Life-Like Proto 2000 HO Scale GP20 Review

Рет қаралды 12,397

10 ай бұрын

Trying my hand at doing some full and detailed reviews on "new" models! Today we're looking at the Proto 2000 GP20, which may be the best value model of a GP20 that you can get!
My computer was complaining a lot thanks to the multi-layered 4K editing and ended up with some minor audio errors throughout, so I think I'll stick with 1080p from now on until I get a newer computer.

Пікірлер: 72

@struck2soon 8 ай бұрын

I remember purchasing a SD7 way back in 1996, my first P2k model. The detail and performance at that time was nothing short of astonishing. They still hold their own against the new stuff.

@Zebrails 10 ай бұрын

I've got the shell of 5626 and a full model of 5628 with DCC and Sound (Walther's version). I do admire yours having a bit more detail (opening doors) ...The Walther's version does have fully painted figures, an actual brass bell attached with wire. Glad the axle gear problem was remedied. Awesome assembly and review. Thank you. John (Demo' collector)

@DarthSantaFe 10 ай бұрын

I figured they didn’t have the opening doors, but at least they are painting the crew now!

@1471SirFrederickBanbury 10 ай бұрын

I love this detailed and highly critical styled review. It’s not every day when people go this deep into the model and fitting details. I especially appreciate finding an equal amount of praise and criticism, keeping the review balanced. This is how reviews should be done.

@DarthSantaFe 10 ай бұрын

Thanks! I try to be unbiased in my reviews, so even models I personally like may get a low score in the end.

@mgr_video_productions 10 ай бұрын

Nice review and video! Love how heavy and detailed Proto 2000 models are. I have a Proto 2000 SD60M in Conrail patched to NS. Love the opening door feature as well.

@MozanaRN 10 ай бұрын

Thank you Darth for this extremely close up and detailed examination of Proto 2000's EMD GP20. My new Holy Grail. 🙂

@johnparker7874 5 ай бұрын

I am fighting the odd DCC ready electronics on the GP30's I have 7 of them, and after adding DCC to three, I have devised a way to fit a DH126 into the shell. I replace the bulbs with 3mm LEDs, do a quick trim on the weight to fit the decoder, and put it together.

@dennisbailey6067 10 ай бұрын

Like your detailed review,including how to take apart and replace gears.The GM demo scheme is nice.

@briandonovan9560 10 ай бұрын

Thanks for the video, I have a pair of EMD E9A and B units Milwaukee Road yellow and gray that I purchased way back in 2003 that I never ran, but now I'm going to service them.

@steveg3981 6 ай бұрын

Excellent review. I've always liked the P2K range. I have a dozen GP7s and GP9s dating back to 2000. Most are in TH&B livery which at the time were limited runs for a local hobby shop.

@garyjust.johnson1436 10 ай бұрын

Nice! Great to see the insides of one of these!

@josephseverino674 10 ай бұрын

I have several proto 2000s that i bought in late 90s GP9 B&O when they came out,i never thought life like would make a great quality detailed models and i have been in this hobby since the early 1970s the dog days LOL. To this day they perform just as good like best locomotives of today, and i have Marklins LOL great video as allways. 👍

@Crookedriverandeasternrr 10 ай бұрын

Proto did such a nice job on these

@jacobpfeifertrains1998 10 ай бұрын

I love the GP60/SD60 Demonstrator scheme. I have 1 of the GP60 Protos on the demo paint

@aspenGF8 5 ай бұрын

proto geeps are still the best on the market. fresh axle gears and in the case of GP18/20 some Plano grilles and they become a superb model. my only complaint is the frame should have been designed to accommodate the different fuel tank sizes.

@rich_rich90 10 ай бұрын

I've got a couple of these over here in the UK. They are by far my smoothest runners (even on badly laid track) & the detail for the time was a step ahead.

@vincenttolve9756 10 ай бұрын

Excellent analysis. Even though I have little to no interest in HO scale, I watched and enjoyed the entire video.

@Wolfe351 10 ай бұрын

nice showing the gear replacement, I need to do this with a couple of GP30's I picked up cheap at a swapmeet....unused but gear noise. bought Athearn gears just need to find the time lol. EDIT the later P2k's have a board with 8 pin DCC plug

@Train777 10 ай бұрын

Very nice review, I would love to see you do a tutorial of a DCC install on one of these.

@DarthSantaFe 10 ай бұрын

If I ever get a DCC system then I'll look more into doing those kinds of installations. :)

@michaelcudby787 10 ай бұрын

Wow. That is a nice model, never been out of the package.That being said, it should not be making ANY gear noise.I would be inclined to find out wich truck is making the noise, by removing the worm gear & removing most of the gears in the truck. I have about ten of these four axel locos, & none have any gear noise, whatsoever. Although some of these models will crawl at snails pace, some have trouble running below 5mph. If you ever go DCC, a good decoder will make them run exquisitly. These models were way ahead of their time, in their day....see through steps, wow. Great review thankyou. Michael NZ

@DarthSantaFe 10 ай бұрын

I’ll have to look into it more. My Proto BL2 and C-LINER have the same trucks and while they do sound similar, the noise is less.

@longviewkelsolinesRR644 10 ай бұрын

Awsome locomotive darth love it i have a proto 2000 60 mac for bnsf

@williamgottlieb8723 10 ай бұрын

36:22 It looks like a Bachmann Test Weight Car might just fit in there perfectly and complete the loop!

@DarthSantaFe 10 ай бұрын

What I should've done is get a ton of Bachmann DeWitt Clinton cars to really push the numbers up!

@beeble2003 10 ай бұрын

35:50 That loco's almost its own DPU! 😁

@ThundercatDarklion 10 ай бұрын

Awesome!!!!

@JBofBrisbane 10 ай бұрын

I think I see now why TYCO used the road number 5628 as the universal number for all their GP20s, regardless of livery.

@albertjones1386 10 ай бұрын

This was a very thorough review and it showed in great detail how the take the engine apart. Certainly one of the better reviews I have seen. One question. If you found 2 cracked gears, why did you not just replace all 4. The odds are that the other two will crack in the future as all the gears in this loco came from the same batch and you had the replacements on hand. I have a GP9 and when I got it, it ran fine but over time all four gears cracked and I replaced them.

@DarthSantaFe 10 ай бұрын

Thanks! I only replace gears as needed instead of all together so that I don’t have to buy as many. On my other models of similar age (20+ years), I rarely get more cracked gears beyond the ones that failed early on.

@brucekellett2269 4 ай бұрын

No ! change them all while you have it unassembled

@BlackWolfessUSCM 6 ай бұрын

My Lead locomotives are Walthers proto F7A and an athean genesis F8B but when i needed a third loco for the train i settld for cheap proto 2000 gp18 since i didnt care about a cab interior and just needed motive power for the set. Its one of my best runners though I did a lot of sugery and swapped a proto power west motor in along with a loke sound decoder

@retr0bits545 10 ай бұрын

Like the review. Also, any updates on the Tyco Chattanooga Re-Power? I might be able to lend a hand on the tender frame as I have access to a machine shop via my trade school.

@DarthSantaFe 10 ай бұрын

The design is mostly done. I’m getting a few details figured out, and then I can start testing things to make sure the gear mesh is tuned right. Thanks for the offer to make the frames, but I’m going to have to make these myself to keep it in the $70 or less price range.

@retr0bits545 10 ай бұрын

@@DarthSantaFe understood and hope to see what it will look like when all said and good.

@fleischmann_rowa_roco_ho 5 ай бұрын

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

@tomcook5813 2 ай бұрын

Wow, 1w resistors 😊

@gatblau1 10 ай бұрын

Where do you purchase the Athearn gears? Do you special order them through a hobby shop or straight from Athearn?

@DarthSantaFe 10 ай бұрын

I get them from Athearn/Horizon. They can be found at other places too, but not usually for cheaper than direct.

@michaelmorgan7893 5 ай бұрын

I have some Proto SD45's, but those have a radically different truck design. I cannot figure out how to get inside them to check or replace the axles on those.

@michaelcudby787 Ай бұрын

The 6 axel trucks dont suffer the problem of split gears, so you wont need to replace them.

@johnparker7874 5 ай бұрын

I replace all 4. if they haven't cracked, they will.

@johnd9541 4 ай бұрын

Looks similar in construction to my Athearn BB Gp-50. From the same factory perhaps?

@DarthSantaFe 4 ай бұрын

The factories are different, but Life-Like did directly copy Athearn’s designs for their early 4-axle diesels.

@michaelmorgan7893 5 ай бұрын

I have ten of those I bought brand new. Every one of those even if they were out of the box or not, many I never ran, had cracked gears. I know people tell me I can replace them with Athearn gears, but it didn't work. There's just enough difference in the gear pitch that the Athearn will not work with the life like, even though they look identical, the motor ran hot with the Athearn gear wheelsets.

@DarthSantaFe 5 ай бұрын

It could depend on the model, or maybe when it was made. I have other P1K and P2K models that had cracked gears and worked perfectly with Athearn replacements. This is the only one so far that’s been a little rough.

@michaelmorgan7893 5 ай бұрын

@@DarthSantaFe I ended up replacing some of those axle gears with NWSL wheelsets. So when I discovered the nine Proto GP30s have the same issue, I started looking for the NWSL wheelsets, but was informed they went out of business, and Walthers (either had bought them out) or were producing their own brand of replacement gears.

@DarthSantaFe 5 ай бұрын

@@michaelmorgan7893 NWSL went through a change of ownership, but they’re still around. They did have to increase their prices quite a bit to stay in business though, so new gears can get expensive in a hurry.

@malcolmfarmer2006 7 ай бұрын

Hello i just got my first ho model trains both are the gp20 santa fe’s one was running but i think its drawing to may amps for my power pack i probly done a dumb thing but i used a 12v batt hooked to my tracks it runs fine but eventualy will blow a fuse in my wire setup the other has a bad circut board & was tood bad motor said it goes forward but smoked once trying to go backwards where can i get parts i need some of those axle gears too the one tht runs clicks as it goes dwn the track im a newby just tryn to get in to the hobby

@DarthSantaFe 7 ай бұрын

The 12V battery shouldn't have caused any damage since the GP20 is made to run on 12V or briefly even up to 16V. The current draw can go up a lot of the grease is dried out, so if you turn the motor flywheel by hand and feel resistance, I'd definitely take the trucks apart for a good cleaning and fresh oil and grease. These use about 0.25A running free with good oil. I don't know about exact replacement circuit boards for these, but if you're only running on DC power then you can wire the trucks directly to the motor, then either put in 12V light bulbs or add resistors to the originals. You can use Athearn ATS60024 gears for the axles. These are carried in many hobby shops and online stores, or you can order them direct from Horizon Hobbies.

@Mauscmkwk 10 ай бұрын

You should do an advanced steam locomotive kit

@DarthSantaFe 10 ай бұрын

I have one waiting to be started! Just have to finish the other two first.

@kensbackshop6399 6 ай бұрын

Are those nickel silver wheels

@michaelquinones-lx6ks 10 ай бұрын

I use to have the Proto 2000 Undecorated. But, It was Nightmare to put the small pieces in place. I would rather stick to the decorated models at lease you won't have to deal with the hassle of fitting those damn small parts. Also, I had that model only it was a high hood version undecorated. As i mentioned earlier It was a nightmare to put together i use the proper tools and taking my time. But, ended up in swearing, frustration, and tears!

@michaelquinones-lx6ks 10 ай бұрын

To the person who liked my comment, Thank you.👍

@adamserafini6945 10 ай бұрын

Maybe you need to enjoy what your doing or , grow a pair

@michaelquinones-lx6ks 10 ай бұрын

@@adamserafini6945 The "tears" part was a joke. And, yes i have pair!

@jimflagg4009 9 ай бұрын

Wow this is a Life Like. I thought they only did toy trains.

@DarthSantaFe 9 ай бұрын

They did at first, but then they started the Proto 2000 series in the late 80’s with more separate details than anyone had ever seen on a plastic model. They were game changers for sure!

@mattomon1045 9 ай бұрын

i remember when that locomotive was new and modelers screamed that doors opened They did not like that ! now they have interiors in the cabs of the locomotive. that you cant see!

@HoboHeaven 10 ай бұрын

No Decoder?

@DarthSantaFe 10 ай бұрын

No, this was a 90’s model. It would be a few more years before anything had DCC pre-installed.

@beeble2003 10 ай бұрын

The "limited edition" printing on the front of the box annoys me no end. They printed that on every single model they made. And, yeah, technically, it's true -- they only made a fixed number of each release. But, in most cases, that's meaningless. If the XYZ Railroad GP123s, numbers 2635 and 3745 sell really well, they can just release numbers 2453, 2649 and 3701, also as "limited editions" because, hey, XYZ railroad bought more than 200 GP123s, so they can just keep cranking out the "limited editions". I regularly see them on Ebay for 2-3x what they're worth because some seller thinks that "limited edition" means that it's somehow valuable. Wouldn't be a big deal in the US, where there are presumably a zillion other sellers with reasonable prices, but I'm not in the US, and there's not a huge amount of choice -- probably an average of about five to ten ten American HO models come up on Ebay in any given week, where I am.