Review

EMD's SD45 locomotives were the company's mid-1960s response to railroads looking for more horsepower and speed on their freight and passenger trains. Santa Fe liked the locomotive for passenger trains, but thought it needed a cowl-bodied unit. The dual-service FP45 was born, and a year later, the (mostly) freight-only F45 came out. The cowl car body and squared nose - the latter both a nod to the past and a precursor of diesel models to come - set it apart from the other designs of the day.

Santa Fe purchased the most F45s with 40 units; Burlington Northern followed with 32 and Great Northern with 14. Twenty of the Santa Fe units were equipped with pass-through steam lines for passenger use. Athearn delivered its DC-powered FP and F45s in late 2008. The latest releases are equipped with Soundtraxx's Tsunami Digital Command Decoder and sound.

The car body itself is full of detail. The rivet strips running horizontally are rendered nicely. The handholds next to the doors are cast into the body, but I had to run my fingernail over them to make sure. Because they are highlighted in yellow paint, they look separately applied. The railings on the front and rear of the locomotive are individually applied, and while they're very thin in cross-section, they're durable enough to withstand some handling.

The paint job is first-rate, with all lettering sharp and clear. There is even an EMD builders plate under the cab and stenciling for fuel and at other points around the locomotive. The model is powered by a 5-pole, skew-wound motor equipped with two brass flywheels. The "prime mover" is housed in a split die-cast frame with a downward-facing speaker on top.

I'd heard the Tsunami sound system in use with a steam locomotive and was really impressed with how it sounded. However, I hadn't heard its diesel counterpart and honestly, I wasn't expecting much from an N-scale locomotive. I'm happy to say I was pleasantly surprised. Even from the engine startup, it sounded good. The horn and bell sounds are nice and crisp; the turbocharger whine is audible and the dynamic brakes really sound like they're under load when activated. And if you don't like the sound as it is, the Tsunami has a built-in equalizer so they can fine-tune it to what they like.

The decoder has 10 functions, including a long whistle and a short whistle. Make sure your customers know the short whistle is activated by the F3 button; I was expecting a coupler crash sound there, but it's F6. Other sounds and functions include radiator fans and headlight dimming; F8 turns the sound off. Only a handful of railroads owned FP45s and F45s, but they were some of the most visible operations in the U.S. In the case of Santa Fe, these locomotives toiled away in regular service until the late 1990s, so they appeared in a variety of paint schemes, all of which are available from Athearn.