Full review and standardized testing of the 2024 run HO scale General Electric P40DC/P42DC, by Athearn Genesis.
Locomotive weight: 702 grams / 24.7 oz
Drawbar Pull: 102 grams / 3.6 oz
Drawbar Push: 111 grams / 3.94 oz

MSRP:
DC/Silent - $219.99 USD
DCC/Soundtraxx Tsunami II - $319.99 USD

This model was announced in May 2022 and delivered in March 2024 in 7 different paint schemes, 13 unique road numbers with Soundtraxx Tsunami II DCC/sound or DC/DCC ready:

VIA Rail Canada:
Road Number Specific Features
#908 “Love the Way” scheme
English left side
French right side.
#911 “Love the Way” scheme
English right side
French left side.
#916 “Poppy” Scheme

#8 Phase IV repaint, large and small Sinclair antennas, original style nose
#24 Phase IV repaint, large and small Sinclair antennas, original style nose
#97 Phase IV repaint, large and small Sinclair antennas, original style nose
#203 New Special Operation Lifesaver paint scheme, various grouped antennas, bolted nose

VIA Specific Features:
VIA-added extra nose light
VIA style antenna array
Dual 5-chime forward facing horns
Forward and reverse red marker lights
VIA approved artwork
Starting in 2017, VIA began to add wrapped schemes for their P42DC fleet. By 2019, “Love the Way” in both English and French was applied to a few select units with each side having a different version. In Nov. 2019, VIA applied the “Poppy” scheme, a tribute to veterans, to a small handful of units.

Amtrak:
• #813 As-built configuration, Ph III faded stripe scheme, front strobe lights (Function in DCC mode), Rear hostler window

• #816 Later Phase V repaint, bolted nose and revised headlight, removed hostler window

• #822 As-build configuration, Ph III faded stripe scheme, front strobe lights (Function in DCC mode), Rear hostler window

• #824 Later Phase V repaint, bolted nose and revised headlight, removed hostler window

• #837 Later Phase V repaint, bolted nose and revised headlight, removed hostler window

• #839 As-built configuration, Ph III faded stripe scheme, front strobe lights (Function in DCC mode), Rear hostler window

REVIEW:
Detail - Very good. Excellent artwork and paint job. Athearn did an great job recreating this unique paint scheme right down to the smallest details. Printing and lines are crisp. Extra detail parts bag included. 9/10

Operation/Drive train - A bit jerky out of the box in speed step one out of the box. Will likely smooth out once we get some run time on it. Drive train is quiet. 8.5/10

Weight - Weighing in at 702 grams / 24.7 oz, this is an extremely heavy locomotive that is coming in much heavier than the SD70ACu at 678 grams / 23.9 oz. Very impressive that they were able to get this much weight into a 4 axle unit. For context, this thing outweighs the old Kato SD90/43MAC which weighed in at 611 grams and is third to only the recently released Athearn Genesis SD90/43MACH at 722 grams / 25.4 oz and then the Scaletrains ES44AC at a whopping 739 grams. This is reflected in its push/pull ability which outpulls many 6 axle units that I have tested. 9.9/10

Sound - The horn and prime mover are too loud out of the box. You will have to go into the EQ and turn down the horn. I also like the alternative EQ in the function 9 spot where it immediately cuts the volume in half. 8.0/10

Lighting - Headlights, ditch lights, marker lights and number board are all LED. No step lighting when comparing to the Dash 9. The marker lights are perfect in person, not too bright, just like the prototype. 8.75/10

OVERALL SCORE: 8.83 / 10
Athearn did a very nice job recreating this special wrap in HO scale. The paint scheme looks accurate faithfully recreating the road specific detail of which side has English/French. This unit is incredibly heavy and should have no problem rocketing commuter trains around your layout with its extremely capable drawbar push/pull power. Once the volume levels were adjusted and EQ tweaked to favour the low end, they are nice sounding units. The LED lighting is nice and bright. The number board has some bleed around the edges but that can be fixed with a little bit of black paint. It doesn't have all the extra bells and whistles that the recent dash 9 has, such as rolling bearing caps, step/ground lighting but I feel it more than makes up for that with its unique paint job and extremely heavy chassis.

For comparison, all of my other review and tests of HO scale locomotives can be found in my playlists.

Horizon Hobby:
https://www.horizonhobby.com/trains/