prototype for athearn 40ft boxcar

Model Railroader Prototype information for the modeler
1

Hello,

I realize that the Athearn 40ft boxcar is an early 1937 USRA? design with the wrong roof panels and lousy door detail.

But if I were to ignore the roof and slap on some improved doors, what railroads used this early design with the squared-off end panels? I’ve got a few and I don’t want to just throw them away because they’re not perfect, so at least giving them prototypical paint schemes would help me accept them a little more.

Thanks,

Alex

2

Pardon, I meant the 1937 AAR 40ft boxcar.

Any info or links to articles would be great.

Thanks,

Alex

3

I believe these cars are “Generic” for me they look close enough to the 1937 AARs to be acceptable. I have finished about 24 of them and have the last 12 planned soon.

It is my understanding that there is no prototype for these particular cars. Even so, I like them alot as I cannot afford or wait for all those nice Intermountain or Kaydee RTR cars.

4

Safety Valve is correct, the car has no true prototype, but is a “close enough” for Santa Fe’s 40 footers. It will “work” for several roads that had 5/5 ends, but had w corners, including NYC, IC, CBQ, and others. If you’re up to painting and decaling, you can get Intermountain undecorated kits, and have better cars. Check Intermountains web site, they have a list of '37 cars.mike h. oh, kadee cars are ps-1’s, athearn puts any 40 foot scheme on their cars.

5

You can also cut the roof off, trim the sides and ends 6", remove the top rib from the ends and reattach the roof to come up with a close 10’0" IH car. the same 6 ft door can be used by trimming it a little.

Dave H.

6

Check out http://www.steamfreightcars.com/prototype/frtcars/mod37aarpdfmain.html, there is a complete list of these cars, some even have square corners.mike h.

7

Thanks for all the replies.

I do have better quality kits from Red Caboose, Front Range, McKean, and the like, but I also have at least a dozen Athearn 40ft boxcar kits laying around that I wanted to upgrade and improve instead of throwing them away. Whether this is a waste of time or not will be something I will probably discover soon.

I did find an interesting article on an old issue of another Model RR magazine that detailed turning these Athearn cars into PRR X26b and c re-builds of the 40’s. I might give that a try for one of them.

Thanks for the info and link.

8

I drew a line between cars like that and the better quality ones from IM, Red Caboose, Branchline, and the former IMWX (which were sold to RC). Those on the “blue box” side of the line stayed in California when I moved. I don’t have enough time to upgrade them to what they should be when so much good stuff is available. I think the door alone required 2 or 3 splices plus modifying the track etc to make it look anything less than gross. But that’s MY determination and committment but don’t tell anyone they are “close enough” They ain’t

Cal

9

The Athearn box car with it’s problems with the doors caused by the door claws and upside-down underframe, is only appropriate to use the term very loosely, for several series of cars built for IC, Soo Line, and DSS&A from 1939-1941. These cars had 5/5 Dreadnaught Ends with square corners, like the Athearn car has. That’s it.

10

About time the Soo and DSS&A guys get it easy for once.[:D]