Athearn has announced “slight revisions” to the side doors & radiator grills on the long hood on the GP7 & 9. Also the cab windows.
Looks like they care and listen to complaints.
Jim
If they really listened, they would bring back the BB kits!
AMEN Mobilman!
Amen to that!
If there was money in it, they never would have stopped.
I don’t want the blue box kits back, I just want EVERY “Ready to Roll” item offered as an undecorated kit with all the improved detail parts that have been upgraded since those same items use to be Blue Box ( or the Yellow boes which came first) kits.
And I would like to see Blue Box kit upgrade packs - like updated caboose detail kits that could be used to upgrade existing blue box models to Ready to Roll detail levels.
OR at least complete parts access for upgrades and kit bashing like we had in the blue box days.
When it comes to equipment already lettered, buying a Ready to Roll car or building a 10 minute kit is of no difference to me, and I suspect kits would not be much if any cheaper at this point.
I just want undecorated kits for my custom lettering projects and kit bash projects. Dare I say it - actually “building” a model train.
Sheldon
[:-^]
Yesterday I had thee honor of buying the last Blue Box kit from our LHS here in the southern prairies.
I have been eying it for a while now. I already have the model and I guess that was holding me back a bit. However I took the plunge, $12.50, and now have a second model of a Santa Fe 50’ Mech. Reefer. And the recognition of all of you as the last purchaser of a BB from the retailer here.
I still believe that if they are wanting to encourage the youth to get into the hobby they aren’t going to do it with $30 to $40 individual cars. But, I might be a cumugeon here maybe the youth have more disposable money than I give them credit for. However they will miss the enjoyment and fun of building, upgrading and personalizing their rolling stock as we all learned to do. The Genisis and Exactrail cars are wonderful I admit, and I do have several of them, but I for one could not build my rolling stock fleet with cars that expensive.
I will miss them. Thank goodness I have a storage tub of them waiting so it will be a while before the pain hits home.
Johnboy out…
Well considering they made the mistake on $200 plus locomotives in the first place, it’s not like they had a choice, as for bb kits, they’re hardly a kit any how,Lego kits are harder, they served their purpose. IF Athearn cared, they would put Atlas/Kato quality motors in all there locos.
And considering most video games, which is more of the rage now are $30,$40 or more it’s not the price, it’s the hobby. This hobby was/is supposed to be time consuming,relaxing and rewarding, some where, somebody decided he didn’t have time to be a builder but became a buyer, and just wants to plop down the latest whatever and play, no skills, no mentality,period. mh
I have a totally different take on this. RTR mostly affects locos and rolling stock. I used to spend a LOT of my hobby time kitbashing, detailing, painting and decaling such things. Not necessarily because that was my favorite part of the hobby, but because I wanted higher quality, prototype-specific models that I couldn’t purchase that way. Now I can expand my equipment roster using mostly RTR stuff, spending about the same as I did years ago on all those projects cost wise, but saving much time. I can then use my hobby time on other things like structures, scenery and so on. RTR equipment lets me reallocate resources. It doesn’t detract from the craftsmanship aspect of model railroading for me at all.
Yep, I totally agree. I know there is a segment like the above who thinks this hobby is supposed to be time consuming - as it was by necessity in the olden days - but times have changed and we are bless with some wonderful products - which allow us to spend time on other things which there are plenty of them to do.
There are a ton of other kits available besides Athearns Blue Box kits. Try building a Proto 2000, Intermountain or a Athearn Genesis kit. Those are all great kits that offer HOURS of fun, not the 5 minutes the BB kits take to build. People keep saying BRING BACK THE BLUE BOX KITS but I don’t understand why. Try one from the ones I mentioned and then you can call yourself a kit builder.
I have not bought a RTR Athearn car for some time now, so things may have changed. But, what I did not like about the few I have bought was they where all under NMRA weight standards! So I have to take the darn car apart to add weights and hope I did not break anything.
I do like the fact that they have free wheeling trucks, so no buying better wheel sets for them. What about the couplers they use? You think they could install Kadee’s for what they are charging?
On the more highly details kits, built one that had around 300 parts. (Covered Hopper) While it was fun to build when I was done I was disappointed. While it did have more detail than my Athearn Blue Boxes going around the layout it looked pretty much the same.
For my self, I rather pay $15.00 for a Blue Box (got most of mine for between $3.95 to $6.95) and do it the way it should be done than tinkering with a $30.00 RTR car.
Cuda Ken
Dave,
Liam can build a BB Kit, I wouldn’t want to unleash any of the above kits on him yet.
That’s why I would like the BB kits back.
Gord
Don’t forget about Tichy Trains kits. They offer very detailed kits with accurately moulded parts, and their prices are very reasonable.
http://www.tichytraingroup.com/index.php
If you really want to spend some time building rolling stock, try Kaslo Shops resin kits. I am currently working on a Canadian Pacific wood side caboose. They use Tichy brake parts which are very finely detailed. The biggest challenge is forming all the grab irons, cut levers and brake piping, etc. Beware, building the steps and ladders is not for the faint of heart.
Unfortunately their prices are steep.
Dave
Jim: What I continue to like about the BB kits is their relative low price and availability still. They can be detailed, also. I use them a lot for painting and lettering for prototype roads and famous model railroads that are not on the market. They may not be prototype for most roads but I can guarantee you will not see others so lettered.
The most important part would be what is written on the box! Athearn Trains in Miniature Made in the U.S.A.!
I know that model trains have been made overseas for years but like others have said this is about economics. Buy American when and if you can or the next job lost may be your own.
RMax
Ken, any accurate and usefull discussion of the weight of Athearn cars would require specific info on which car and how much under weight it is. Some Athearn cars are over NMRA RP weight, some under, some just right.
But seldom are Athearn cars “too light” for good operation. I add weight to most of the freight cars I buy, kit RTR or otherwise by adding metal trucks - which adds weight where it counts the most - down low. Very seldom do I find it necessary to ad actual weight to the car body.
As for couplers, Athearn owns McHenry and Kadee does not sell couplers to manufaturers at some sort of bulk discount. When you by a $500 loco and the manufacturer springs for real Kadee couplers that’s one thing - to put them on a $20-$30 freight car is quite another. Again, they can’t get Kadee couplers any cheaper than what a distributor pays for them - or about 40% of the retail price. And if
Who is “they” exactly?
And if this is the issue, why not buy a few Branchline freight car kits (on sale online at modeltrainstuff today for $8.99) and move on?
After building a few crummy BB kits when I was in HO, I’ve never understood the reverence in which some folks hold them. They were warped, poorly detailed, and didn’t run well.
Edit: By the way, that same site has hundreds of different kit and RTR cars on sale for less than $15 each – more than enough to outfit any youth’s first layout.
“Yep, I totally agree. I know there is a segment like the above who thinks this hobby is supposed to be time consuming - as it was by necessity in the olden days - but times have changed and we are bless with some wonderful products - which allow us to spend time on other things which there are plenty of them to do”.
It’s a hobby pal, relax and take your time to build and create as you wish. There is no need to hurry into any thing, I buy and build my models to suit only me. It’s the mantra of rtr crowd who claim they don’t have time for this and that, it’s a time hobby.
Agreed. It’s not modeling, it’s assembly line work.
If you have followed my posts on this subject, you know I am not one of those who think the BB kits should return in their original form, or in any form other than the undecorated versions I suggested at the begining of this thread.
But your statement above is another of those “paint the whole product line with a broad brush based on limited experiances”.
I have hundreds of Athearn BB freight cars - they all run fine. “Warped”? One or two less than perfect parts does not condem the single most successful product line in the history of HO model trains.
I ran a train department in a hobby shop and sold thousands of them - All my customers were happy. And I have been at this hobby 40 plus years and every HO modeler I know has at bare minimum a few Athearn freight cars - most have a lot of them.
What scale are you in now where you are not subjected to the “inferior” quality and detail of Athearn products?
True, the level of detail and accuracy varies from item to item, true a few are known to be a little more “touchy” to assemble correctly, but during their long run, some 50 years, they provided this hobby with affordable, good quality basic rolling stock - which many modelers found ways to improve and enhance in the days before “super detailed China built $50 RTR freight cars”.
In my view, the only people in this hobby more anoying than the “rivet counters” are the “product snobs” - you know the ones who could not build a kit more complex than a BB kit, but look down their nose at anything less then Kadee, Intermountain, Exactrail, etc type of high priced RTR. And who always pick on Athearn and Bachmann no matter how good a partular product from them turns out t