No such thing as a Genesis SD45. Athearn recently announced plans to do an SD45, but in their RTR line (presumably ex-RPP tooling). You sure you don't mean the Athearn Genesis SD45-2? If that's the case, I have a CSX one...nice model.
I've used RPP shells on Athearn chassis to get SD45s, so were Athearn to offer one (with a retooled RPP shell) in the RTR line, I wouldn't complain, as I need several more SD45s in my Frisco fleet. Would save a lot of filing & cutting on the chassis, too. Now as to the SD45-2, in your experience, how is it for pulling power, looks, details, etc? I could see one in Santa Fe or SCL colors on a future Frisco layout.
The only Railpower SD45 I have seen was a friends HI nose Guilford (ex southern) unit, it did look good.
As far as the SD45-2 goes, it's excellent IMHO. Details are beautiful (the cab interior is a nice touch), and runs fine. I have a sound-equipped unit, and the sounds are great - they really nailed the sound of that turbo'ed EMD prime mover (the fact they sent one of their guys to Montana to record one of MRL's SD45-2s probably helped ). Pulling power is average, but mainly because of the fact it's a sound unit. Some of the unit's weight is sacrificed in order to make room for the speaker and electronics, so it can't pull quite as much as a silent equivalent; I've noticed the same with my sound equipped Atlas SD26s and C40-8Ws, too. However, since I don't run my units singly, I don't find this to be a problem; 3-4 units are the norm on a train at my club. Overall, I'm very happy with my SD45-2, and I'm looking forward to getting more, especially the Conrail, Clinchfield, and ATSF bicentennial units in the next run.
