I wasn't able to make it to Caboose Hobbies in Denver, but I DID make an order for two of the LifeLike Proto2000 SD45s- they were on sale at Caboose for about 66 dollars apiece (down a little from the 140 dollar retail price), and I've seen 'em advertised lower elsewhere as well. Anywho, they're presently painted in Santa Fe colors, and both have really nice details. I'm gonna test-run 'em on the club's layout tonite to see how well they really run. Down the road, they'll be stripped & redetailed & repainted into Frisco colors, and join two other SD45s in my fleet (RPP shells on Athearn chassis). Caboose may still have a few of these old beasts left, as well as some SD50s, at this sale price. Since I'm a 70s-era modeler, the SD45s are the heavy haulers of my chosen time frame.
I have a couple of Santa Fe ones as well, one pinstripe and one warbonnet, very nice loco's I feel they run slightly faster than average, but that may just be my gut feeling? Not run them with too much else to start with, but they look great as a pair.
There are two different runs for these models. Look for the supplemental sheet describing shell removal. Besides the coupler boxes there are only two other screws that need to be remove. Turn the rear truck slightly to expose the second screw. The run I have has a worm pitched so that it advances two teeth for every turn rather than one making the final drive ratio of 9:1 These babies weigh in at 24 oz and are real movers. I paid around $73.00 a piece a year ago.
They run like champs, Alan. All I did was remove the plastic pieces from the coupler pockets, install Kadee 58s fore & aft, and give 'em a run. The lighting is directional, the detail is sharp, and they don't sound like coffee grinders. The paint was the first version of blue & yellow (just before the "warbonnet" paint scheme), with the only thing I could see wrong being lack of silver paint on the trucks. Did Santa Fe have silver trucks on all their B/W diesels? Best thing about it as well- Caboose Hobbies still has quite a few SD45s (UP, CSX, Santa Fe) on sale for $66.55 or so (not a paid plug, just a FYI from a satisfied customer), which is a heckuva deal for a loco that retailed for 140 bucks. Great model of a heavy hauler from the late 1960s! When I get brave enough, they'll become Frisco SD45s.
I failed to recall that a few modelers including myself had an operating problem with the less expensive version. The drive shaft fell out of the front flywheel therefore only one truck was powered.
My two SD45s are P2K models. I'm not aware of any P1K SD45s at all, and I own no earlier P2K offerings, so I can't say I've run across that problem (knock on wood) And so far, both trucks on each engine are powered.
There are no P1K SD 45's but there were two different P2K SD 45 runs. Look back in MR Aug/Sept 2004 and see the $30.00 price spread. Unfortunately MR didn't review the P2K 45 so it's difficult to figure out the difference but I did see complaints about the detail deficency and the high speed of the cheaper version which I have two but I'm happy.
Mine's staying blue. I checked a bunch of photo's and I'd *guess* that silver trucks came in with freight Warbonnet paint, but some loco's either were re-trucked or they painted trucks before the rest of the loco.
