Nicely-done improvements, Kevin.
SeeYou190What are your favorite assembly methods for improving the basic Athearn Blue Box boxcar kit? Do you put in more or less effort than I do? .
Well, mine may look like more, but I'd have to say that the work done is probably more cosmetic than for operational improvements. I do install Kadee couplers on all cars before they go on the layout, but usually, no other modifications are needed for the cars to run well, and I usually don't bother with metal wheels.
The upgrading process is not only fairly involved, but is also interspersed with a lot of other shake-the-box kit "improvements". If you have time, and/or are curious, here's a LINK to the whole shebang. The particular Athearn car to which I'm referring is first shown in the eighth photo on the first page of the thread, but it's some pages later where that particular step-by-step gets underway. It is rather involved, I think.
Wayne
For me I prefer the weights as close to the truck as possible, it aids the car in tracking properly.
Also, since the doors are non-operating after your surgery, I would remove the claws on the door for the bottom door track, it is not prototypical, you could also use replacement doors from a number of suppliers, many times the undec Branchline, Atlas, IMRC, Red Caboose come with many sets of doors for you to use to properly replicate your prototype, I have a couple of hundred extra doors that I can use for replacements.
Rick Jesionowski
Rule 1: This is my railroad.
Rule 2: I make the rules.
Rule 3: Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor-perceived anacronisms, detail descrepancies or operating errors, consult RULE 1!
Carolina Northern Harrison I wrote an article of how to do this(much more simple) on my blog. Not to be contrary, but you described building it stock. Kevin improved the basic kit at each step. Don
Harrison I wrote an article of how to do this(much more simple) on my blog.
I wrote an article of how to do this(much more simple) on my blog.
Not to be contrary, but you described building it stock. Kevin improved the basic kit at each step.
Don
My Standards for rolling stock aren't as high as some people. As long as it runs, dosen't derail, and the couplers are at almost the right hight, than it's good enough for me.
Harrison
Homeschooler living In upstate NY a.k.a Northern NY.
Modeling the D&H in 1978.
Route of the famous "Montreal Limited"
My YouTube
That's a lot of work to considering what they are. Ymmv
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
Frank,
Yes, if you follow my method, the doors will not longer operate.
The upper door guide on these cars is a seperate piece that is installed at the factory. I think on later cars is when they started causing troubles. The doors will barely slide even if they are properly installed, and they do tend to bow outward sometimes.
I could probably fix the problem with the door guides if I investigated it, but none of my resin cars have operating doors, so I do not feel the loss.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Kevin,
I have quite a few Athearn box cars and never had one with bowed doors. Also the spring steel coupler covers can be bent in at the open sides to give a a tighter snap fit.......all mine are original from the mid-50's and on. One of the features of them that I liked was in fact the sliding doors. A lot of mine have interiors with workers unloading the car. When in the train you can slide the door closed, when spotted open the door and there is the load with workers in it. They also have the original trucks, with a little tuning work fine. Most of My fleet of freight cars have the original trucks........not a problem at all...if you keep your track clean. For 2.95 to 3.95 a kit.....that was the greatest bang for the buck anywhere:
Door closed in train/door open for unloading:
The workers sure have their work cut out for them.......bags of flour......on the floor.
Take Care!
Frank
I am not suggesting that any member of this forum needs help assembling an Athearn Blue Box kit. I would like to present the basic improvements I make when assembling one of these so that the finished product will provide years of reliable service on my STRATTON & GILLETTE railroad.
There are still hundreds, maybe thousands, of Athearn unbuilt blue box kits to be had for reasonable prices everywhee I look. To make it even better, Bev-Bel and others custom painted these into plenty of awesome paint schemes that have never been avilable anywhere else. I'll bet we all have at least ten of these things stashed away somewhere, so, there might be plenty of good reasons for us to still be putting these kits together.
Model Railroader has published a few articles through the years on improving Athearn Blue Box kits, but these mostly has to do with external detail improvements, not reliability and running quality. I am not going to make any modifications to the exterior of this car. I just want to get it on the rails and have it run as well as any other freight car in my fleet.
I only operate with freelanced roadnames, so there is not much in the Athearn line of decorated kits I can use, but there have been some released in the NMRA collector Heritage and Living Legends lines that are suitable.
There are also three kits from the Heritage line that I have detailed and brought up to SGRR standards, GORRE & DAPHETID, DELTA LINES, and SUNSET VALLEY NAVIGATION. These three kits were not Athearn Blue Box and came with seperate details.
Most of the NMRA collector models made on Athearn kits with molded on ladders and grabs. Redetailing these represent a bit more work than I want to do, as such, the Athearn kits just get assembled and run for fun. The kit for this project is NMRA Living Legends #3, a 40 foot steel boxcar for Milt Moore's GIBRALTAR RAILROAD.
The contents of the box are very basic. Commonly this style of kit is referred to as "Shake-The-Box" because that is almost all the effort that is required to assemble one.
Assemblilng this kit straight from the box will give you a decent car, but there are some inherent problems. The trucks do not track too well, the weight is magnetic, the coupler box lids are prone to fall off, etc.
My assembly technique addresses all of these issues.
The first step is to remove all the protruding nubbins from where the ejector pins hit the floor casting. These need to be removed so the spacers that will be added have a flat area of contact.
Then I remove the nubs from the underframe that center the Athearn trucks. I will be using Kadee trucks, so these need to go. If you want to address the truck shortcomings with Intermountain or Proto wheels in the Athearn sideframes, leave these in place.
Then I cut the coupler boxes off of the underframe. I am a very strong believer in using Kadee couplers in Kadee coupler boxes whenever possible, so these go into the trash bin. Kadee couplers in Kadee boxes give me the best operation.
The next step is to add spacers to the bottom of the floor casting. I discarded the steel weight because it interferes with Kadee's magnetic uncoupling system. The weight was 0.060" thick, so I used 0.060" by 0.250" styrene for under the center sill and 0.060" by 0.100" for the sides of the frame.
Then I glued the underframe in place. The Athearn underframe has the brake details all in the wrong places, so I pay no care to whether it is installed correctly or not, it is not right in either orientation.
The screws that hold the coupler boxes and trucks in place will need a little more meat to bite into than is in the Athearn underframe. I give these screws as much thread as possible. I glue a piece of 0.188" styreme above the coupler and a piece of 0.125" above the truck mounting locations.
The coupler boxes also need to be spaced 0.060" below the floor. I used two scrap pieces of styrene on each end to make this new sub floor.
The car will get two ounces of additional weight. I use lead fishing sinkers flattened out to just under 0.250" thick. I glue these into place with gel super glue, but these have been know to come loose, so I also build a styrene cage around the wieghts with 0.250" by 0.100" strips. This guarantees the weights will not come loose and rattle around the car and throw off the center of balance.
The doors on Athearn 40 foot boxcars have a habit of bowing away from the sides of the car body. To prevent this I add two small strips of .080" by .080" styrene held in place by super glue to keep the doors even with the car sides.
The coupler mounting screws will be 0.100" away from the floor ends and on center. The location of these screws is carefully marked prior to drilling.
Then the screw holes are drilled out with a #50 drill bit.
Finally, the holes are tapped for 2-56 machine screws.
For this kind of kit I like to use Kadee number 148 whisker couplers in their number 242 snap together couple box. This combination gives extremely reliable operation and very easy assembly.
I install the couplers using Kadee plastic 2-56 by 1/2" screws. I like to use the Kadee plastic screws on the couplers because brass screws look weird in photographs. The Kadee plastic screws require no painting.
I decided to use Kadee #500 "Bettendorf" trucks on this project.
With the trucks installed I checked the coupler height, as expected, the couplers were too high. That is typical when assembling these kits.
I removed the trucks and carefully removed some material from the bolsters with a flat file. I like to use a fine file for this operation because I have an easier time keeping the truck mounting pad on plane. Removing material from the truck bolsters lowers the coupler height.
The couper height was verified, and now the freight car is ready for the rails.
The final product is a unique boxcar not available from any other source. I have not weathered any of these Athearn NMRA collector cars, and I do not have any plans to do this. While they have no value, they are a neat piece of model railroading history and I do not want to weather them
What are your favorite assembly methods for improving the basic Athearn Blue Box boxcar kit? Do you put in more or less effort than I do?