Got my first HO Menzies - Athearn kit, looking for construction hints

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Hi,

Thanks to Ebay, I finally got an HO Western Pacific metal silver box car kit (with full orange feather). It is a Menzies kit, in the original unopened package. While I have made several Ulrich and other more difficult kits over the years, I have never tackled one of these.

Has anyone out there “been there, done that”? I sure would appreciate your thoughts and hints on construction before I start on it.

Thanks,

Mobilman44

2

Good Morning!

Almost 50 folks have looked at my posting, but no one has answered yet. Surely there is someone out there who has worked one of these models. I suspect this one came out in the early '60s, but they were around since the '50s.

Thanks!!!

Mobilman44

3

Perhaps like me, others aren’t sure what you mean by “Menzies - Athearn kit”? Most of us know of Athearn, but what reference do you make of “Menzies”? Is it s kit by a firm called “Menzies”?

Athearn mostly makes engines and rolling stock, and the “kits” they used to offer in their Blue Box line were really simple to assemble - screw on the trucks, add a few parts here and there, etc.

So it could be that no one really knows what it is you are talking about. Care to clear it up, perhaps someone can help.

4

On a historical note immediately following World War Two a lot of entrepreneurs entered the market place and by the mid-fifties the hobby had shaken out most of the less-efficient of these. Names that had looked to be real road-burners a few years before had begun to fall by the wayside and were either completely disappearing or being acquired by those with better staying power a la Athearn. Uncle Irv rose to market prominence in the fifties through these type acquisitions. I know that he acquired Globe Models sometime during this period; I believe I have seen advertisements for this company Menzies and I suspect that this was another one. To identify this reefer as a Menzies-Athearn is to say that it had been manufactured by Menzies and had been repackaged and was being marketed as an Athearn product. This is strictly conjecture on my behalf; moniker CNJ831 appears to have a reservoir of knowledge in this area and can perhaps provide some answers to those curious about what you have here and I am hoping that he will make a response to this post as my curiousity has been piqued along with some others…

I can’t really provide any kind of immediate direction as to assembly of this beast; by the time I got in the hobby in the early '60s metal - either zamac or brass - was a dying institution at least as far as car kits go. I saw some of these in a hobby shop in Massachusetts circa 1964 but I never asssembled one. There were still a few manufacturers of metal kits in business; these kits were of two kinds - either they were cast with a separate roof and underframe to be attached to a body somewhat like the shake-the-box plastic kits are today, or they were craftsman kits having to be built up from sides, ends, roof, underframe, etc. Not sure what you have there.

If your model is zamac - as I suspect it is - you need to insure that all the flash is filed from the parts. As one who has assembled a number of cast metal locomotive kits I can off

5

Menzies was a producer of metal kits that Athearn bought out back in the 1960’s ( Not sure of the exact date. ) and for a time there were kits marketed as Athearn - Menzies.

I’ve never put on together, but I understand that they are fairly easy to assemble being cast metal.

Mark Gosdin

6

The Menzies kits I remember had A thin metal like tin plate shell that was fastened to a wooden floor…The roof had to have each roof rib bent and installed…frame was same tin plate stuff and fastened to wood floor…I remember seeing a B&O Timesaver and a Western Pacific and I’m sure there was others…Good luck You have a piece of HO early history…I’d like to see a photo when you get it built…Cox 47

7

Cox 57,

What you describe is what I have. It is a thin stamped body shell with wood floor and some cast underframe parts - also some stamped. The kit came in a plastic bag with the cardboard tag on top saying “HO Athearn Metal Line HO” and the other side “G.F. Menzies Co”.

I checked the Greenberg Guide to Athearn Trains and sure enough, Menzies bought the Athearn metal line and repackaged it. A number of others did similar things with early Athearn stuff too.

This particular kit is AAR box car ($6.95), 4-224 Western Pacific, with the silver body with the full orange feather on each side. Ha, I just found out that the car number - 20935 - never had this particular paint scheme! Now I’m not sure if I want to resell it on Ebay, put it together, or just put it in the train closet…

I did open it and frankly the only construction that looks to be difficult is the placing of the individual roof ribs. Hope someone out there can guide me on this!

Thanks all,

Mobilman44

8

I built oodles of those back in the late 40’s through the fifties. The are the workhourses of my freight car fleet.

Most of them had two end blocks of wood that were glued between a wooden floor and roof member. Metal sides, ends and a roof were glued to the wood frame. There were a lot of stamped metal roof ribs that had to be bent over the side eaves, and a wooden roof walk installed.

Some had either stamped or cast plastic ladders, and a zamax underframe as well.

Assembling these is really a no brainer, just start with the wood fbody parts and go from there.

9

Big Rusty,

Thank you! I’m glad you are still modelrailroading after a whole lot of years. I started “seriously” at age 10 in 1954.

Thanks again,

Mobilman44

10

Now I know what these are with the desciption I just got from everyone. I have 2 of them in the original box’s. I aquired them some time years ago in the mid 70’s. They are bulit though.