What time period would Athearn’s Frieghtliner and Kenworth tractor-trailer truck cabs be from? I am using some of both in my layout that is based some time is the early `70s. I don’t really care if they are completely prototypical for that time period, but figure it would not be bad to know because I’m thinking of buying some more.
On that note who else makes good truck cabs from the 60s and early 70s? We already have some Athearn Ford model C’s, and am curious what else would be appropriate.
Thanks,
~matt
Mini Metals makes good rigs for the 50’s and 60’s
Athearn’s B model dates back to WW2 or earlier, The famous R model is late 60’s onwards. Ive many years on the road and can almost feel that hard riding R model in the keyboard. Sigh.
Now we need some Diamond Reos and Marions and my joy will be complete.
athearns B mack is based on macks from mid fifties on, not ww2, the freightliner and kenworth are earl-mid seventies models,the white can be back dated,older models had single headlights and some other differences. Alloy forms makes some trucks for that era,also suurrey models has a few, nice models btw. All of Athearns trucks will fit your needs.Mini-Metals are more fifties based,but there were a few around in seventies still. Check Walthers catolog, I believe there a few metal Internationals out there also.
Your safe with the Freightliners for the early 70’s. Another good source is A-Line/Proto Power West for KW and Peterbilt, both conventional and cabover. The trucks are good for the 70’s (I am using them for the late 60’s as well). If you want some good info on HO scale vehicles and manufacturers go to
http://www.1-87vehicles.org/
You’ll have to register but its free. Lots of links and cool stuff.
Rick
Cool glad to hear the athearns work for my time period. Next time I’m home I’m gonna try to pick up at least one more cab, and repaint an old Cox (mad by athearn) one that I have.
Thanks for the other time period approriate truck cabs guys. Couple of other questions.
-what time period is Atlas’s Ford truck cab from?
-How abouts con-cors trucks? They have several differnt ones, when would they all be from?
-And lastly athearn makes 25’ trailers they used to include on flat cars. I have several of these that i have picked up used for quite cheep, I was wondering when these were from, and also what type of truck cab would be appropriate for them? I know they are a good bit older than the earlyer 70’s, but would any of them still be around in the early 70s?
I’ve tryed to do some research on this kinda stuff and had very little luck. You guys are a ton of help. thanks a ton,
~matt
Registration is no longer required at the 1/87 Club Website. It’s wide open and all free.
All of the trucks would be fine for a '70s-era layout. The Athearn Mack B is good for about 1954 onwards, the Mack R from 1966 on. The Athearn White Freightliner is circa 1970. The KW W900 could be a late 1960s model (the headlights are the giveaway). It was introduced in 1961, but there was a change in the headlight treatment in the mid-1960s.
Athearn’s Ford C is actually a 1980s or later model because of the markings. However, the over all design is good for anytime after the fall of 1956 (except for three years from 1958 to 1960 when the C had quad headlights).
The Con-Cor/Promotex trucks are generally late 1970s or later, though the White Road Commander would be good. The GMC General also debuted in the late 1970s.
You could get away with the 25-foot trailers as the changes to federal law that completely changed truck trailers didn’t come until after the time in which your layout is set. However, I would weather them up fairly well and avoid the round-front trailers as those had been retired long before.
The Athearn KW would be good for layouts starting in mid to late 70’s.
Rick
I’m very happy the way the situation has improved over the years. Since my modeling period is 60s thru early 70s, the Athearns and Mini-Metals would fit in quite nicely.