I just wanted to let all of the Santa Fe “nutz” out there know that Athearn is producing 50’ reefers that are simply beautiful. They are the rival of most any Intermountain cars and have several numbers, logos, and map schemes. Best of all these cars are “cheap”!! If my memory serves me correct the retail on these is $18.98.
They are currently offering 12 cars but I got the first group they made as well , 18 cars in that bunch.
I would highly reccommend these cars to any Santa Fe modeler or anyone who is interested in running a Santa Fe reefer block on their layout.
Also, Intermountain is offering the Santa Fe steam era caboose through the Centrailia Car Shops line, about $45 and although I don’t have mine yet I expect they will also be very detailed and a real hit with those of us who just can’t get excited about $200 cabooses.
Just thought I would pass this along as an FYI, my LHS guy had no idea the reefers from Athearn were as nice as they are for the money, since seeing mine he has started stocking them and says they are selling quite well.
Check the Athearn web site for full information on them.
I was wondering how detailed these newer Athearn 50’ reefers are compared to Intermountain. And also how they would look in a trainset of Intermountain reefers…I wonder if the reefer orange color matches well? Based on your info, I’ll have to look into them.
For years and years we have run a reefer train with the old classic Athearn 40’ Santa Fe reefers (blue box kits). However we recently acquired a string of Ship & Travel slogan Intermountain reefers that have replaced the old Athearns. The Intermountain reefers are amazingly detailed and roll super smooth.
And yes the Intermountain Santa Fe caboose is outstanding. We got two of the brown roof radio equipped versions. Just a great model all around. However I don’t think the brown roof radio equipped versions are available anymore and seem to be sold out everywhere.
These caboose models look even better with Tomar lighted markers:
Mark, no offense but where have you been? Those have been out for years now. I bought them all when/as they came out, plus a bunch undecorated for the ATLANTIC CENTRAL.
Yes, they are very nicely detailed and very affordable. Typical of most all new products from Athearn.
I model the east, but blocks of reefers like that would travel straight through from west to east. I have a large fleet of ATSF reefers of all types to simulate such operations.
You’re quite right about those handsome '50 footers. I picked up about four or five when they first came out, and they look VERY good in a block of reefer’s. I model Rio Grande and SP, but when I grew up around Donner Pass during the heyday of reefer train extras, SFRD cars could usually be found intermixed with the PFE’s, especially if part of the train originated in the San Joaquin Valley. Those Athearn models are beautifully done and ride really well.
That first group was announced in 12/07 but didn’t make it to the LHS until the summer of 08, still, they are showing up on Ebay ocassionally…
The second group was announced 12/09 but didn’t show until just recently and are all still available according to Athearn’s website.
So there are a total of 30 of these that have been made so far, my only complaint is why they didn’t offer the 40 footers with this kind of detail not only in Santa Fe but also PFE…
I guess when it comes down to it we should just be thankful to have these but I’d sure like to add a string of Santa Fe and PFE 40 footers without the expense of the Intermountains, let’s see, how many did you want at roughly $25 per car? OUCH!!!
With the current situation in China I dare say any more are going to be a lot more money, I’m afraid to think about how much the next group will be as these are by far the cheapest RTR detailed cars made since the original Proto’s arrived, another piece of history.
When Intermountain first came out with the Santa Fe 40" reefer kits in the early 90’s through Longs I bought one of each style. I have maybe 12 or so from that era. The price was around $11-$12 and they are still great looking reefers.
Mark, you have to understand the Athearn “way”. Everything new is top notch, but existing tooling that can be upgraded some (like the 40’ reefers) continues to be produced with a few small upgrades.
AND, its a big line of products and a big transition with the Horizon ownership, taking over MDC, moving production to China, etc, so things take time.
Yeah, three (four?) years ago Caboose Hobbies cleared these out for $12.95. I saw them and thought in all the years I lived along the Santa Fe I never saw a single 50’ reefer car. Zillions of 40’ers. So I didn’t buy any. About three months later I pulled my “Early Diesel Daze” book looking at the rear inside cover. The famous FT ABBA photo. Well despite looking at that picture a zillion times, for the first time I noticed all the reefers were 50 footers. I ran back to Caboose but by that time they only had 2 cars left. Buy then Athearn came out with the “weathered” ones but they were just not right. Looked like someone ran a strip of pastel brown down the bottom side of each car. Cringe, yuck.
But I have been able to accumulate 24 of the 32 different cars produced. Of course, I’ve also been told that some of the slogans used on these cars were never really put on the 50 footers. Haven’t had time to research that yet. Now I’m trying to get all the GN circus cars. I ordered them but for some reason only got 1/2 of the ones produced - grumble.
And for all you real Santa Fe nutz Don’t forget the Santa Fe Historic and Modeler’s International Convention| July 21-25 in Denver Colorado.
I ordered the “weathered” versions on that first run and the day I picked them up from my LHS I cussed myself the rest of the day. Luckily I guess they were about out of paint as there is hardly any on the cars at all, thankfully, but they got the trucks and the worst part is it looks as if they did them in a static position. That is the wheels have weathering on them only where there was an open area in the truck sideframe so I have zebra striped wheels. I was at a loss as to how to rectify this for awhile, should I “add” more weathering, leave it alone or what. Finally I decided to replace the wheelsets with Kadee wheelsets and they look 100% better now. But I learned a valuable lesson, I’ll never buy any “factory” weathering again!! If I had had the opportunity to see them first I would have done as you did and pass on them, as it turned out I’m glad I have them now as they are becoming increasingly scarce.
I saw that new Athearn “weathered” Big Boy last friday when I was at my LHS, all I can say to that is “barf”!!! I like weathering on some items but I much prefer to do it myself, usually a light coating of dust, (concrete paint), across the bottom just to make them look as though they have been used, not neglected though.
I, like you, was hoping that they would have done this with the 40 footers instead of the 50 footers, more cars in the same length looks better in “my” opinion but alas they choose the 50 footers. I guess we should just be thankful that we have these as they are beautiful cars, especially for the money involved.
