Athearn History

[bagal]

Hello all

On the Athearn website there is a short history of Athearn. It mentions that in 1957 Athearn introduced plastic freight car kits including a 3 dome tank, 40' reefer and 40' box.

Athearn still offer a 3 dome tank tank car which got me wondering if the current RTR model is essentially the same as the 1957 introduction.

At one time the instruction sheets were dated and on checking some of my BB kits it seems that some of Athearn's current offerings have been around for a long time. For example I understand the RTR ACF centerflow covered hopper is essentially an assembled version of the BB kit, which according to the instructions dates to 1973 or earlier.

So this leads to my question - what is the oldest model railroad model still in production?

Bill

 

 

 

 

[richhotrain]

Rich

[BRAKIE]

Bill,I suspect the oldest model in Athearn line up is the former BB F7A/B(now RTR) which was made in the 50s by Globe Models.Athearn bought Globe models.I suspect the BB GP7 would be a close second as the oldest model.You are correct the majority of Athearn former car kits are now RTR with improve paint,more graphics and metal wheels.

There are older models then the old Globe F7A.Some of the Mantua steam locomotives comes to mind.

Bowers former PRR steam locomotive kits and the FM H16-44 was Penn-Line kits and Bowers 0-4-0,4-6-0 and 2-8-0 was former Varney kits.

[mobilman44]

Hi,

May I add...............   I got into HO right after Athearn began their plastic kits.   WOW, they were (are) so cool back then.  For the money, you got a reasonably detailed kit that was extremely reliable - even with the fully sprung metal trucks and NMRA coupler.   Later on, they began using the delrin trucks and KDs were a viable add on by the purchaser.  That was - and still is - a terrific combination for a layout "runner".

Periodically Athearn would rerun production (almost all of it batch I believe) and change the number of the cars, and perhaps add some new RR heralds.  This was great for building up long trains of similar cars - but with different road numbers.

On my postwar era DCC HO layout today, about 25 percent of the cars are Athearn BB, and about another 10 percent are Athearn derived cars from Bev-Bel, etc.   All have KDs, slightly weathered trucks, and a spray of Dull Cote.  IMHO, they look just fine, and are easily the most reliable runners.   And yet, some of them are "pushing 50" !

[ATLANTIC CENTRAL]

I believe the OP is asking what is the oldest "item" still in production in a form similar/reconizable to when it was first introduced.

Only talking about HO rolling stock and locos, that would likely be a tie between the Athearn RTR F7 and the Model Power Mantua Classics 4-6-2 Pacific.

Just to clarify, Athearn bought Globe, a company in Chicago that made wood kits. They then used the Globe name to test the market for plastic kits. Then quickly moved the Globe models to the Athearn name.

And yes, a large portion of the current Athearn RTR line goes all the way back to those original plastic kits. Without trying to exactly date each one, both 40' petrolium tank cars, 40' stock car, bay window and "western" style caboose, 40' and 50' flat cars w/trailers, boats, planes, 40' steel reefer, the streamlined and heavyweight passenger cars, 200 ton crane (originally all metal), crane tender caboose,derrick car, pulpwood car, 40' quad hopper, pickle car, rotary snow plow, and the 50' doulbe door box car, ALL go back to the late 50's and early 60's. AND have only seen the most minor changes and upgrades since their introduction.

And, they were offered both RTR and in "yellow" box kits in the late 60's, then in the early 70's the RTR versions were dropped.

The original 40' box car of that line was dropped recently in favor of newer tooling that was originally done by MDC in the 1980's.

Much of the rest of the current RTR line was added in the late 70's and early 80's - 34' hoppers, 50' plug door cars, 86' box cars, 85' flat cars, wood side reefers, modern covered hoppers, 62' tank cars, etc.

Some of the current line also came from MDC and many of the "Roundhouse" branded products are MDC products that go back nearly as far. But MDC was slower to move from metal kits to plastic kits.

I have some original Globe passenger car kits unbuilt, and some "yellow" box Athearn cars, maybe latter I can post some photos.

Sheldon

[IRONROOSTER]

I don't know how far back they go, but LaBelle Woodworking has been around a long time and Ye Olde Huff n Puff took over the old Silver Streak and Main Line kits.   The lines date back into the 50's, possibly earlier, but I don't know how close the current kits compare to the old ones.

Enjoy

Paul

[ATLANTIC CENTRAL]

IRONROOSTER

I don't know how far back they go, but LaBelle Woodworking has been around a long time and Ye Olde Huff n Puff took over the old Silver Streak and Main Line kits.   The lines date back into the 50's, possibly earlier, but I don't know how close the current kits compare to the old ones.

Enjoy

Paul

Good point Paul, those did slip my mind as the OP seemed interested in Athearn history. Both are I believe making those kits pretty much as they were produced in the late 40's early 50's so they would be older.

In a different thread a while back I commented that many of todays younger modelers would be surprised to learn just how far back some of the products they buy go.

I just bought some brass delta trailing truck kits from Precision Scale, Kemtrom sold them in the 50's.

And, back to Athearn, all those kits were never "available" or in constant production at the same time. In those days Athearn only had two injection molding machines I believe, so they only made two items at a time.

But they tried to make enough to keep them on the shelves while they made the next two, etc. Rather than trying to "sellout" as quickly as possible.

Generally the better shops and bigger distributors had large enough inventorys that 60% to 80% of the items could be had at any given moment, and the time between most reruns was 6-8 months.

And, as noted above, Athearn did in later years start switching up road numbers, and constantly offered more and paint scheme versions, etc.

Sheldon

[Medina1128]

ATLANTIC CENTRAL

 

... the streamlined and heavyweight passenger cars...

Sheldon

I have some of the heavyweight passenger cars. Those metal sideframes on the trucks were/are a major PITA. I've replaced most of them with newer plastic trucks and metal wheels.

[fwright]

IRONROOSTER

I don't know how far back they go, but LaBelle Woodworking has been around a long time and Ye Olde Huff n Puff took over the old Silver Streak and Main Line kits.   The lines date back into the 50's, possibly earlier, but I don't know how close the current kits compare to the old ones.

Rick Steele - the current (and I believe 3rd) owner of LaBelle - has been steadily improving the line.  According to the web site, the line was started in 1947.  New kits are cut by laser instead of by steel cutters.  But they are still wood kits, and are still some of the best models for wood prototypes.  LaBelle also makes narrow gauge and traction model kits.  And the line extends to O scale, On3, and O traction.  To me, LaBelle is an important supplier of car models, and I hope they remain in business for a while to come.

Both the LaBelle and Silver Streak lines have significantly improved the included details, such as brake parts, hand rails and grab irons, and end platforms over the years.  And of course, being wood, are easily customizable by the modeler.

Fred W

[BRAKIE]

Just to clarify, Athearn bought Globe, a company in Chicago that made wood kits. They then used the Globe name to test the market for plastic kits. Then quickly moved the Globe models to the Athearn name.

------------------------------------

Sheldon,That's something I didn't know..

Thanks!

[Geared Steam]

Interesting history lesson from the veterans, thank you. 

If not slightly off topic from the Athearn history question, how does Tichy and Gould fit together, I recently assembly a pair of the Tichy ore cars, and they had "Gould Company" stamped on the bottom. I assumed the original mold is was still being used when this kit was produced.

[Boise Nampa & Owyhee]

Fred...

Rick Steele would be the fourth owner.  The company started in Oconomowoc Wisc. about the time you noted and then in the 70's or early 80's it went to someplace in Indiana and then later to Fairchild Wisc.  The Fairchild owner was not the company's best friend and things were in disarray when Rick took it over.

Rick has recently retired and is really working the company.  He bought the Red Ball line (less trucks) and has released a small line of detail parts under that name.  I think he is heading in the direction of keeping Labelle as the truss rod line and Red Ball the transition era line.

Separate idea......

Someone mentioned Silver Streak above......... BEWARE.........

Walthers took over that line in the 70's or 80's and recast a lot of the zinc parts. They very poor quality and many kits still floating around on ebay and such have warped and brittle end and door castings that cannot be used. There are suppliers of parts to assemble the kit but not from original parts.

see ya

Bob

[wjstix]

It's an interesting question, since there are some items that have been in production for years, but maybe are on their second or third owner, due to companies being bought out or going out of business and selling their dies to other companies. Plus some products have changed, like the Roundhouse MDC ore cars that were originally metal but in recent decades have been plastic.

Depends too if you want to count reproductions (like the Lionel scale Hudson). 

I'm pretty sure the Athearn cars you mention are the same as the ones available now. FWIW the old Athearn (and MDC for that matter) cars and engines usually had not-too-hot lettering before the 1990's. Athearn in particular used a kind of milky white for lettering (like white on a brown boxcar) that bled thru and didn't look very good at all. Most "serious" modelers back in the day bought undec kits and decorated them using Champ or Walthers decals. In recent years, the "RTR" cars have had much much better decoration.

 

[7j43k]

I don't recall hearing about LaBelle until they introduced their first passenger car kits in about 1960.  I bought one.  Anyone know what they produced between 1947 and 1960?

It's sure interesting that the "basic Athearn kit" has been so durable.  

It's possible that the oldest stuff still produced MIGHT be some Varney plastic stuff by Model Power.  These look like the Varney hopper to me:

http://www.modelpower.com/SearchResults.asp?Cat=109

Here's a bit of Varney's history:

http://www.tcawestern.org/varney.htm

 

Ed

[doctorwayne]

Thanks for that background info on Globe, Sheldon.  My first HO scale trains in the '50s included an A-B-B-A set of F-units in the Santa Fe Warbonnet scheme, although I don't know if they were factory painted or done by my Dad, a very accomplished modeller of gliders and powered aircraft.  One of the B-units was powered by a Lindsey truck, while the other three were dummies.  I later repainted them and made a few cosmetic alterations, such as handrails, grab irons, and other details.  They were later sold when I backdated my modelling era to the '30s.

I'm currently re-working eight Blue Box boxcars:  lowering the eaves, replacing the doors, ends, roofs and underframes, and adding details.  All were bought used at a buck or so each:

While the r-t-r versions of the old BB cars look much improved with the newer paint and lettering, the kit versions were an affordable (both money-wise and skill-wise) option for those just entering the hobby, or on a tight budget, or, like me, those wanting to kitbash.

Wayne

[fec153]

I have and run two Varney box cars. They track nicely.

Flip

[ATLANTIC CENTRAL]

OK and few more details and some photos. Athearn began advertising the GLOBE F7 in late 1954 and the the streamlined passenger car kits in early 1955.

Here is a photo of a late 1956 GLOBE passenger car kit unbuilt. How do I know it was produced in late 1956? The instructions say ATHEARN. The first ATHEARN produced GLOBE models make no reference to ATHEARN and have no address on the box or instructions. But as soon as June of 1955, ATHEARN was running small ads in MR that said "GLOBE MODELS are a quality product of Irvin R ATHEARN".

As you can see, the passenger cars were seperate sides, floor, roof and ends back then. They were retooled into the current one piece body, slide in floor version in the early 60's.

By the end of 1956 the GLOBE name was all but gone and everything new said ATHEARN, but there was a transitional packaging that used the GLOBE "orange", prior to that Athearn boxes had been tan or yellow.

 

The metal kits continued to be offered during the introduction of the plastic line and most were available well into the late 50's and the "yellow box" era.

Here is pre ATHEARN, original GLOBE metal and wood car kit:

CORRECTION - Before being bought by ATHEARN, GLOBE was in Milwaukee, not Chicago - I knew it was the midwest?

And just for good measure, the biggest competitor at the time:

It is very intersting that some early ads clearly say that GLOBE is made by ATHEARN and other ads do not even give an address or mention ATHEARN.

But the orange and white ATHEARN boxes quickly gave way to yellow and then blue - and now you know trhe rest of the story....

And just for the record, I will built these kits and have many more of this vintage already built.

Sheldon

[NP2626]

bagal

Hello all

On the Athearn website there is a short history of Athearn. It mentions that in 1957 Athearn introduced plastic freight car kits including a 3 dome tank, 40' reefer and 40' box.

Athearn still offer a 3 dome tank tank car which got me wondering if the current RTR model is essentially the same as the 1957 introduction.

At one time the instruction sheets were dated and on checking some of my BB kits it seems that some of Athearn's current offerings have been around for a long time. For example I understand the RTR ACF centerflow covered hopper is essentially an assembled version of the BB kit, which according to the instructions dates to 1973 or earlier.

So this leads to my question - what is the oldest model railroad model still in production?

Bill

 

 

Although bagel, the original poster, entitled this thread "Athearn History", the actual question he asks is not specifically related to Athearn!  His question is "What is the oldest model railroad model still in production?"

I can't say for sure; but, I'm guessing the Varney "Little Joe" Docksider surely should be a contendor.  Although Varney has been gone a long time, the little Docksider has been manufactured by somebody for forever and a day and is still available today from Life Like/Walthers.  I doubt that this iteration uses any of the original tooling.  But, who knows!

 

 

 

 

["JaBear"]

Gidday Sheldon, Many thanks for taking the time to create that last post. Very interesting.

Cheers, the Bear.

[bagal]

Thank you to those who replied to my question. I think it is quite remarkable that some products are still in production after 50 years or so. Perhaps the tooling is a bit like grandad's axe by now though.

growing up in New Zealand in the 1960's we were limited to Marklin and Fleischmann for European modellers, Hornby Dublo or Triang for British and Fleischmann or Triang for North American. Athearn or other US models were quite rare.

Not like now where we can get anything we like within a week or with the credit card.

Fleishmann steam locos were slightly modified German locos, they even still had sloping cab sides. I had a Fleischmann F3 or F7. I thought it was good back in the day but not compared with today's models.

Cheers

Bill

 

[rrinker]

 Not to prolong things, but since I am jus tnow hittign the mid-50's in reading through the MR 75 year DVD set, I came across the first MR ad which Globe and AThearn are mentioned - Dec 54, an add for the F7, which has the Globe Models logo, underneath which it says "An ATHEARN quality product". This was a powered F7 model now, not the original Globe unpowered version.

Didn't see such an ad in the Nov 54 issue, and it was only just earlier in 1954 that there was a Trade TOpics review of the Globe F7 - the unpowered and very inexpensive plastic kit.

Also it was just previous to this, Oct 54 or Nov, that Hobbytown showed a powered chassis for the Globe F7.

                           --Randy

 

[rrinker]

 And the funny thing is, the very next issue, Jan '55, the Globe ad no longer has the Athearn reference. And Lindsey ALSO released a power chassis for the Globe model.

                      --Randy