How many of you are just into the blue box stuff? All of my locomotives are detailed blue box locomotives as well as my rolling stock. The guys at my club say I am a want a be model railroader, because I don’t run Katos and Atlas and Proto’s. I want to, but I don’t make a lot of money. I think I am a model railroader, just a blue box one.[:D][:D]
Nothing wrong, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve got about 60 rolling stock right now; 25 or so are old Tyco and similar quality to which Kadee couplers have been added, while the rest are Athearn and Roundhouse kits. I’m weighting them slowly, and will weather them as well.
Why? Money is one. A not-quite-four-year-old is another.
If you’re enjoying it, it’s not wrong. Heck, if nothing else, you’re adding to your modelling skills. I didn’t spend a lot of time on it, but there was a thread recently about whether the hobby is becomming too easy or something. Not as long as there are people who like making their own details!
Brian Pickering
Unless we’re running REAL locomotives, we’re all Wanna-bes! Whatever level we settle for short of that makes us model railroaders. People running strictly brass could say anyone running plastic are wanna-be modelers. Just enjoy yourself and make sure these snobs know you are!
I have a number of brands, and Athearn is definately on the roster, and I enjoy watching them run. Dan.
The folks I know who work in the shops at the Railroad Museum, laying 1:1 scale track and operating 1:1 scale classic diesel and steam equipment, indeed consider all of us “wannabees”, even though quite a few have model railroads at home too!
Nothing wrong with the moderately-priced stuff–it runs fine, it looks good, and if it’s operating on your layout instead of sitting on a hobbyshop shelf, you have no fear of being a “wannabe”–because unless they mean that you are being what YOU want to be, rather than what THEY want you to be…
Let’s see, they buy RTR stuff, open the box, and stick them on the layout. You buy kits, open the box, assemble them, detail them, then put them on the layout. And they call you a “wanna” be? Are modeling skills in getting the car out of the packaging?
This is one of the things that bother me about any Hobby or Forum for that matter. There is always someone that thinks they know better.
It’s a Hobby! Enjoy it for what it brings to you, and hopefully your family. There are reasons to buy Blue Box stuff, reasons to buy RTR, and even a good Reason to buy a Thomas the Tank Engine in HO Scale.
I do agree that building a kit gives one more satisfaction then pulling it out of the box. But sometimes, age, ability, or physical handicap prevents folks from being the modeller or hobbiest that we want to be.
I buy what I LIKE First, and can afford Second. If I wanted to be prototypical i would join the local Transportation Musuem and work there on real trains, but I can’t dedicate every weekend of my life to that endevour.
Chris
Nothing wrong with Athearn at all. Over 50% of my loco collection is Athearn, and I’ll be fitting DCC and directional lighting to these over the next few months. Top of the list are the SD9 that I started out with and the GP60 that’s one of the best Athearn locos I have, the SD9 will be easy to convert due to the high hoods which will hide fairly simple lighting arrangements (basically an LED eash end and a couple of resistors). I’m intrigued by the idea of loco snobs, I guess we sort of have them over here - people who believe the only way to a good model is a brass/whitemetal kit assembled by soldering. The latest RTR models have given them something of a shock though - Hornby now offer RTR steamers that are as detailed as the best kits, run as well as a kit built by a professional, and cost about half the price. The kit manufacturers are now moving into more unusual prototypes to fill gaps in the RTR ranges.
Dont worry about the price tag on the stuff or the income you make. Athearn I considered a part of the hobby like the old Varney, Trainmaster and Cox used to be. The roster on my table (next to, under, around and nearby) includes probably half are Athearns. You will find a cow and calf on my link below that is almost 20 years old athearn and still running.
I am just finishing up about 30 Athearn boxcars with the weights and metal wheels. Some are mantuas and roundhouse as well. Once calibrated at the couplers I would have no problems putting the Athearns on anyone’s layout and they will perform as they should.
I buy and sell on ebay and when I see athearn cars come in using metal wheels, bolster shims, kaydee couplers and perhaps even trucks and weighted from other modelers who evidently took as much pride as I do in thier models. I say let them blue box trains roll.
Now. Ready to Run rolling stock has gone up in price and I do own a percentage of them only because I am a coward and too wussy to pay retail for them. I am willing to hunt for sales on RTR.
I consider the Athearns a good way to bolster your rolling stock. Otherwise the money will get misspent in Alcohol and who knows what else. Also the one thing that I like about the Athearns is that they can take the big drop to the floor during a really bad wreck (OUCH!!) and with a few moments of workbench time be back in service. Some of th finely detailed RTR probably will not survive such a catastrophic event.
If you like it, run it. Dont worry about anyone who says different. Heck I had a tyco trainset that was just plain junk as a child but I had the attitude of running it with others who may be running the finest brass. Just never did get to run WITH the brass he he… but different can of worms.
The Athearn’s were the first of my Loco’s that I switched to DCC. The SD9 and GP9 are great candidates for learning to install DCC, as you have the small challenge of isolating the motor, but not the problem of finding the room to fit the decoder. Athearns, are a wonderful blank canvas. They are in effect the model RR “tuners choice”. You can upgrade the motor/drive train, improve the wiring, add details, or just leave them as they are and they will perform reliably for years.
Todd,
I’m sure the guys at your club are teasing you. Ignore it! Remind them that years back there were no Katos or Protos! Also remind them that througout the 70s and 80s, Model Railroader Magazines were “PACKED” with articles on modelers that owned Athearns.
You are a modeler. Relax and enjoy the hobby!
Todd, I’m sure you can do this: E-mail your club or club members this topic!
Here’s my message to them:
FELLOW MODELERS: PLEASE,
(A) DON’T BE SO DISCOURAGING OR ARROGANT! [|(]
(B) GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSES!
(C) ENCOURAGE YOUR FELLOW MODELER!
(D) GET A SERIOUS GRIP ON REALITY!
Peace! [;)]
Remember, too, that this is the kind of thinking that took muscle cars away from the masses and made them collectors items. Some people just think that the more you spend on something, the better it is, and anything else is junk. If you are in the hobby for the right reasons, which should be personal enjoyment and satisfaction, then model what you want and how you want. If you let others dictate to you what a “real” modeller is, you need to find a different hobby, or at least a different group of friends.
I just bought a ‘leftover’ BlueBox GP40-2 from my LHS, I’ll gladly run it alongside my Katoes and Altases. As for those model buyers who call you a ‘wannabe’, they are only betraying their own insecurity. Ignore them and enjoy your trains!
Actually the muscle cars were killed by emissions, costly parts and overall insurance problems. I have owned two of them in my life and they were daily drivers. I would be glared at by the BMW or Lexus driver and looked down upon as a no lifer who drove a heap of junk. They did not carry those feelings after I was able to use the power and good tires (headers, sway bars etc et c etc) to cut holes in the traffic and make my way rather easily to work during the cutthroat commute where horsepower is king and brakes is the enforcers.
I think the cost of muscle cars took off because alot of people reached middle age and went GEE… I shore miss my old Judge or Charger and had the financial ability to bring some of these cars back to life in the full glory and ability as they were first built.
I think bringing a old Varney or Brass engine back to life and running it in today’s modern world of DCC and such is a wonderful thing to do. Keeping history alive in living form is a tribute. Nothing to be shamed of.
So I say run em if you got em. As long as others with you in the club or LHS are doing the same and possibly bringing new people in to see what the fun was about; it’s all good.
The blue box stuff is the true back-bone of this hobby! Tell them where they can stick their high-falooting-miss-informed ideas and go to your workshop and do what you like doing! Don’t give this type of dumb thinking one more thought! Find a club that has less of an A-HOLE content, or forget clubs all together, if this is the type of idiots clubs attract!
Or, are the really just pulling your leg?!?
Todd,
The way I see it if you love having stuff running on two parallel pieces of some material, you’re a model railroader. Whether it be Kato, Proto, Athearn, Life-Like or Brio. 5000 square foot layout or armchair. G, O, S, HO, N or Z. DCC, DC or handpushed.
Now I believe that my way of modelilng is the best. For me that is. Of course I do judge model railroaders all the time. If the guy or gal is smiling - that person is a modelrailroader doing it the right way for them! After all that’s why we’re in this hobby right?
Dave
I too am from the muscle car era and one thing most of us couldn’t resist doing was making it faster and better looking than original. New set of rear end gears, headers, carburation, chrome engine parts, tires, mags, paint jobs----------------!!! You get the idea. Maybe this is why a lot of us like the Blue Box stuff. We get to tinker with it and make it better. This gives them our own personal touch, which by the way is what this hobby is all about. If all of us had the same equipment, type of layout, methods, ect. What a boring hobby it would be!!! Like everyone having to drive a Volkswagon!!! Have fun with the BB’s, I sure do.
Don’t you listen to them Todd - YOU’RE a model railroader, and anyone who turns up their nose because you’re not spending as much money as them is a SNOB.
A similar thing happened to me when I was skeet shooting - the guys spending $5000 on their fancy over/under shotguns used to make fun of me for shooting a $300 Remington pump - right up until the time I starting whippin’ thier butts silly on a regular basis!!
BLUE BOX ROCKS![8D]
Todd keep up the good work, I have many blue box engines. Recently I have spent more on detailing and customizing blue boxes than buying new Kato’s. Money isn’t everything. Enjoyment is!
Find something to pick on them about, they probably have spent all their money on engines and have no-layout or no scenery or only a handful of cars.
Good luck, Rich
I am inspired to start a new thread about people and clubs based on your last post train_geek but have no way of keeping it on the fun part of member’s abilities in the clubhouse.
I recall one HO scale passenger steamer that flowed like water while moving. Once it arrived at the club’s station and stopped for a bit. Apparently it came time for it to move again and you can hear the cursing in the engineer’s booth as the Loco sparked and jerked the slack out of the cars and slammed into motion at 20 scale miles an hour. The teasing started about whose engines can make a nice slow start and probably still continues to this day.
By the way the passenger cars were athearn I think the loco was a kit built bowser. But time tends to cloud memory.
Todd,I guess I am a wanna be model railroader as well even after 54 years in the hobby…[:(]
You see 75% of my cars are Athearn BB ,RTR and Genesis…10% are Bev/Bel Athearn and the remaining 15% is a mix of Atlas and Walthers cars.[8D][:D] I now own 28 Athearn locomotives…I sold some of my P2Ks and Atlas locomotives and I just may sell my 4 Kato GP35s since the new Athearn RTR GP35 looks far better and runs just as smooth.
Of course your DETAILED Athearn locomotives looks just as good as their high dollar locomotives and of course the Athearn bashers and haters really hate that when a detailed Athearn BB loco looks as good as a high dollar model.
Now,Pay no attention to those snobs…You see your Athearn BB locomotives will be around after the Katos,Atlas,P1Ks,P2K and other brands are in the scrap box.Heck,those high dollar locomotives needs fixin’ 70% of the time or the detail is wrong! But they WON"T TELL YOU THAT!..
Now if it was me…My snappy come back would be: Your rice burning Kat TOES will be jn the junk box long before my Athearns and YOU DID notice that Life Like COPIED the Athearn drive instead of designing their own drive? Besides Atlas help design the Kato drive when Kato was team up with Atlas.And that friends is no ghost story!