I noticed this mysterious unboxed locomotive on ebay, advertised as an unknown make and model, I could see from the picture that it was a GP35 and the running number matched the Athearn Wisconsin Central GP35 so I assumed it was an Athearn RTR model.
It arrived today and turns out it is actually a repainted Kato, very nicely detailed and in good shape. A bit of a surprise and a pretty good result as I paid less than £20 for it, and Kato GP35's generally go for at least £40, even repainted.
The only damage is a broken rear porch handrail, the top rail is split on the right-hand side and will need to be patched or replaced. The original owner also fitted an all-weather window that has dropped off and needs re-glued.
It's a beautifully smooth running engine, but I haven't had a chance to look under the hood yet, and I suspect this engine probably won't be the later DCC friendly version. I may have to invest in a new lighting board for it.
The Kato website has some details on how to fit DCC to the original release GP35 and SD40's here (link).
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