My first HO adventure started out with a 1965 Athearn HO train set which I got for Christmas. I recall that it had an F7 blue and yellow diesel; may have had a red Burlington open hopper car, but I can't really recall the consist. I want to set up a duplicate of this first set to run on my current layout- is there an online resource that might have info on these mid 60s Athearn sets?
Cedarwoodron
Browse to your heart's content...
http://hoseeker.net/athearn.htm
Have FUN! Ed
The Athearn line of blue box cars were essentially unchanged from the '60s up to the '90s and a bit beyond. I have some Athearn rolling stock from my first layouts in the early 60s, and they are virtually identical with the ones I bought new in the late 80s. Even the RTR ones from 10 years ago look the same, but with better couplers and metal wheels.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
I have purchased a bunch of athearn bluebox kits on ebay in completed kit form, they are very easy to work with.
After I get them, I change the cheep plastic wheels to 33" metal wheels, throw away plastic kadees, replace them with metal ones and tighten up the truck a bit until the car rolls like a dream.
They are also great for kitbashing if you choose to "custom build" a special one of a kind car for your freelanced railroad.
Well I thought I had an Athearn color catalog from 1965 but it seems to have gone missing. I do have a Model Railroader shopper's guide from 1965-66 that shows train sets including seven from Athearn, perhaps not their entire line. Interestingly the buyer's guide was intended for hobby shop owners, not consumers. ("Kalmbach Books are a SURE PROFIT ITEM" is on the inside front cover.)
A blue and yellow F7 sounds like Santa Fe -- but Athearn's freight train sets used Santa Fe Fs in the passenger war bonnet scheme (in 1965 their top of the line train set had an A-B-A set of Santa Fe Fs and 7 cars plus caboose, also available in New Haven.
They had a nice set with a blue and yellow Santa Fe GP30 with 5 cars including caboose - the photo shows a B&O hopper but they may have freely substituted CB&Q for all I know. That GP30 set also came painted UP and Burlington. Not long after that they amended the tooling to make their GP30 (which had been based on preliminary drawings and was not a very exact model) into a GP35.
The only Athearn blue F7 I can think of off hand is C&O.
Now, Mantua/Tyco did have a train set with a blue and yellow Santa Fe F9 and a hopper car plus gondola with pipe load and a reefer and caboose. I cannot tell if the hopper is Burlington or not.
That Mantua/Tyco train set is the closest in the buyer's guide to what you describe. But Athearn, like Lionel, put together uncataloged train sets from time to time.
Dave Nelson
A bunch of catalogs here: http://hoseeker.org/athearn.htm.
Is the 'Fast Freight' the set you are thinking about?
http://hoseeker.net/cox/cox1970pg4.jpg
Len S
I found two images of Athearn in-the-original-box sets which had a blue&yellow Santa Fe AB set with freight cars on HO Seeker, but those had a 9 car consist (with engines). I know it was an Athearn set that my dad bought- by then I was already (11 years old) a regular visitor to the hobby shop he purchased it at- and had already purchased an Athearn BB kit myself. I think my consist was the F7 A unit, that Burlington open hopper, an ATSF red/brown standard caboose and maybe that red (or was it black ) modern NH logo box car among other cars.
Using the physical evidence I saw I can add related consist cars to synthetically support my ancient memory.