I recently came across a couple of dozen Athearn kits that were in the old yellow boxes. I found these at a garage sale some time ago.
Apparently I had just missed a number of Roundhouse locomotives that were also in a kit form as well
All the railroad items belonged to someone who had bought a bunch of model railroad items and never ever did build a layout.
The kits I bought have the metal sprung trucks. I never realized that Athearn kits had once contained sprung trucks.
Oh yeah. I have some Athearn cars from the 70’s that still have their sprung trucks, as well as a caboose that I rebuilt last year. 70’s era Athearn body on a Bachmann chassis, Mehano railings and Athearn sprung trucks. Getting the trucks to fit on a Bachmann chassis was a little of a challenge but it’s not impossible.
Athearn kits are so great. I have about 20 to put together right now. I put together 5 so far
The yellow box kits are pre 1966. About 1966 boxes changed to blue and one piece plastic sideframe trucks started to appear.
Sheldon
Hi!
If it wasn’t for Athearn, HO never would have gotten to where it is today. I got my first kits in 1960, and just loved those sprung trucks. Later on I bought some of the older ones (yellow boxes) and even some of the metal kits too.
I have well over 200 today, and those that are layout ready have KDs and Intermountain wheels. All have a Dull Cote spray, and the trucks/couplers are weathers with a rusty black wash.
When my 4 kids were little in the mid '70s, that was their favorite gift for the ol man, and they made me smile then, as they do today.
One other comment… I have a number of Red Caboose, Intermountain, Walthers, Ulrich, Silver Streak, etc., etc. cars that have significantly more detail than the Athearns. But many of them are just to delicate to be daily runners, and I find the Athearn get run a lot more.
I have only seen one with the sprung trucks, but it was all so made of wood. I do sure miss the old Blue Box kits. When I started this hobby only 5 years ago I was buying Blue Boxes for only $4.00 to $6.00 each. I as well have around 200 of them.
Cuda Ken
Actually, the original Athearn kits were metal, and had about six gazillion pieces that went together just as they were supposed to, and made into remakably well-detailed kits. And sprung trucks, too. I don’t remember exactly when Athearn went from metal to plastic, but I know it was sometime in either the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. I don’t know how long the sprung trucks lasted, but I do remember that Athearn began using plastic trucks with rubber ‘spring’ inserts sometime later (they were terrible!).
Menzies bought the original Athearn metal dies and produced the metal kits for some years after Athearn had gone to plastic. IIRC, the Athearn metal cars consisted of box, automobile (both 40’ and 50’) refrigerator and tank cars. I still have quite a few of those older, original metal Athearn cars, and with truck and coupler replacements, still run them on my MR. Detail-wise, they’re several steps ahead of the Athearn plastic cars, and just a few steps below current cars made by either Intermountain, Red Caboose or Branchline. They still look awfully good, today.
It’s actually too bad that Menzies stopped production of the original Athearn metal dies. They were enormous fun to build–took a few days, but everything went together just as it should.
Here’s a couple of Athearn steel reefers from the original metal kits.
Not too shabby at all, IMO. [:P]
Tom [swg]
I too still have a number of old Athearn metal cars in my fleet - they are great
If I remember correctly, the blue and yellow boxes existed at the same time as the yellow box signified the old wheel contour and the blue boxes were to have the RP25 wheel contour. The blue box kits were also about twenty cents more than the yellow box kits.
Rick
My first HO model kit in bought in 1965 (after my parents bought me an Athearn Christmas train set) was an Athearn SP flat car with the metal side stakes. It had the sprung trucks and rolled likea charm. I recently found a duplicate at a railroad flea market and it had the original sprung trucks as well. This was a “blue-box” kit as well, and I endorse the remarks about Athearn being one of the foundational manufacturers in our hobby. The old kits are still great and I buy them when I see them at the flea markets these days.
That blue box drawing still says “RAILROADING” in capital letters to me!
Cedarwoodron