxx electronics. Details include air conditioner unit on the cab roof, SL5T air horn, spare knuckles on rear pilot, snow plow, and more.
This is Athearn’s non-sound DC version, which comes with 21-pin socket for conversion to Digital Command Control operations. This view shows the flywheel-equipped mechanism with green circuit board over the drive. The dummy plug (allowing for DC operation) is the smaller green board residing on the large board.