I have been in HO since late 50’s and have been accumulating Athearn F-units since that time. I have added Walthers dress-up kits, constant lighting units, American limited close coupling and Kadee’s to each and every one since then. Some of the older units, I replaced the chassis with new ones that I got off e-Bay with flywheels etc. The last ones I purchased were from from Trainworld a couple of weeks ago (GN big sky blue ABBA). I have accumulated 68 F7 A/B engines and If there are others like me, then I think that Athearn F7’s could be the most produced engines in HO? Any comments? Are there others who love and collect the F7’s?
I certainly don’t have as many as you, but I’ll admit to a fondness for them. Back about the time you started collecting, I got my first F7, an Athearn Milwaukee A unit with rubber band drive. I added another when I found a yard sale box-o-trains with a geared A unit, and I bought a dummy A so I could swap the shell and have a second Milwaukee.
Fast forward to the 21st century. The rubber-band guy didn’t cut it, so I neutered him and now he runs as a dummy A. The gear-drive was the only one of my childhood engines to merit a decoder, but it was so noisy that I replaced the chassis with a new Athearn. I just got through adding sound to it. (Remember, this is the engine that I replaced the shell on, but it’s still “the same engine.”)
I found another Milwaukee A of a more recent vintage at a show, and I paid way too much for a dummy B on eBay, which I used for sound.
I don’t know what the most produced loco is but I have fond memories of a couple/4 freebie loco’s (rubber band F7’s) given to me and my brothers by the preacher who was also a model railroader and was trying to start a club at the time. They were ATSF and he was running BN at the time. I’ve picked up a couple undec Athearn since I got back into the hobby.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Athearn F7s aren’t no.1 in terms of all time model railroad sales. No doubt the Santa Fe “warbonnet” ones would be the top seller among the F7s.
My first engine was an athearn f7, cost about $40 about 15 years ago. Not the most detailed, but I still love it. IMO athearn produces some of the best stuff out there for HO, I love anything athearn, and eventually would want to collect as many of their f7s as possible.
I agree that the Athearn F7A/B would most likely be the most produced engine in HO scale.
I have collected a number of the EMD F units. I have mainly Stewart AB units, no one can beat the Kato drive that was used in a number of the Stewart drives, I also have Intermountain AB units which are a close second to the Stewarts in performance and of course a number of Athearn and Genesis AB units as well.
Can never have too many EMD F units I say. No I do not have anywhere near as many units. (yet)
I am in N scale now and aside from Lionel trains as a youngster, Athearn F units got me into the hobby. I don’t have it anymore but my favorite diesels I had was the Athearn warbonnet Santa Fe F7. Luckily Intermountain has started to fill this F niche for N scale.
Just wondering when did Athearn start putting windows in its F units? Back when I was in HO scale many years ago (and didn’t really know what I was doing), I could never figure why Athearn didn’t put windows in the Fs. Were there kits or something that were available for them before the Genesis locos?
I’ve often said if it wasn’t for Athearn (and a few other long term mfgs), I suspect quite a few of us old folks would have gotten into other hobbies. My HO venture started with Athearn rubber band drive F units and they were terrific (for the time) along with the blue box kits that had REAL sprung trucks!!!
A friend and I both had layouts but also set up a “dragstrip” in his basement to race the F units. They were awfully fast, and you really had to watch your speed on curved trackage.
I eventually got into the geared Athearn locos, and of course the “newer” blue box kits with delrin trucks. I still have a lot of those cars, and those trucks are still some of the best around.
When I got my first Athearn F7’s ('58) I was too young to notice the lack of windows, but in the 70’s I was in my local hobby shop and saw some done up with the Walthers Dress-up kits. These had the windows and brass grabs installed. I quickly updated the ones I had and have been updating all my F’s since. Athearn conveniently puts small dimples where the metal railings go and I use a needle in a pin vise to make a small mark, then use a #76 drill in the pin vise to make the hole. After installing the railings, I put a small drop of CA, then clip off the excess brass and file it smooth so the body fits the chassis. As to the constant lighting kits, there was a fellow near LA that sold them specificaly for Athearns with a new engine clip and wires to the power truck and a replacement headlight lens drilled for two tiny bulbs. They were so easy to install and reasonably inexpensive too. Unfortunately he went out of business around 1998. Presently I use a new disign from an eBay seller for around $5.00 each. Some of my units have the Stainless steel grills, but they are a little expensive so just my favorites have those. Since Athearn came out with the “Ready To Run” series made in China,(2000?) the F7’s are sold in a long blue box in AB sets, and come with the windows installed. There is a fellow on eBay that sells new updated chassis, and I have replaced the old rubber band ones with new modern chassis. Some of my engines were suffering from hardened and brittle old motor mounts, which seemed to make them very noisy. I replaced these hard motor mounts with new soft ones and the engines run much quieter now. Of the 68 units we have, they are in ABBA sets with the first two powered and the last two dummy’s. And the VIA, Santa Fe (war bonnet) and GN big sky blues are run the most on our layout. TrainWorld has a sale on now for Athearn F7’s, thats where I got the last two pairs of GN’s. I swapped the bodies around so I had
I was briefly in HO in the early seventies (didn’t have an Athearn F at that time) then went to O for 15 years. By the time I went back and bought an Athearn F around 1990 they had window inserts. I still bought the Walthers “Diesel Dress-up kit” for the handrails, I’ve used them for handrails for Stewart F units too.
I would not at all be surprised if the Athearn F7 – the original casting that is, not the beautiful Highliner castings they offer at premium prices – is the best selling HO locomotive of all time, particularly if you add in the huge sales when it was offered by “Globe” as an unpowered unpainted dummy for something around 98 cents – the unpainted version is said to have “saved” the W K Walthers firm because suddenly demand for decals shot up, so many of those Globe engines were sold at the time. Adding to the sales volume were the many Athearn train sets that used the F7.
Rather cleverly, Athearn found ways to basically keep the body casting the same (but even then they made changes, such as to the number boards and I think the location and number of the headlight(s) to encourage sales of an improved product: There was the rubber band drive, the geared drive, the “super powered” version that had a special ad in Model Railroader showing Linn Westcott examining the engine that ran nonstop in the MR offices for hundreds or thousands of hours nonstop, and then Athearn came out with a much improved side frame with more separate detail and, if memory serves, correcting an error in the curve of the truck frame brought about by an error in the original Model Railroader drawings that was perpetuated because to save time MR would reuse the drawing when they did later F and GP scale drawings. They finally 'fessed up in the late 60s or early 70s.
As I recall it wasn’t until Atlas came out with an FP7 that people noticed that Athearn had not really gotten the roof curve contour correct. I seem to recall the early brass F units copied Athearn’s contour.
With the possible exception of the rubber band drive unit (which did have the virtue of cheapness), maybe the most impressive thing about this sales record is that anyone who bought the engine basically got&