I have been out of the hobby and have loads of Athearn stuff I’m glad I never got rid of. I can still play.
Question - Have I been turned around in a different time zone meaning has Athearn been bought out and the line sold by another company or has the price for the line of cars gone higher then the speed of sound. Are they still plastic, and if so are they being detailed more so then before.
I know that prices and things have gone up all over the place and although I can afford to go out and spend money on a new engine weekly my cars will not be just lying around on the board getting dusty ever again.I will certainly be putting things away when not in use. It will cost a young kid starting in the hobby a small fortune to get started.
I purchased my first MR and Rail mags this weekend and went to a train show this past weekend and can’t wait to get to a local retailer this weekend. I’ll have quite a few questions for him.
Athearn released a ‘high end’ line of engines/cars - The ‘Genesis’ line.
Athearn was purchased by Horizon Hobby Distributors
Most Athearn existing ‘Blue Box’ kits have been supplanted by their ‘RTR’ line with improved drives, DCC wiring, and outstanding paint jobs. ‘Blue Box’ kit production is still there, but not pushed as heavy.(changing market patterns)
Athearn has purchased Roundhouse/MDC, and has been upgrading the cars/engines and releasing them in their ‘RTR’ line.
Athearn is owned by Horizon Hobbies. Horizon and walthers have bought alot of companys when they came up for sale over the years. If a hobby shop wants athearn, they can only order it through horizen. The same is for Life Like with can only be ordered through walthers. Most Athearn cars are still plastic. The detail on cars have gotten alot better over the years. But some of the very expencive stuff out there is because of the us Dollar. Most stuff is made in foreign countries and with the weak dollar it costs more to make and transport to the us. But i know some of it is just priced to high even with the extreme detail.
Most kids i know start off with stuff from Life like and graduate to the more expensive stuff.
Welcome to the forum and welcome (back) to the hobby! [#welcome]
About Athearn, the simple answer is, yes they are still plastic, but are more detailed and better quality than they used to be. Like most other manufacturers, Athearn produces mostly “ready to roll” stuff nowadays, and not so many kits. The RTR stuff is more expensive, but it’s better quality with more detail than the older “blue box” kits. Also with the kits, folks usually change the plastic wheels to metal and install Kadee couplers, so by the time you do all this, the overall cost margin between RTR and blue box kit gets a little smaller. Newer Athearn locos are all RTR but are also better quality with upgraded driveshafts and much better detail on the shells. However, they still use the traditional “open-frame” Athearn motor (albeit an upgraded version) and the same basic truck and gearing design, both of which make their models noisier than other brands (Kato, Atlas, Proto 1000/2000).
Yes, it is an expensive hobby for anyone, especially younger kids to get into, but if you really think about it, it’s not any more expensive than most any other hobby/activity out there today (XBox, PS3, skateboarding, skiing, etc.) I think beginners can be easily overwhelmed by the initial cost of some of the equipment. I remember when I first got started I went to a train show and almost had a heart attack when I saw a Kato locomotive “on sale” for $100.
My advice for someone starting out is to limit yourself to a few (2-4) decent quality, but low cost locomotives. Many online shops have some Atlas, Athearn, Proto 1000, Proto 2000 locos for $50 - $100. If you shop around on the Internet, every once in a while you can come across a really good deal (I just picked up an Atlas Trainman GP38-2 locomotive for $32). For some good online shops click
[#welcome] I’ve been at this since the late '50’s!! An Athearn BB freight car kit was about a buck!! - but gas was 19cents!! 20 years ago, I paid 81.9cents for regular leaded gas - so the price of an Athearn hasn’t gone up all that much. The new models are better detailed - the Genisis are almost too detailed (fragile underbody detail that you can only see on a high trestle or by picking the car up!) (watch me catch hxxx for that statement!) Locos are a lot higher, but today DCC with sound is the “norm” for most folks getting into the hobby, and see-through grill, fans, etc are more or less “standard” on the Genisis, Atlas, PK2, and other brands. Welcome to 2009!!![:D]
Time has gone faster than you realize. Gasoline prices skyrocketed beginning some 35 years ago due to the oil embargo. And as a child growing up in the 50s, I don’t remember seeing prices lower than the high 20-cent range. But then again, this area has usually had the highest gasoline prices in the country despite having the highest concentration of refineries on the west coast.
The picture below is contemporary, but the displayed price is something out of the 1940s, I think.
Mark
PS – You’re pretty much lost if in the vicinity of the above structure. It is “nowhere” (Sheep Ranch, CA).
Mark, Here in NJ we usually have the lowest gas prices (at least one thing good about NJ!) In the late '50’s/early '60’s my step-dad had an Esso (not Exxon) station, & gas prices were often in the teens, and with “gas wars” between brands, I remember 9.9 cents!! I bought a new work truck in '89, and distinctly remember 81.9 cernt gas - especially when it got to $2+ and got 8mpg!!
I still have a few Athearn BB kit boxes with $1.00 price tags on them, and a pair of Lionel HO log cars with 88 cent price tags!!! Them were the good old days!![swg]
I too had a hiatus from the hobby for about 10 years so I can imagine the shock you might have felt being away for 20. A lot did change but a lot of the old names are still around and are producing even better product than in the past, Athearn being a prime example.
As for cost, a couple years ago I found my old 50th anniversary edition of the Walthers catalog and compared the prices to those in the 75th anniversary edition and posted a random sampling on this forum. I compared only items that were essentially the same as they had been 25 years before such as a Kadee #5 coupler. In most cases, when adjusted for inflation, items are actually cheaper now than they were back then. A couple were only slightly more expensive. One item, Instant Horizons backdrops were actually the exact same price even without adjusting for inflation. 25 years without a price change. What other product could you say that about.
As for locos, their is no way to do a fair comparison since they have improved so much in quality in that time. I would say the mid range locos of today sell for a comparable price when inflation adjusted but they are so much better than what we considered mid range back then.
When I got back into the hobby about 7 years ago, I planned to recycle all my old stuff. My decision to convert to DCC changed those plans. While these could be retrofitted for DCC, I haven’t been able to convince myself it would be worth the time or expense. In both appearance and performance, the old stuff just doesn’t compare with the new. That fleet of Athearn BB F units I was once so proud of I now look at as junk. Ditto for all my old Rivarossi steamers. Can’t bring myself to part with those. The diesels might eventually find their way to ebay or my LHS’s consignment shelf.
When I was a teenager, all of 10 years ago, I lusted after those big fancy cryogenic reefers Walthers had just released. Last month, I spied two old Walthers boxes with “Arcticar” on them deep in the bowels of the hobby shop. Good gravy do they look downright primitive next to the current production boxcars, coil cars, and whatnot they’re sitting next to. I can’t even bear to dig out the blue box kits I put together when I was 10, given that those are likely 70s vintage.
And those well cars and covered hoppers I was once so proud to have been able to afford will no doubt be fodder for weathering practice. Why, I can’t even see through all those walkway grates!
Just wanted to thank you all that responded. As I said I looked at some of the stuff that I had and will use it with pride. Not that I have looked as yet but I do have a couple of engine that need to be re-motored but I say to myself do I want to do that or buy something new.
But hey we will worry about that aspect of the hobby after I purchase some essentials and repair some of the wiring to the old peco switches that are lying on the track at this time.
I remember a little over 20 years ago I was in O scale and had finished a boxcar kit that cost about $29. A couple of HO guys at the LHS were complaining about Walthers charging an outrageous $5.29 for their new HO version of the same car I had just built. “Man, I can’t pay that much for one car - why can’t they be $3 like Athearn??” [(-D]
Athearn “blue box” engines like the F7 are pretty much the same, but things like the wheels and such are better than years ago, plus they come with a large weight inside which helps pulling power. If you have an old engine you like, you can always get a powered chassis and use that, rather than replacing the motor. In my experience the newer BB stuff runs better than they did years ago.
Otherwise, newer Athearn models have much better paint and lettering compared to 20 years ago. Even BB cars are really well done now - reefers come with the ladders and grabs on the side painted black (yes they’re still molded on) and really look good.
I ran across an informative caption from the book Old Times in Contra Costa (County). It gave the price of gasoline at the Flying A station at the corner of Bailey and Willow Pass roads. When the station first opened in 1946, gas sold for 19.9 cents a gallon. In 1952 the price had jumped to 32.9 cents, one cent more than the Gulf station across the street. The Flying A station had better service and more loyal customers than Gulf. A Taco Bell restaurant now sits at the site.
I don’t recall seeing prices lower than the high twenties here. And why shouldn’t we have the highest gas prices. We have at least six major refineries within a half-hour drive out here! One is just on the other side of a hill from me.
