Review

The latest locomotive in Athearn's Ready-To-Roll line is this sharp-looking model of an EMD GP60M ($99.99). The GP60M was the wide-nose, North American cab version of the standard cab GP60. ElectroMotive built 63 GP 60Ms, all for Santa Fe, in 1990. The railroad used them on their priority intermodal trains from Chicago to the West Coast, and most are still in service on successor Burlington Northern Santa Fe.

The Athearn model is ready to run, based on the GP60M shell formerly offered by Rail Power Products, but with many upgrades. The injection molded styrene shell consists of a combination long hood/walkway piece with a separate cab/nose. The shell includes many separately applied details, including fine wire grab irons and plastic fans (with separate fan blades), horn, antennae, sunshades, plow, ditch lights (non-operating) and clear window glazing.

The shell fits atop a die-cast underframe. Automatic knuckle couplers are framemounted at each end, and removing the mounting screws allows the shell to be lifted off the frame. The motor fits in a depression in the center of the frame, following the design of earlier Athearn locomotives. The motor drives all axles via driveshafts to each truck tower. A flywheel is located at each end of the motor.

The model runs smoothly throughout its speed range, with good slow-speed running. It weighs in at just 11.5 ounces, so its pulling power could be increased by adding a couple ounces of additional weight inside the shell. If you add additional weight, be sure that the wheels can still spin with the model stalled.

A harness/circuit board atop the motor holds all of the wiring, as well as the headlight connections. Two headlights fit into the nose (no lenses - the headlights are really headlights), with another two to the rear. The headlights are directional but not constant.

To convert the model to DCC operation, unplug the DCC jumper board atop the harness and add a nine-pin inline decoder. A decoder could also be hard-wired fairly easily. Athearn's GP60M is a sharp-looking, smooth-running model of an interesting modern prototype locomotive.