athearn cars...

[Anonymous]

On an earlier post I asked about the prototype of athearns gons,now I need to know if their flats(40 and 50 foot) have a prototype,or more toy train philosophy?

[ndbprr]

I'm not sure how to answer your question! They date from a time when the detailing on them was state of the art. Don't know if they follow any prototype or which railroad or manufacturer it would be. A strip wood deck applied to them and weathered makes a pretty good generic representation of a flat car and you can't beat the price. If you want a detailed prototpye flat car I would look elsewhere.

[ericsp]

Their 5070, 5460, and 5520 series cars have prototypes. I have hear the 86' boxcars do not. I am sure about the rest.

For some reason I though you asked about boxcars and flatcars. Other than the container cars, I do not know if any of the flatcars have prototypes.

[underworld]

Check their website. There should be information about the prototypes on it.

underworld

Easter Easter Easter Easter Easter!!!!!

[:D][:D][:D][:D][:D]

[orsonroy]

According to the NEB&W website, the Athearn 40 and 50 foot flatcars can be used to represent a fairly small number of real cars:

40-foot flat: ACL, MONON, RUTLAND, TA&G, NYC, N&W
50-foot flat: CofG, LV

The biggest problem with both cars is that they've each got one fewer stake pocket on each side than was usual, and their brake staffs are totally wrong for ANY flatcar. Oh, and as usual, the 50-foot flat has it's underframe backwards. For more common cars that have MUCH more detail and don't cost much more, use the Red Caboose 40-footer and the P2K 52-footer.

[Anonymous]

"Check their website. There should be information about the prototypes on it."

This is hilarious! You're joking right?

Athearn can't do this because having to put 'we make up this bogus model, it has no prototype' isn't generally conductive to sales.

[Anonymous]

Might explain why they're also in such hot water with UP... if their models don't have a prototype backing it, they don't have to worry about any sort of patent or copyright infringement issues.... sneaky.....

[dknelson]

Don't forget that the Athearn cars are old tooling, 50 years old and more in some cases -- and take it from me, getting accurate information about freight cars is a pretty recent innovation in the hobby. As to the common underframe error that was due to reading the drawings wrong - top down or bottom up. It took a LONG time before any of the reviews in hobby magazines pointed this out by the way. Oddly enough the old old Athearn metal kits got it right, because you built up your own undergrame from metal parts on a wood floor.
Dave Nelson

[nedthomas]

The Western Maryland had 50' flats with the brake wheel mounted on the side. See1940 Car Builders' Cyclopedia page 201 and 1070. The brake wheel folded down to allow over the side loading. I'm sure this didn't last long as it would be a high maintenance item.

[Newyorkcentralfan]

The 50' car can also be used to model a MILW 45' flat by lopping the requsite amount out of the car.

There was a series of pics and a write-up about this on the steam era freight car list on yahoo groups

Eric



Ray Breyer wrote:

According to the NEB&W website, the Athearn 40 and 50 foot flatcars can be used to represent a fairly small number of real cars:

40-foot flat: ACL, MONON, RUTLAND, TA&G, NYC, N&W
50-foot flat: CofG, LV

The biggest problem with both cars is that they've each got one fewer stake pocket on each side than was usual, and their brake staffs are totally wrong for ANY flatcar. Oh, and as usual, the 50-foot flat has it's underframe backwards. For more common cars that have MUCH more detail and don't cost much more, use the Red Caboose 40-footer and the P2K 52-footer.

[emdgp92]

Along the same lines...

Has anyone seen those goofy PRR F units in green by Athearn? This scheme is totally made-up, as PRR's "Brunswick Green" (or Dark Green Locomotive Enamel) was nearly black.