traingeekboy

Athearn are a reliable brand. It sounds like your points may be too small a radius.

I would try to open it up and see if you can re-gauge the wheels you speak of.

Ideally an NMRA gauge is your best friend, but I've found turning the loco upside down and sliding a piece of set track, or identical kind of point over the wheels will show you what is going on.

No fun having a new loco fail on the layout. 

Used to be everything would run on the USA standard of 18' Radius.  Most newer USA models are designed to follow prototype radii. Athearn says the new locos can do 18" but advise 22". Is that an SD60? I would also check the wheel gauges. With my N scale locos I had a problem that with a wheel gauge tool the wheels seemed correct. When running these same locos through a switch it turned out the gauge was slightly narrow and the locos would pick at the facing points. American models are now using body mounted couplers as well, the body mounts make a huge difference in radius they can do. Also, the coupling are closer together and that also changes things a bit. 

There is a Danish loco that has a similar beast quality to it. I just love the monster machines.

What a beast.

That's some serious diesel action. Those things look like beasts. 

It's a slippery slope. you know... I'll just get a jinty because it's a nice model... uhm... maybe a little track... oh those coaches are cute... Wow, I haven't touched the OO scale layout in year, wonder why? 

oh oh. That is very lovely. Is this large scale like what we call G scale here? 

I have a real soft spot for N&W locos liek this one. The high hood is a real treat.

That is really a nice looking piece of stock.