I agree on that for sure, but the price is higher also. The old blue boxes were just an entry model that started many of us into the model train world in the late sixties and early seventies and the detail was cast on for the most part. None of mine have been used for over thirty years and many are still kits in the box.
My latest cars are Kadee’s, Intermountain and Accurail and other very detailed models with wheels that actually roll without great wobble. I believe the old blue box cars still had a roll in attracting new people into the hobby that were on a limited budget.
Sad news but it may be a purely economic response to the times. The BB kit does make it very economical for low income or kids to get into the hobby. I have gotten rid of the majority of my BB train cars, but I have saved the ones which are relatively correct for my modeling needs. Some of the last holdouts are the 57’ mechanical reefere which only recently were upstaged by IMR expensive versions.
One Track Mind is correct. Athearn is finished effective now with the old Blue Box Kits.
I feel fortunate that I was able to get most of the ones I wanted before they finally stopped them.
Discontinued forever but gone? Not when you have Ebay and Train shows for years to come. There will always be Blue Box kits floating around. Varney is proof of this.
I’m moving into On30 but it will be a long time before I get rid of the HO Scale Athearn. However if prices take off, I might sell them off. Who knows?
Dont forget when you buy those nice RTR Athearns, buy some Kaydee Whisker 148’s and some quality trucks/metal wheels to go with them. That will serve you for a very long time. Much longer than the error prone chinese crap stamped wheels and warpie trucks coming through from time to time.
I would hate to see BB kits go away. Building a kit is what makes this a hobby instead of a more expensive toy train. I have bought some RTR when the item was’t available otherwise. Athearn’s RTR’s still need some work done to run well (replacing couplers with Kadees, adding weight, adjusting height).
I suppose the reason BB kits are on the shelves so long is that Athearn has not offered any new kits or paint schemes in years. Their efforts have all gone to RTR, and their BB releases are just re-runs of the same paint schemes and numbers.
I have one suggestion for Athearn or any other kit manufacturer, offer decorated but un-numbered car kits. Decals or dry transfers for the car numbers could be included. This would let a modeler build up a fleet of cars with minimal effort. They might sell numbered versions as RTR.
John
Couldn’t agree more.
I buy Blue Box or equivilent kits as much as possible. Kadee trucks and couplers are required on ALL my freight cars.
Recently I bought some Athearn RTR PFE Mechanical reefers. All were under weight and had imposter couplers and non sprung trucks. Even though the reefers had the floors glued in I was able to get inside to add weight. The Athearn coupler box had the centre post drilled and tapped for a 2-56 screw. The couplers were then replaced with Kadee’s as were the trucks.
I would rather buy kits and make them conform to a standard rather than make kits out of RTR cars.
Excuse the above rhetorical flourish if you will. It just appears to be that way. You see. I still think the optics don’t focus in very well with this puppy[xx(]
Those things may have made it easier for the kids to get into the hobby and for those not with deep pockets but------they are “discontinued”. They’ll still be around for a fair while yet–as Varney does–but—
I too replace all most all freight trucks with Kadee sprung versions and replace all generic couplers with those made by Kadee. I also replace the Kadee wheelsets with those from Intermountain, increasing the weight of the truck even more and improving its rolling qualities to equal or better than anything out their.
Kit or RTR, makes no difference.
As for weight, I have my own standards, slighly lighter than NMRA, and have had good performance while increasing tonnage capacity.
So for me, the blue box vs RTR issue has never been about cost, but mainly about undecorated models to paint and letter.
I build a fair share of more advanced kits and I suspect many of those will be with us for quite a while. But I can see where the “need” for the easy kits has changed.
Again, for the third time in this thread, I hope Athearn has plans for undecorated versions of their new RTR products.
They did do undecorateds before. I bought several undecorated RTR Athearn in the past and discovered the level of kit work necessary to paint, cure and assemble the lot. At the time my medical issues prevented me from accurately completing the cars.
I emailed Athearn direct about the lack of assembled RTR products and I was told curtly that they leave it disassembled to make painting easier for those who are able to do it.
At that point I was already moving towards O gauge anyway.
I recall when the blue boxes were a buck fifty each and central valley brass trucks/wheels were something like two dollars and kaydees another buck and quarter if memory service. As a child I was told that the nice wheels/trucks were unnecessary and the kaydees not worth the cost of the kit.
Fast forward today to ten dollar kits and a doubling of the minimum wage. LOL.
Effective immediately, we here at Athearn have made the difficult decision to discontinue the production of our Blue Box line of kits. There were several factors that contributed to this extremely challenging decision however, the primary issue revolved around affordability and ensuring that our Blue Box kit pricing remain aligned with what the market can bear. Unfortunately, due to increased manufacturing and labor costs it has been determined that we are no longer able to continue offering kits at competitive price points as compared to our already assembled products.
For over 50 years the Athearn Blue Box kits have been sold worldwide, bringing happiness, joy and excitement to thousands of model railroad enthusiasts. Your passion for these products has allowed us to thrive and grow into the industry leader you still support today, and for
Sorry you feel that way. Not sure I understand why. If they can’t produce the kits at a reasonable cost, what is the point? Who will buy them?
Blame over paid workers or high taxes and expensive government regulation, or high raw material costs, not Athearn.
I have bought and will continue to buy lots of Ready to Roll, and yes, I will say again, I take the trucks and couplers off and replace them, just like I have with every blue box kit I ever built and everything I ever bought from any other manufacturer in the last 40 years (except Kadee, that’s who trucks/couplers I use).
When it comes to afordable, well detailed, well painted/lettered rolling stock, Athearn Ready to Roll is right up there in most cases.
Again I will say, I hope all the items in the line will now be offered in unlettered, unassembled form like the covered hoppers and several other items have been. Those of us who freelance are now the market for undecorated rolling stock.
It would be interesting to know just what the average wage is/was of the plant worker in any MRR mfg in the first place----hear a lot of talk about high labour costs but—come now—are they getting $20/hr?—doubt it
I was wrong, I had hoped this was just another rumor. I’ll admit you could see the handwriting on the wall that this was coming. Imo this is a sad day and accurail will get some of my business for the I want numbers of say hoppers but can’t afford the “right” rtr stuff and they will eventually be replaced. Plus I just like putting together athearn kit cars. Looks like I may be spending more time at train shows than I’ve preferred to this point.
That’s one of the problems, they need more than a penny, and you seem happy to use this FREE forum to tell them and Kalmbach how you won’t support them - contradictory in some ways.
As for the second point–if one checked past shrunk economies–such as the depression–many people who were into the hobby tried to, at least, GROW the business by doing the kits as they recognized that that would be where their new market would come from.[soapbox] It involved some work, yes, and it did suffer from companies coming and going but at least those kids and adults who wanted to could still do the hobby. [:-^]
Not today—we hit some hard times—we throw things overboard—just love it[|(] There is not a lot of thinking about how one GROWS a market we just -----
I don’t presume to know how much the workers here or overseas make or which combination of these factors is the cause, but its clear that some combination of these are the most likely cause, for Athearn and other manufacturers going to China, only making “limited” batches of product, streamlining product lines of low cost items, not stocking parts, etc.
And, these days in the USA, labor costs are way more than the wage you pay. Unemployment insurance, health care, taxes, and so on drive up labor costs of even low paid workers.
I have contacted Athearn and received the same response, " the ble box kits are discontinued but with manufacturer negotiation and demand production may begin again at a future time" I responded with so if it costs the same, then charge the same. I do custom shortline and non produced engines and stock, I see that several people on here seem to have stocks of these that they are not using, I am interested in Geeps (GP’s) and SD’s if anyone has some that they want to get rid of please contact me at dhazz40@yahoo.com. Until they come back into production lets all keep our fingers crossed until they do.
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