Reviews
FMG SD90MAC diesel-electric locomotive in HO scale, by Athearn–Horizon Hobby Inc. Prices in text.
Years ago, when most Australian modellers thought of Athearn, it was because this manufacturer was the usual choice for repowering early Australian models and we were only interested in the bogies and drive mechanisms. Athearn produced ‘bullet-proof’ mechanisms and had a ‘one-sizefits-all’ approach to its bodies. (That is, locos would have multiple liveries of the one body shell, all with the same detail features, even if they weren’t appropriate for particular prototypes; any detail they had was moulded on!)
Fast-forward to now: Athearn is a very different company, providing very accurate models for the North American market. It has shrugged off the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. Athearn has released its first accurate Australian model, the Fortescue Minerals Group (FMG) SD90MAC-H2. We know, what were they thinking: “Um, what…?”.
As obscure as it seems, Athearn’s first dedicated Australian model is from the Pilbara, in Western Australia. FMG is the only operator of the SD90MAC in Australia. All members of this class are second-hand from Union Pacific Railroad in the USA, originally built in 1999. For FMG, they were renumbered in the ‘900’ series. 901 to 904 were delivered to FMG with the 6000 h.p. 256H-series engines; these are the subject of the Athearn models. 901 to 904 have since been repowered with 710-series engines.
Other SD90MACs in the series are 905 to 909. These were rebuilt with 4300 h.p. 710-series engines before export to Australia and are designated SD9043MACs. There are slight detail differences between the first and second batches. 910 to 917 are SD90MACs delivered with 256H-series engines.
The model is part of Athearn’s Genesis series of locomotives packed in a dark blue hard cardboard box, with internal foam surrounds. Inside this is a clear plastic carrier; remove the carrier from the box, slide off the clear plastic sleeve then, with the model bogiesdown on
