For a company who produced what some might consider a low end product I am guessing many of us have a considerable number of Athearn cars running our rails. I’m still counting!
I’ve got more than a few Athearn cars. Mainly because when I started in HO I couldn’t afford anything else, now I’m on the look-out for the last few specific cars to complete my fleet - especially a 5-unit double stack car (the blue box kit version, not the megabucks RTR version!). Hoping to pick up another set or two of Impacks - they seem to be planning another production run this year judging by the Walthers website.
Not as many as I had - I’d guess fewer than 20 out of a “fleet” of 60ish.
Last year I sold off around 60 cars in a purge of cars that didn’t fit my road anymore, and a lot of older Athearn stuff went in that. Fergus, if you bought used stuff from Jack at the Truro or Dartmouth shows in the last year, you probably have something from my fleet! [:)]
While many standard Athearn models have been surpassed by later releases, they’re still a great value. I kept most of the modern 50’ boxcars I had, and recently got more of the PS5344 with wire grabirons, and what they label as the “Railbox” boxcar. I watch for their other modern 50’ boxcars used for various projects.
I’ve got over 500 pieces of rolling stock from many different manufacturers, including Athearn. I’m not sure how many of them are Athearn, though.
About 30 or 40.
RMax
No freight, No locos but have ten older passenger cars.
97 Athearn cars out of a roster of 398 freight cars. Only 2 of those Athearn are RTR and I wi***hey someday offer the same detail quality in kit form.
Martin
Québec City
Almost twenty. For a long time they made up the bulk of my rolling stock. Now it’s a pretty even number of Athearn, Walthers and MDC kits.
Some where between 160-180. I haven’t looked back to count exactly how many.
I’ve got far fewer Athearn cars than I did ten years ago, mostly due to the high quality and accuracy of their competition, and due to the fact that I’m looking for more realism in my steam-era freight car fleet. I think Athearn is a fantastic deal for beginners, but not so hot for advanced modelers. Athearn’s cars were nice during the 1960s-1980s, but we now have manufacturers like Bowser, Accurail, Red Caboose, Life Like Proto, Intermountain, Branchline, Tichy, F&C, Westerfield, Sunshine, Stewart and BLI, who all have more accurate (and better looking) freight cars for similar prices.
I’m down to about 30-40 Athearn twin hoppers, and less than five each of their flats, cabooses and passenger cars. I do own ten of their Genesis 2-8-2s, but no diesels.
I have about 75 cars to date.
28 locomotives to date as well
Gordon
around 30 - 40, I think them nice to build,
I once held a Modelling party , I give all the guests a Athearn Kit , beer and chips and we all sat around the table building, great fun and it is quite something different than playing Monopoly or Risk
Around 175. For durability, price, and quality; you can’t and hopefully never will beat an Athearn. BTW these cars are pulled around the room by around 75 Athearn locomotives. I hope to continue to purchase their product, regardless of where the hobby shop gets them from.
Micheal Farley
Fargo, ND
I have close to 200 Athearn rolling stock. I started buying their kits 20yrs ago. When I first started getting them, they were some of the best for the price on the market. They are easy to modify to run very well. Metal wheels, weight, and Kadee #5 make Athearn go a long way. [:)]
They are fun to weather and detail. I have a couple of their newer RTR cars, but only because the price was very right. I think RTR takes away from the hobby in general.
I have a lot of Accurail and Intermountain, etc. kits as well. In many ways these kits are better than my Athearn kits, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like my older Athearn kits too. I do, however, tend to buy other brand kits now instead because they are a better starting point for about the same price.
Warren
Well over 200 if you count the ones that were custom decorated by other companies, such as BevBel. Despite statements to the contrary, I wonder what will happen to Athearn now that it has been sold ?? In case you haven’t heard this news, check the lead headline on MR’s home page.
I love (I’m afraid soon I’ll be saying “loved”) the Athearn Ready to Roll series. I own several of these cars.
I will say that I have built a considerable number of Athearn Kits. Now, I count about 64 Athearn cars in my rebuilt fleet. I have about 4 more to get before I have to explore one hobby shop yet for more athearns.
I have begun to keep one of my resolutions in organizing my collection. Walthers are about 12 peices, Accurail roughly 14, Branchline 4, P2k’s 10, Atlas 6, Trainmaster and Spectrum 1 (a Baby trainmaster needs completing) I did not include the intermountain because those are ready to run cars for a very specific niche in my fleet.
I dont know if this is a typical colection or not, but it is a work of 2 years and counting.
30 plus freight cars. Am currently removing roofwalks from all 50 ft. boxcars, filling in the holes and airbrushing with Modelflex paints. I always purchase and install the PROTO metal wheel sets. I will continue to purchase Athearn freight cars. They’re pretty decent and look great with minor detailing. The competition’s cars are more detailed, but so are the prices.
Got rid of all my 72ft. Athearn passenger cars as the Rivorossi’s are the correct 85ft. length and look much better. I will be purchasing the Walthers pass. cars as they look really nice!
Locomotives: Planning on one more Santa Fe FP45 cowl and only because Athearn is the only manufacturer that makes a decent one. I will be looking more towards Kato, Atlas & Stewart Hobbies. These units draw very LOW AMPS & seem to work well with the Soundtraxx DCC decoders. (I’ve read that most HO Soundtraxx decoders are “allergic” to high amps!)
I’ll consider a Genesis unit only after I see one or two in a test run at a hobby shop. My wife’s cousin bought an SD75M, and to my surprise, the trucks on this unit were pretty noisy! I guess I’ve become pickier as the Stewart Units spoiled me with their incredibly quiet running!
In my HO stuff, I’ve proabably got a dozen or so including some passenger cars. (Some of the freight cars are Athearn cars painted by a third party painter.) I also have one Athearn locomotive and three or four Stewart locomotives with Athearn drives.
The four-truck heavy duty flat car was my favorite.
Gawd, since Athearn was the backbone of probably most of the layouts built up until the past ten years, the oldsters in the hobby probably have a majority of Athearn rolling stock in their fleets. I got back into the hobby after being out for around 15 years, about a dozen years ago now, and the vast majority of the cars I bought were the old standard “blue box” kits.
I’m guessing here, but I must have something like 600-700 pieces of rolling stock packed away until I get the new basement layout started, and I’ll bet well over half are Athearn. The rest are mostly kits by all the others out there, but I’ve picked up a fair amount of the so called RTR stuff here and there the past few years. Luckily, I have acquired most of this stuff before the spiraling cost virus hit the hobby in recent years.
I’m keepin’ and buildin’ the Athearn stuff with no qualms whatsoever, I’m more of a model railroader than a railroad modeler, and also one of those low life “good enoughers”. But so is Allen McClelland so at least I’m in good company!