Greetings fellow modelers,
I was born in January of 1960, which will make me 57 next month. Brother and I got started into the hobby with a Tyco train set under the tree back in the mid 70s. I have been steady in the hobby since 1985, and have an nice sized HO scale layout in the basement with a lot of Athearn models, along with many others.
Our son moved to Long Beach, CA earlier this year for his job. Late October, we went to visit him. We stopped at the Athearn office on Forbes Way there in Long Beach, and was given the '50 cent' tour of the somewhat small quarters. The host mentioned a book "Standard guide to Athearn model trains", which is now out of print. When we got home, found a copy on Amazon and have enjoyed reading thru it.
I noticed in the book that the Athearn production really took off in the 50's and 60's. So I set out to look on ebay for a box car that would have been made about the time of my birth. This would have been in the yellow box era. Low and behold, I ended up finding a 50 ft red Great Northern box car (kit number 1311). According to the book, this car would have been manufactured in August of '59 or so. Score! Both the box car and the box are in excellent condition. The box has the Boston & Maine snow scene on it. The suggested retail price was $1.69. It even has the sticker price on it, which listed $1.28 from "Clark's D.D.S". I know that models could be purchased from many more places back then compared to now, but surely this was not a dentist office, was it??? :-) This is a long shot, but does anyone know where "Clark's D.D.S." might have been back in that time period? Needless to say, I have enjoyed that old box car on the layout.
Would have liked to have seen the old Athearn factory before things moved to China, but never got it done. I have Google mapped 11129 Van Buren Ave in LA, which is the address shown on some of the old Athearn boxes. It appears to be a not-so-new looking residential area, so I assume that Google took me to the wrong place or that address was 're-purposed'. Anyone have any info on the old factory location???
Regarding longevity, I assume that Walthers predates Athearn by a few decades. Not going to say that Athearn has been the best nor the worst model train company, but I think it is truly remarkable that they have been around for 60 years or more. I purchased one of the Athearn yellow grain cars many years ago that honors Irv Athearn, and was glad I did.
Merry Christmas to all!
Mark
Mark, great story.
I suspect D.D.S. stands for Discount Department Store, especially considering the price was less than the retail price. Most hobby shops were still selling at retail price, and lots of discount department stores had hobby departments back then.
I was born in 1957, started worrking in my first hobby shop in 1970, there were still a few yellow boxes floating around then. I have lots of Athearn stuff on my layout from the yellow box era, and the red/white box era, and red box era before that.
My father was a "holiday" HO modeler, and set me up with a nice layout at about age 10, been in the hobby ever since.
Irv Athearn started selling stuff from his home during WWII, by 1948 he was fully "in business".
Athearn is easily the biggest supplier of rolling stock in my 1000 car fleet.....
Sheldon
iawestern So I set out to look on ebay for a box car that would have been made about the time of my birth. This would have been in the yellow box era. Low and behold, I ended up finding a 50 ft red Great Northern box car (kit number 1311). According to the book, this car would have been manufactured in August of '59 or so. Score! Merry Christmas to all! Mark
So I set out to look on ebay for a box car that would have been made about the time of my birth. This would have been in the yellow box era. Low and behold, I ended up finding a 50 ft red Great Northern box car (kit number 1311). According to the book, this car would have been manufactured in August of '59 or so. Score!
I was given an Athearn 50' RED Great Northern Box Car about then. It was a treasure for many years. I had forgotten about it. (but not trains.)
A happy memory shared.
Thanks!
iawestern Would have liked to have seen the old Athearn factory before things moved to China, but never got it done. I have Google mapped 11129 Van Buren Ave in LA, which is the address shown on some of the old Athearn boxes. It appears to be a not-so-new looking residential area, so I assume that Google took me to the wrong place or that address was 're-purposed'. Anyone have any info on the old factory location??? Mark
Being a L.A. area native, an ex model railroader, and the same age as you are (57) something didn't seem right with the address on Van Buren. The correct address was 11929 Western Ave. Los Angeles. I found this website which has old Athearn advertisements:
http://tycotrain.tripod.com/athearn-trains-resource/id122.html
If you click on any of the ads you will clearly be able to see the address at that time.
If you look on Google Maps much has changed at the location today as the 105 Freeway completed in 1993 is nearby.
I have 239 freight cars. If I had never purchased any Athearn rolling stock I would only have about 50. I'd be lost without my Athearn BB Canadian Pacific box cars.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
I was actually just thinking about Athearn yesterday. Of the 28 diesel engines that I have, only 9 of them are not in some way Athearn. I have 11 total engines that ride on Athearn BB GP35 drives. Two of them are full Athearn GP35s. The rest use the drives (with modified frames) with another company's shell on top of them (8 Tyco GP20s and 1 Bachmann GP30). The rest are quite the mix: 4 F7s (2 RTR and 2 BB), 3 SW7s and an SW1000.
A fair percentage of my car fleet (both passenger and freight) are Athearn in both BB and RTR. Some of the freight cars (cabooses included) that aren't Athearn even ride on Athearn trucks as the stock trucks were not useable.
The book shows a few pictures of the 11129 Van Buren Ave address on the side of some of Athearn's boxes. When I look at the fine print of one of those pics, it indicates 'circa 1950'. Perhaps, that was Irv's home address, where he initially started his operations???
I think Clark's was a drug store. I bought most of my Athearn blue box collection at Long's Drug Store in Moreno Valley in the 90s. I think it is now owned by Walgreens. They had several aisles of model railroad products priced at their normal markup which was far less than MSRP. They pretty much had the whole Walthers catalog in stock. Good times.
Lone Wolf and Santa Fe I think Clark's was a drug store. I bought most of my Athearn blue box collection at Long's Drug Store in Moreno Valley in the 90s. I think it is now owned by Walgreens. They had several aisles of model railroad products priced at their normal markup which was far less than MSRP. They pretty much had the whole Walthers catalog in stock. Good times.
Could well be, but since the item is question was bought on Ebay, we have no way to know what part of the country it is even from originally.
Never been to California, never saw a drug store that sold trains.
In 1963, when I was 12 years old, I received a Lionel HO set for Christmas. My mother added a PRR 50' two doors box car Athearn kit. Each time I build a kit, I remember this first one. Although I still have some cars from the train set, I lost the BB box car along the way.
Thank you Mark for reliving good memories a few days before Christmas.
Guy
Modeling CNR in the 50's
ATLANTIC CENTRAL Could well be, but since the item is question was bought on Ebay, we have no way to know what part of the country it is even from originally. Never been to California, never saw a drug store that sold trains. Sheldon
iawestern The book shows a few pictures of the 11129 Van Buren Ave address on the side of some of Athearn's boxes. When I look at the fine print of one of those pics, it indicates 'circa 1950'. Perhaps, that was Irv's home address, where he initially started his operations???
That is the address on my very oldest Athearn box, a "black box" for HO models also circa 1950. And it is the address shown in an Athearn ad in the July 1949 MR. That ad mentions the increasing growth of the company and how it has invested in "new tools, space, and other items necessary to better serve you." Based on the box and the ad it appears Athearn was well established and growing, so I suspect it is not the Athearn residential home address.
Dave Nelson
UPENG95That Long's Drug Store was unique as no other Long's had a model railroad section. A quote from about 10 years ago on another website: Just to clear up....Jim B. started the model railroad "store within a store" at the Long's Drug Store in Moreno Valley. When he left there, he opened his own store up the road called Train Quest. Train Quest is now closed. Long's Drug Stores allows a manager to have a specialty aisle of his own choosing. Obviously, this manager liked model trains. Other manages have extensive fishing, auto, skiing, etc. aisles.
I never knew the whole story about the department at Longs. The store was large and the department filled almost a quarter of it, then later it was all moved into a stockroom. The San Bernardino store didn't have that department so that meant a long drive through a back canyon next to the SP mainline and then over a hill, making a shopping trip an adventure. I remember shopping at Train Quest also and thought it was too much competition for one town considering that there was another train store in Riverside and an Arts and Crafts store in San Bernardino which had a good sized train department. All four stores advertised in MR back in the day.
Lone Wolf and Santa Fe UPENG95 That Long's Drug Store was unique as no other Long's had a model railroad section. A quote from about 10 years ago on another website: Just to clear up....Jim B. started the model railroad "store within a store" at the Long's Drug Store in Moreno Valley. When he left there, he opened his own store up the road called Train Quest. Train Quest is now closed. Long's Drug Stores allows a manager to have a specialty aisle of his own choosing. Obviously, this manager liked model trains. Other manages have extensive fishing, auto, skiing, etc. aisles. I never knew the whole story about the department at Longs. The store was large and the department filled almost a quarter of it, then later it was all moved into a stockroom. The San Bernardino store didn't have that department so that meant a long drive through a back canyon next to the SP mainline and then over a hill, making a shopping trip an adventure. I remember shopping at Train Quest also and thought it was too much competition for one town considering that there was another train store in Riverside and an Arts and Crafts store in San Bernardino which had a good sized train department. All four stores advertised in MR back in the day.
UPENG95 That Long's Drug Store was unique as no other Long's had a model railroad section. A quote from about 10 years ago on another website: Just to clear up....Jim B. started the model railroad "store within a store" at the Long's Drug Store in Moreno Valley. When he left there, he opened his own store up the road called Train Quest. Train Quest is now closed. Long's Drug Stores allows a manager to have a specialty aisle of his own choosing. Obviously, this manager liked model trains. Other manages have extensive fishing, auto, skiing, etc. aisles.
Having never been to California, I have no concept of the size area you are refering to, or its population back in those days.
But here in Baltimore, a city of over 1 million in 1950, with several million more in the suburbs, there were easily a dozen hobby shops/train stores in the metro area until the end of the 1980's. After that the small shops have all but disapeared, leaving only a handfull, most of which have moved or been opened farther out into the rural suburbs.
Not all advertised in the back of MR, but they existed none the less.
I managed the train department in one of them in the late 70's and early 80's.
People shopped local if they could, the neighborhood shops did well back in the day.
ATLANTIC CENTRALHaving never been to California, I have no concept of the size area you are refering to, or its population back in those days.
Long's was in a pretty good size building. Search google earth for: CVS, 25070 Alessandro Blvd, Moreno Valley, CA 92553
Long’s Drugs is now CVS. The grocery store next to it was Albertsons but they closed. The population of these inland cities were under 200,000 each. There are a lot of people here but everything is spread out. The standard California/West Coast shopping center has a grocery store anchor, several small retail units surrounding it and a drug store which is usually about 2/3rds the size of the grocery store. The store had wide aisles and the shelves were tall. All of the Athearn blue box cars were shrink wrapped with the top open and hung on peg hooks so you could easily see the contents. It was an impressive wall of pretty much every Athearn car. It was hard to go down that aisle without filling your shopping cart with box cars, refers, intermodal cars, truck trailers and containers. Same with the Walthers aisle except it was also full of structure kits.The only thing they were lacking was a good selection of Preiser figures but they did have all of the Woodland Scenics figures. I always thought is was a little strange that Long’s had that department but I didn’t complain because it was toy train heaven. They had every popularly advertised item you could want in stock and on the shelf just waiting for you to stick it in your cart. Normal shoppers would trip out on people filling their shopping carts with trains.Good memories! This was the last item I remember buying before they closed the department. Clearance priced. Their regular prices for Athearn was over a dollar off of every car and the same percentage off of locomotives.
I went and bought BB kit # 5560 yesterday from the LHS. It was the last piece of BB stock. It's an undec 5 car piggyback set that I thought needed a home. Though it may never see the layout, it will look good in the display case once it's done.
Brought to you by the letters C.P.R. as well as D&H!
K1a - all the way