I’ve been in HO since the early '60s, and I firmly believe if it wasn’t for Athearn and a few other companies, HO might not be anywhere near what it is today. The value for their BB kits was unbelieveable. Even in the mid-'70s, you could get typical freight cars for $2.98, and passenger cars for $4.98. Of course that was “a lot more money” than it is today, but it was still a terrific value.
About 10 years ago I gathered up 13 of the various standard passenger cars lettered for Santa Fe. With additional decals, airbrushing (if I had to redo a car), metal wheelsets, weights, KD couplers, and American Limited diagphrams, I ended up with a pretty nice set of cars. With an ATSF pacific or hudson in front, it really made me smile.
Today, I’ve got sets of the Walther’s Super Chief cars, Budd cars, and even a set of Walther’s light and heavy weight IC cars. They are nicely detailed, fairly well scaled, and they truly look great. But the funny thing is, I still get a kick out of running those Athearn cars - perhaps more than the others.
Maybe its because I “built” them, or I’ve had them for some time, or because its not such a big deal if they break - or perhaps “all of the above”.
Oh, if you watch Ebay, they come up for sale all the time.
From what I understand, and someone correct me if I’m wrong, the Athearn SL baggage and mail cars are based on Santa Fe prototypes, and the rest of the cars are ‘generic’. With that out of the way, their “Daylight” painted passenger cars look good–if inaccurate–behind a GS-4. And since it looks like the BLI or Horizon “Daylight” cars are STILL some time away from being manufactured, they’ll do pretty nicely as a substitute. I’ve got a 10-car Athearn “Dayight” and my Balboa GS-4 seems to like them a lot. For the time being, at least.
Just don’t get the Vista-Dome, SP never ran them, LOL! They had their own homemade 3/4 domes instead for the Shasta Daylight, San Joaquin and occasionally on the Overland.
But their Pullman-Standard head-end equipment–baggage and mail–look good on ANY standard passenger train. I’ve got a couple on my otherwise Walther’s-equipped 1950 “Royal Gorge” and they track very well and are sufficiently weighted to run at the head of the train. Underbody detail is very sparse, but I’m never under the cars that much. [:P] But as Dr. Wayne has shown so strikingly in his photos, they can be ‘bashed’ into really great passenger cars.
Mark, On a layout as large as this(60’X70’) there are so many things to keep up with, that we do occasionally catch employees “Layin Down on the Job”
Flashwave, The club is the Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Club, in Portland, OR. Tuesday Nights are our scheduled club nights, with the First Tuesday of the month Operating Night, and the other three normally designated as Work Nights.
We are open for Public Show the Four weekends every November, both Saturdays and Sundays 10:00am-5:00pm. If You are coming during Nov Show try to call ahead a schedule a VIP Tour under the layout, your knees WONT GET DIRTY, we have a full 6’+ headroom under most of the layout. Dispatching, Standards Repair Bench, electronics room and two large staging yards are located under the layout. Almost always impresses both Joe Public, and Experienced Modelers.
We model the Columbia River Gorge from Portland, OR to Wishram, WA and the Oregon Trunk Line from Wishram to Bend, OR as well as having a Very Nice Logging Division, which has a working “Log Jammer” to unload the Skeleton Log cars into the Mill Pond. Troutdale (in OUR world, anyway) has a working Rotary Dumper (single car) and our scratchbuilt model of Portland’s Steel Bridge operates just like the prototype, with the Rail deck lifting independently before the Highway deck, then both lifting together. Portland’s Steel Bridge is unique in this feature, where there are many other double deck lift bridges around the world, all the others have the two decks rigidly linked, and lift simultaneously. With all the staging and working yards and both helixes measured as well as the rest of the layout, we have over 3 ACTUAL MILES of track.
I have never found the Athearn BB passenger cars objectionable. I have several sets, both streamline and heavyweight. Sure they are short, and somewhat thin on the detailing, but I can purchase an entire train set of Athearn cars for the cost of one Walthers or Rapido car. Plus they look much better on my layout’s curves then the few full length cars I have.
Although not accurate for the NW… these heavyweights still look good behind my J:
And the streamline ones fit right in behind my T1:
First the NMRA doesn’t have a weight standard period…What they do have is a Recommend Practice.This is RP20.1 which means its nothing more the a recommendation that a modeler can follow and is outdated according to many modern modelers.I have never followed RP20.1 because its was meant for the old wooden car kits,light plastic cars-like Varneys- that didn’t have any or very little weight,cruel plastic wheels etc…
The NMRA has NO manufacturer weight standard period.
