Just finished building an Athearn / Branchline 40' steel boxcar kit with black ends. Did a little extra detail work on the stirrups, roof walk thickness, etc. It was on a train next to a Kadee 40' steel box car when I photographed it and noticed the reporting numbers: only one digit difference between the two cars. That really surprised me considering the difference in age of the models and the complete difference in manufacturers. Even with some detail work on the Athearn, it is pretty crude next to the Kadee car! The Boraxo car and caboose are thanks to Tom Holley. The caboose is a model of the last caboose to have run on the QA&P.
I think the Athearn model is of a prewar 1937 boxcar with 6 foot doors, and the Kadee car is a postwar one with 8 foot doors, so they should not be in the same numbering sequence. One would have to check a Railway Equipment Register to verify. I like both cars with the FFF scheme, better than the post-1950 Ship It scheme. I am not aware of any such cars having black ends, but that is a possibility. When the Frisco changed their operating philosophy from running short fast trains in the late 1930s, to running long drags with many diesel units in the 1950s, someone was savvy enough to say, "Let's at least be honest in our advertising." What an idea. Ken McElreath
If I am identifying the Athearn car correctly, it is an often lambasted model of a 1937 AAR boxcar with the incorrect roof and poorly detailed doors. The Frisco livery on this model is a rarity. The number belongs to a Pullman Standard PS-1 car. I have a couple AAR boxes as well as the yellow, Athearn 50-foot, double-door boxcars. All purchased at Spotlight Hobby Shop in Kansas City with lawn mowing money.
I am not a rivet counter when it comes to my rolling stock. My "good enough" threshold for my fleet would probably be well below the "good enough" threshold for most modelers. I value durability. Thus I am more than willing to accept less fragile detail for rolling stock that is going to be used in group operation where mishaps happen and shuffled on and off the layout and into and out of drawers. Today's high-dollar, highly detailed, fragile parts rolling stock cannot hold up to such. Therefore, I still love and embrace good old Athearn Blue Box boxcars and its ilk. Love 'em! Andre
Andre, Hear, Hear! The most I have ever spent for a piece of HO rolling stock is $25, and that was for Kadee cars that are not only highly detailed, but correct and durable. I am baffled that people will spend the money they do on model railroad stuff. That is why I scratch build and modify things. And, yes, durability is important if you are actually going to run stuff. Someday I may remove the molded on grabs on this car and add wire grabs. But maybe not! The roof walk and stirrups were filed down to half their original thickness and do not look too bad. Attached is a photograph of another car I recently bought for $5.25: a GARX 50' insulated box car. The roof walk alone took almost an hour of filing. But that is why it is called modeling. Is it correct? I don't know. The build date on the car is 1955, which fits my era, and the price definitely fits my budget. By the way, the Athearn / Branchline car that started this thread cost $6.00. Both cars included Kadee couplers. It is a hobby. It is supposed to be fun. It is great to know about the original prototypes, history, etc. But at some point in time the reality of the fact that it is just a hobby sets in and practicality needs to be a consideration.
Paul, For what it is worth, a little detailed weathering can give the impression of a lot of actual prototype detail. Just look closely at the prototype photographs, then experiment with brushed diluted oil and acrylic paints, chalks and gentle dull airbrushing. Just try to not overdo it. This is why I love the old Athearn blue box kits. If you screw one up, you can usually salvage the job or toss it, with little lost. All they really need in actual detail improvement are the stirrup steps, brake wheels and roof walks, plus removing the door guides. I would not touch a $40 ready to run super detailed car with my own weathering. Ken McElreath
Ken, Thanks for the input and ideas. Weathering is one of those things that I am still behind the learning curve on. Part of that is my color vision issue. When you cannot tell for sure what color something is, it makes it difficult. My wife frequently has to come help me sort through some color issue. When you say "remove the door guides", do you mean the tracks or those huge legs on the bottom of the doors that ride on the track? Also how do you remove it? You are right, that is the most unsightly part of an Athearn box car. The brake wheel can be replaced, the roof walk and stirrups can be filed or replaced. But I am not sure how to work with the door guides. The photograph with a 40' steel box car in your yard SLSF 148173. It is really nice. Who manufactured that car? Thanks for another great post filled with useful information!
Paul, I always removed the lower legs on Athearn, Train Miniature and other gross plastic boxcars. Remove the door, turn it over and cut off using an X-Acto knife. Then glue the door where you want it. The upper guides are not a problem visually. Car 148173 is an Athearn boxcar. Sometimes all I had to do was remove some of the logos and coonskin, replacing with earlier era decals, but usually I had to repaint the car. By the way, the weathering can make a poor paint job look great as well. After all, modeling is all about deceiving the eye into thinking the subject is close to the prototype. If you look at prototype photos carefully, you can find all sorts of cheap old HO products that are amazingly "Frisco". These include, as shown in some of my photographs, Roundhouse, Train Miniature, E&B Valley, Varney/Lifelike, Bachmann, and even AHM. Decals can be found if you search, especially old Champ decals. They do not fall apart with age like some of the others. Finally, my satisfaction with the models I have finished seems to be proportional to the amount of actual work that I performed on it, not to its true detailed accuracy. Whether painting, decaling, weathering, detailing or adding loads to open cars, these efforts produce better results than buying a very highly detailed and accurate ready to run model. For example, notice the Athearn 40 foot flatcar. I had a great time using a soldering iron, X-Acto knife and wire brush to beat up the wood deck. Only a mother could love it, but I do. Ken
Thanks, Ken, for the great ideas. You reminded me of a modeling goal that occurred to me years ago that will be more easily achieved because of this thread: to have nothing on the layout that was not built or modified my myself or a friend. Stuff, in and of itself, has no real meaning to me, other than the work put into it by myself or a friend. That is where memories and satisfaction come from, and why I spend so much time and effort making models out of what some others would consider to be junk. Thanks!!!!
My wife has been at a quilting retreat and it's been literally 100 degrees + for 7 or 8 days now. For west central Texas, the humidity has been high, as well. That's all the excuse the dog and I have needed to spend a little more time in the railroad room the past week. This is another David Gaines purchase. Thanks to Ken McElreath and the others who chimed in on the previous Athearn projects, this one went pretty smoothly. It still needs weathering and dullcoating, but other than that, it's done. The stirrups and roofwalks were thinned significantly; truck sideframes and underframe were painted flat black; both the couplers and brakewheel were replaced with ones from Kadee. The brakewheel that Irv provided in this kit shouldn't have made it through qc. I also modified the bottom door guides per Kenmc's recommendations. It's still an Athearn blue box, but at the price of today's nicely detailed equipment, this works for me. Once it gets weathered more of the imperfections will be hidden.
