ModelRailroader.com Reader Poll – February 12, 2003

[camarokid]

Sorry Bergie,
Since my layout is all covered up with the wife's stuff it is very sad to say I have not had the pleasure of building anything for over 2 years. It will end this summer when I start to clean up my basement and the layout. I try to only buy BB's because I know they will run when I put them on the rails.
Archie

[Favrefan04]

I voted for the 2 years or more, because I am new to the hobby and I haven't built any, however, I do own a couple. As soon as my skills are improved enough after I play around with my old Tyco cars, I will try my hand at them, but not until then.

[vsmith]

The last "blue box" I built was over 20 years ago! I switched to narrow guage and have never looked back, Fn3 for now. If "blue boxs" were available in large scale, they would sell quite well.

[grayfox1119]

I have another three to build, built passenger car for Christmas display train two months ago.

[darday]

I estimate I have 50+ built-up Athearn BB kits for my layout, and at least that many still in boxes waiting to be built, as I keep picking them up at train shows and hobbyshop closeouts. I have probably assembled 25 or so of these kits in the past four years; the last one a few months ago. I bought my first Athearn BB kit in 1968, at age 11. Over the years, many of those early assemblies were busted up in one of several moves I made across the country, but I still have some of the Athearn cars I put together prior to 1975.

The value of the "shake-the-box" Athearn and Roundhouse kits should not be underestimated. With fewer inexpensive "starter" kits available, it is harder for young railroaders to get into the hobby. Model railroading, while having more sales volume than ever before, has a long-term demographic problem: I don't think we are currently enlisting enough younger modelers to keep the hobby from aging away.

[Anonymous]

most of my rolling stock is blue box stuff. Some of the lettering can be fuzzy, but that's mostly with the old stock that's been on the LHS shelf for ten years (probably for that reason).
They're quick and easy to build, cheap, and reliable. I can't think of a better way to go for a modeler on a budget (which most of us are), to build a decent fleet of rolling stock. Hope they stick around for a long time to come!

[Anonymous]

Athearn did a great service to this hobby with their inexpensive kits that for years were "good enough". But frankly, they no longer are "good enough". Having also realized that I have too many freight cars, I'm in the process of both getting rid of cars entirely, and replacing lower-quality ones with higher-quality ones. Five years from now, I would expect to have only a handful of Athearn cars in my fleet. On the other hand, I'm very distressed at how suddenly (or so it seems to me) the hobby has gone from offering high-quality kits to concentrating on much more costly RTR.

[jfugate]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MPARKS

Rumor has it the car kits are going to disappear like the locomotive kits. Atheran is pushing the RTR ... The Atheran line has forgotten they have been the gateway into the hobby for most. I built my first Atheran kit in 1968. I searched over the Christmas holidays to find kits to teach my 13 year old how to build but have had no success in finding the kits. It seems like Atheran has forgotten their core business. They may go the way of the local hobby shop and be Wal-Martized out of business.

Businesses don't pu***hings that don't sell ... they follow market trends.

The market is moving away from you build it kits to ready to run.

So if you're concerned about the loss of kits, you need to convince people to start buying more kits than ready to run. But lotsa luck! [B)]

Actually, I expect mom and pop kit manufacturers to continue ... but the big guys go where the mass market money is -- and it ain't in kits any more.

[56chevytimes2]

I just bought 3 more Passenger cars. I have already assembled one of them the other 2 have to wait for my sons birthday.

Kurt 56chevytimes2

[Anonymous]

Rumor has it the car kits are going to disappear like the locomotive kits. Atheran is pushing the RTR. In our area (Knoxville, TN), I am going to start using the ad rag due to the fact we have two local hobby outlet. One a Hobby Town which does not stock the car or locomotive kits (except RTR) and the other an old hardware store which sold all there Atheran kits (60+) to one gentleman. The Atheran line has forgotten they have been the gateway into the hobby for most. I built my first Atheran kit in 1968. I searched over the Christmas holidays to find kits to teach my 13 year old how to build but have had no success in finding the kits. It seems like Atheran has forgotten their core business. They may go the way of the local hobby shop and be Wal-Martized out of business.

[Anonymous]

I had to vote 2 or more years ago but that was due to life getting in the way of my railroading. I still love the "blue box" kits and will soon be back to putting the ones I have together and looking for more.

[Anonymous]

It is sad that Athearn is not producing as many of these any more and going to the new Gennesis RTR units. I for one can't afford the new RTR models. I like the BLUE box Athearn kits. I have purchased several of these as of lately since it seems no one wants them and they are cheaper. If nobody wants their 40 footers send my way...

[decapod39]

I credit Athearn with providing cheap easy to build kits that pulled HO out of the craftsman field that allowed modelers to focus on the "next evolutionary step" - operation. That said, the blue boxes no longer fit on my railroad. I am moving to more accurate cars, that are more era specific. Very few Athearn cars are appropriate for pre-WWII era railroads. I still have plenty of the cars in circulation, but they are slowly disappearing. No new ones will be added.

[coachayers]

Most of my new purchases are Walthers, Atlas, Bowser, Life-Like and Branchline, mainly due to the detail and variety. I still use the blue boxes when I have some kitbashing project, because they are fairly well detailed and relatively inexpensive. If I screw up, I haven't lost a lot of money. I would not consider trying to kitbash one of the more newer, more expensive pre-assembled cars. My big collection of blue-box cars is being upgraded to "near Walthers" as I can get to then. Athearn really needs to do some upgrading to the product line with some new items and newer molds. Perhaps some newer tank cars and some scale-length passenger cars.

Bob

[Anonymous]

Bergie:

Where is the catagory for those of us who have never been interested in 'shake the box' assembly?

In my case its also the wrong period. I'm interested in 1900 era.

Randy

[Anonymous]

I guess I built an Athearn "blue box" model last month. A caboose [EJ &E]. Actually, I never really "build a kit"; I kit-bash it. At a minimum, it gets weighted to NMRA specs, gets metal wheelsets & Kaydee couplers. On this one I also had to add roof-end support-struts, window glazing, plated over some of the windows and a couple of more things. That's why I like the blue box kits. It's fun to kit bash. I probably do one every couple of months.

Rich Witt

[Anonymous]

I bought a bunch of Athearn Heavywieght cars off of Ebay Mid December last year. I live in Wyoming and there is only one Hobby Store in the state. As such I have to rely on Mail order and Ebay for alot of my hobby needs. I do alot of scratchbuilding (Alot of interiors to old building kits I built for my layout while in Grade School Jr. High) becasue those materials are readily avialable in local arts and crafts stores.

[Anonymous]

Umm....Heklp! i can't reply to this one, as i've never put together an Athrean blue box and AM into HO. the only choice is none and NOT into HO!

Ok who set up this lousy Poll? you forgot about us that don't model the more modern eras!

Jay

[Anonymous]

HO, what's that? N N N Forever

[StephenDx]

I have not voted on this one as I have NEVER made a kit from this manufacturer and the poll options do not allow for this option. I'm mostly an armchair modeller at present or electronically. [:)]

[Anonymous]

Too bad the poll didn't include diesels from their blue boxes. I just finished doing one as a model of a local shortline's GP38-2. I bought the model several years ago used at a local train show and stripped the paint off it.

Too bad Athearn won't be offering dummy diesels in the future, as I've done a lot of them as models. I have modules, so operating units aren't of great importance to me. Oh well, I've got a dozen or so Athearn undec dummy SD40-2's for future uses!

BB in Canada

[lyctus]

By the time a model rail item gets onto the LHS shelf here in sunny Oz the prices are shocking. But Athearn Blue boxes still represent value for the model railroader and my freight cars are almost exclusively blue box 40ft with Kadee metal wheels and sheet lead weights added. I hope that this continues after Horizon do their thing. RTR is just a bit dispointing in that all you do is place it on the layout. I have enough time to shake the box and feel that "I built it".

[mikebonellisr]

I seem to have trouble getting the athern cars to match the KD coupler height gauge when I install KD's.Other than that you can get a decent roster quickly, and if you mess up a weathering job it's not a big deal to replace the car.I hate when that happens on a $29 car.

[Anonymous]

My earlier vote "last month" now stands corrected. This past weekend I worked on three of them!

Ed

[Anonymous]

Hopefully the new owners of the Athearn HO products will not follow the same type of aggressive (abusive?) marketing/distribution/stocking policies of LGB, Hobbytown, etc.that several dealers have related to me over the years - that is cramming limited appeal/slow sellers/expensice items down the throats of their smaller retailers that either forces them out of that productline, ties up their inventory dollars, hurts their cashflow, or forces them to close up shop! Only the bigger, well run mailorder houses/internet firms benefit from such marketing practices. Lets face it, most market places for model railroading stuff are somewhat limited in their ability to have everything on their shelves because of the diversity and depth of all the stuff available to model railroaders today. Yet the backbone of our hobby has always been the local hobbyshop working in conjunction with distributors and/or manufacturers that enabled them to cater to the local model railroading BUYER. . . A significant portion of their customer base has been the entry level buyer and nothing can kill off interest faster than expensive/over-priced items, complicated to assemble kits, or poor quality products. Over the years both Athearn and MDC?Roundhouse have been staple products offering very good quality for the price. I still have hundreds of their products that with moderate upgrading-wheels, couplers, and subtle weatherig, will be always used on my new HO 24X32 late steam/1st gen diesel layout. My first Athearn purchase was actually a Globe rubberband drive diesel and that hooked me on HO approx 45 years ago. I also remember buying junk and how it made me feel as a kid-not every kid will stay with a hobby if they have such an experience. There still is junk -some quit pricy too that should just go away. But not everyone needs or can afford the $$$ or time to assemble $10-$35 forty foot boxcars; unfortunately that seems the direction that this hobby is headed! We are very lucky as a group that such products are available for those who want them. But most of this stuff is coming from China and we all know how much those factories are automated and how much their (low) labor rates are. . . Every hobby I have ever pursued- go-carts, street rodding, photography, biking,motorcycles, woodworking, model building - trains(HO&G), cars, planes, etc. have grown overly complex, overly expensive and overly competitive (contests, rivet counters, and the like that the fun goes away for many existing participants, and just as importantly, many would-be newcomers first consider pursuing that hobby but either can't afford to, or are stifeled by what the industry, certain publications, and certain groups/ individuals dictate what is a "MUST-HAVE" "MUST-DO" because the bar has been raised so high and only a few can ever hope to be able to commit the time and $$$, or achieve the skill level to "compete". Sorry for all this ramble but I've been in this hobby for years, have brought others into it and I don"t want to see it get spoiled. We need products like the "blue box" kits but not at the prices they have risen to. . . Lets hope that corporate greed does not prevail or competitors rise to the opportunity with products like those from Accurail as an example. Lets never forget that "Model Railroading is (supposed to be) Fun".

[Anonymous]

I use the blue box cars a lot, along with Roundhouse the reason being I run at a club that is open to the public and the cars receive a lot of use and handling, I also use a portable layout that we take to the GATS shows and with all of that handling these cars can take it , where my Accurail and other fine scale cars cant hol;d up to the abuse they receive in transit. Besides we use the 3 foot rule for detailing, who can see the fine detail and the underside of the car at 3-5 feet away and going a scale 40 miles a hour around the layout.I do make some modifications such as Kadee couplers and I tune the journals with the deburring tool and add Intermountain metal wheel sets ,also I weight to NMRA specs. and then we have trouble free operation and can injoy our Hobby a lot more, since we dont have to worry about the fine detail coming off or getting broken, What a great Hobby we have Enjoy---Ted

[dwick]

The good ol' Blue Box kits are a great way to springboard yourself into THE HOBBY. Without these kits, at reasonable prices, a newbie would have a difficult time amassing a fleet of cars in a short time. Let's face the facts. Since most of the manufacturing of kits, RTR or self assembled, is now being done overseas. America is no longer the industrial giant that it was back in the 20th century. Economics are totally different and hard on families that are used to the way "it used to be". RTR products are fine for those who can afford them and those with limited time. Let's face it! Time is money. If you don't have the time, then buy RTR products. But those of you who enjoy kits, the only way to go is the BLUE BOX. They are easy to assemble and a joy to kit-bash if you like. Kit bashing BLUE BOX kits will not give sticker shock to your wallet. And BLUE BOX kits will help fill your rail yard in a short time. Long live the Blue Box!!!
Don Wick - The Yard Master
West Bend, WI
[e-mail]

[Anonymous]

As a teenager on a limited budget and with limited time for the hobby, I have alway found the Athearn blue-box and similar models to be excelent. Sure I have a few of the nicer new RTR models, but that is only because no one makes them in a cheaper form. I love kitbashing the cheaper kits but don't want to touch any of the expensive new RTR models. I think all these expensive RTR models are killing the hobby by forcing new modelers to shell out a fortune or build everything from craftsman kits. The blue-boxes fill the perfect niche, they are cheap and easy to build for begginers, great starting points for kitbashing, and they look good and run well.

These kits are easy but fun for everyone and give begginers the perfect opportunity to practice and learn while maintaining an interest in the hobby. I only wi***here were more of the new engines and cars in blue-boxes (how about an AC6000 or an affordable SD70?)

[wccobb]

Started in 1946 with Varney carboards sides. Now have some 1,300+ cars and 100+ locomotives, about 65% Athearn Blue Box. No high-priced "brass", Kato, R-T-R, DCC but somehow I can roll 100 car freight trains. Don't always build one-a-week, but build 'em when I feel like, maybe 60 per year (the number is higher since retiring). No Athearn Blue Box? Then I close the collection & treasure what I got.