In the Works at Athearn

[RedGrey62]

Just saw some photos for some pre-production cars from Athearn.  Looks like a stretched sulphuric tank car and several versions of the F89F flat car.  I'll be especially happy with the flat car as it fills hole in the 60's era piggyback area and it could be the basis for some new open autoracks.  No release date and unfortunately I didn't think to save the pictures down from my Yahoo Meesenger, duh!

Ricky

[riogrande5761]

I went to the Chantilly Virginia WGH show on Sat and Sun and took some pictures at Athearns booth and had a nice chat with John Engstrom and Mike Hopkins of Athearn, and assisting them was Bob (original owner of McHenry couplers).  Here are a few photos to get you started (I posted quite a few more over at Atlas forums in a topic titled Athearn test shots):

New versions of Athearn's upcoming 50' PC&F box cars for Evergreen, SP, SSW, GN/BN prototypes.

 

New Evergreen Landis 8'+8' door sides:

New SP/SSW 8'+6' Landis door sides:

New SP, Evergreen B70-65 with Youngstown door sides:

New GN, BN Superior Door sides:

New Athearn 89' channel side 89' flat cars including "long runner" type 2 car draw bar:

Underside of KTTX:

Underside of RTTX:

I believe this is an XTTX:




F89F flat car with tire guards:

F89 ex-autorack WTTX flat car:

[riogrande5761]

Here are some of the new Athearn LPG tank cars which were first on the rails in the early 1990' and some represent post 2005 with conspicuity stripes (all of them are too new for me but gorgeous cars):

There were several more of the LPG that I didn't get photo's of.  Here is a shorty also:

[riogrande5761]

Oh what the heck, here are some more:

Athearn display with rep John Armstrong and Bob of McHenry:



 - this time diesels:

Atlas booth:

[trolleyboy]

riogrande5761

Oh what the heck, here are some more:

Athearn display with rep John Armstrong and Bob of McHenry:



 - this time diesels:

Atlas booth:

It's nice to see a painted shot of the new Atlas GP40-2W,finally good to see one of those produced in plastic,not in time for me though since I back dated my layout and those are now too new,but wow I remember having to do the conversions on the GP40's and SD40's to et the Canadian wide cab,they always turned out well but was always a bit of a hassel. Figures that in a true Murphy's law situation they woudl come out long after,but many modellers will benefit from the wait.Good shots though thanks for sharing.

Rob 

 

 

 

[Southwest Chief]

riogrande5761

 

 

Uh oh 

Shouldn't those new "passenger" yellow bonnets have silver trucks?  I was planning to get a set of these, but now I'm not so sure.  Everything else is almost spot on perfect.  But the black trucks don't fit the passenger designation for #304 and #315 and the sole B unit "passenger" yellow bonnet which I forget the number for.

There were many other yellow bonnets with dark trucks but the three "passenger units" had silver as far as I remember.

[markpierce]

Gee, I had expected the Mt-4 to have been released a year ago.....   twiddle, twiddle.

Mark

[da_kraut]

 There goes the budget

Frank

[riogrande5761]

Southwest Chief,

I will defer to the experts of the Santa Fe, but I recall reading about the silver trucks when the issue came up with the Rio Grande.  The Rio Grande also painted trucks silver for a period of time.  In fact I was told they actually painted them before each trip across the system IRRC, so they must have been repainted weekly!  I was told the Santa Fe did this also on their passenger diesels... but like a lot of maintenence intensive things, eventually those practices are abandoned.  The Rio Grande quit this practice and painted the trucks black on the passenger units in the mid-1960's.  It certainly seems plausable that the SF did this also and the newer Genesis F units are being made to represent the late, modified F units in their last 5 to 10 years of operations.  Could it be that the SF also abandoned the silver truck painting on these units later in their service lives?

[Texas Zepher]

riogrande5761

Could it be that the SF also abandoned the silver truck painting on these units later in their service lives?

I would guess only after they had been relegated to freight duty.  The Santa Fe never slacked in their passenger service.  They seriously considered not joining Amtrak.  Wichita Kansas had piles of red warbonnets in freight duty in the early 1970s.  I don't remember the color of the trucks.  The big trains were behind the FP45s but some of the lesser trains were still behind F units right up to Amtrak.   I don't know when/if the FPs went to freight duty.

[riogrande5761]

I'll have to look and see what some late Santa Fe F7's and E8's had for truck colors.  There are some photo's in my Rio Grande books since Santa Fe shared the Joint Line between Pueblo and Denver CO.

[Southwest Chief]

I'm kind of derailing this post and I apologize for that.  I probably should post a new topic so as not to take too much away from all of the great new items displayed thus far. 

And I understand these are still preproduction models so Athearn may not have had any silver underframes for these test units yet.

Anyway, from what I can find online and from my vast Santa Fe resources, the three "passenger" yellow bonnets 304L, 315L, and 319 B, all had silver trucks because they were passenger locomotives just in the new experimental paint scheme that was being tried out for Amtrak lease units.  Supposedly Amtrak did not like the yellow mods and only the three received this paint.  There were several variations of the "freight" yellow bonnet paint experiments, and these all had dark trucks.

Here is a great photo that shows one of the "passenger" yellow bonnets (304L) leading a freight, along with a standard red warbonnet B unit:

And this beautiful photo clearly shows silver trucks and underframe:

I have one of the "passenger" yellow bonnets that Intermountain released a few years ago (#304L).  It of course has silver trucks.  Although you can't really see the trucks in this photo:

[riogrande5761]

Good point about pre-production models.  I would email Athearn and discuss this issue with them providing photographic evidence.  Could be they will confirm the models aren't fully in final form.

 Nice picture btw!

[Darth Santa Fe]

I'm sure it's just a pre-production issue. When Athearn first released photos of the Gas Turbines, all but one had gray trucks, and the front ventilation was the chicken wire grill (or whatever it was). Production models of all but the early unit have silver trucks, and the front vents are the louvered type.

[DJO]

Southwest Chief

I'm kind of derailing this post and I apologize for that.  I probably should post a new topic so as not to take too much away from all of the great new items displayed thus far. 

And I understand these are still preproduction models so Athearn may not have had any silver underframes for these test units yet.

Anyway, from what I can find online and from my vast Santa Fe resources, the three "passenger" yellow bonnets 304L, 315L, and 319 B, all had silver trucks because they were passenger locomotives just in the new experimental paint scheme that was being tried out for Amtrak lease units.  Supposedly Amtrak did not like the yellow mods and only the three received this paint.  There were several variations of the "freight" yellow bonnet paint experiments, and these all had dark trucks.

Here is a great photo that shows one of the "passenger" yellow bonnets (304L) leading a freight, along with a standard red warbonnet B unit:

And this beautiful photo clearly shows silver trucks and underframe:

I have one of the "passenger" yellow bonnets that Intermountain released a few years ago (#304L).  It of course has silver trucks.  Although you can't really see the trucks in this photo:

cheif cant you just spray silver on the wheel bogies?

[Packer]

riogrande5761

Oh what the heck, here are some more:
 *snip*

Atlas booth:

The GP40-2 and GP15 look great; and I can't wait for athearn to do the SLSF/BN GP15s.

Did atlas decide to cancel the BN Gp40-2s, or did they not have a pre-production sample? If they actually do the BN units, I hope they get gyralights since they are ex-SLSF units. Haven't found a protoype picture in 1985 or before showing them removed on the numbers Atlas is doing.

[R. T. POTEET]

riogrande5761

Could it be that the SF also abandoned the silver truck painting on these units later in their service lives?

Some years past I overheard a discussion on this silver trucks issue at a swap table at a NMRA division meet in Arizona. One of the discussees(?), a Santa Fe modeler of some repute, informed the other discussee(?) that, as Santa Fe began experiencing diminishing quantity of black ink on the bottom line in the late '60s they, stopped maintaining the silver-coloring of the trucks under their warbonnets. The inference I took from this remark was that by the time of the Amtrak start-up in 1971 you were likely to find Santa Fe passenger units of all ilks with a mixture of silver and black paint on their trucks. I myself was never in a position to notice this as, except for a relatively short assignment at San Bernardino, Calif in the '60s, my Air Force service never posted me in Santa Fe country and by the time I did get an assignment in Ariz in the mid-70s the Amtrak start-up was well in the past. I would find it interesting to observe photos of Santa Fe passenger units taken at the time of the Amtrak start-up date.

Texas Zepher

I would guess only after they had been relegated to freight duty.  The Santa Fe never slacked in their passenger service.  They seriously considered not joining Amtrak.  Wichita Kansas had piles of red warbonnets in freight duty in the early 1970s.  I don't remember the color of the trucks.  The big trains were behind the FP45s but some of the lesser trains were still behind F units right up to Amtrak.   I don't know when/if the FPs went to freight duty.

I remember reading something in the hobby press some years ago that Santa Fe deemed it so imperative to keep their FPs out of Amtrak's hands--apparently there was a provision in the conversion contract that allowed Amtrak acquisition rights to all passenger locomotives--that they removed the steam generators and regeared these locomotives for freight service well in advance of 1 May '71.

[7j43k]

Packer

Did atlas decide to cancel the BN Gp40-2s, or did they not have a pre-production sample?

They're due to be shipped next month.

Ed

[Packer]

7j43k

Packer

Did atlas decide to cancel the BN Gp40-2s, or did they not have a pre-production sample?

They're due to be shipped next month.

 

Ed

Guess I better start saving now then .

Still don't know if they will have the SLSF nose gyralight or not. That'd determine which numbers I'd get.