Just received the November issue of Model Railroader over the weekend and Walthers new GP20 is in the Product Reviews section on page 72. There are only two photos in the review, but it looks like the drive unit is completely different from the P2K Athearn clone drive from 1999. The caption below the photo of the drive states it is similar to the mechanism released in 2006. Also, the truck detail does include the early style sloped and square journal boxes. Hopefully Walthers will stock these new truck side frame separately for modelers who want to update their older Geeps.

One detail on the GP30 shell I’ll be interested to see is the side dynamic brake vents. The vents on the old P2K shell are not very accurate when compared to the prototype. (Brian Banna pointed that out to me over on the Diesel Detailer forum.)

Here is 5514 and 5504, location and photographer unknown:




And here is 3609 just to show the difference in the trucks. (I’m assuming not all of the GP30s were built using trade-in F unit trucks.)

MB Klien has pictures of the RDG GP30's if anyone is interested check them out.

Athearn has RDG mill gons in their recent announcements.I believe there are three road numbers...no pics at this time.

I ordered 1-unit which arrived last Friday.

I am guessing that with all the EMD units on the roster. the trucks were used on any unit that needed them. so a truck off of a GP-7 could end up on a GP-35. whatever was available in the shop at the time.

Since the GP-30's rode on trucks from trade-in FT's, checking the trucks on each FT and comparing to each GP-30 may be in order.

Did Walthers include the drip strip on the roof?