An era is coming to an end in HO model railroading history ..... Athearn is discontinuing their extensive line of "Blue Box" kits. How many model railroaders, myself included, used these well done yet affordable kits as a staple in the early years of our hobby career? It's been years since I built one, yet I still have many. Per Athearn: > October 16, 2009 > > Greetings, > > Effective immediately, we here at Athearn have made the difficult > decision to discontinue the production of our Blue Box line of > kits. There were several factors that contributed to this extremely > challenging decision however, the primary issue revolved around > affordability and ensuring that our Blue Box kit pricing remain > aligned with what the market can bear. Unfortunately, due to > increased manufacturing and labor costs it has been determined that > we are no longer able to continue offering kits at competitive price > points as compared to our already assembled products. > > For over 50 years the Athearn Blue Box kits have been sold > worldwide, bringing happiness, joy and excitement to thousands of > model railroad enthusiasts. Your passion for these products has > allowed us to thrive and grow into the industry leader you still > support today, and for that we are eternally grateful. Moving > forward this will allow us to dedicate more resources to new and > exciting projects in our Ready To Roll, Genesis and Roundhouse lines > for another 50 years, or more. > > We will continue to support all service and warranty needs on Blue > Box kits from our headquarters in Long Beach, California. You can > find our contact information here. > > The Folks at Athearn
Wow a sad day indeed. I don't like to buy some RTR stuff just to tear it apart to add weight or details. A sad day for modelers everywhere Tom
I agree what a horrible day. There goes one of the last truely entry levels into our hobby. I will never forget they genuine excitement I saw on the faces of 4 young Boy Scouts the day I gave each of them the "kit" they had put together. Sure they were very simple kits but to these young fellows they were truely exciting. I will never forget this as long as I live. Thanks to IRV Athearn and his Blue box kits. Shame on Horizon Hobby. Maybe if they would stop mailing out there stupid RC catalogs to us model railroaders they could afford to keep the Blue Box line. Sad day indeed. Bob Wintle MMR Parsons, Ks.
That is sad. Now that I think of it, I don't think I have ever assembled one . I can't believe it. But I thought they had already stopped making those.
I like Bob Wintle's comment, regarding his experience with the joy of someone young putting together these wonderful kits. These were the staple equipment on the first, and last layout that I've ever had - a 4x8 Christmas present, in HO, from my big brother. I recall sitting down with him and building a kit here and there - great satisfaction - and not a bad looking model for the price. As I grew older, into highschool age in the 70's, the Blue Box Kits were there once again, giving me something to do in my spare time, though the layout was long gone. They were still inexpensive, in great supply, and suitable for my level of patience. After twenty years had passed, marriage and children, combined with other interests, I was astonished at the price of HO rolling stock, in comparrison with the Athearn Blue Box Kits. In the recent decade, or so, the quality has improved, but the price has risen. As time went by, recently, I began to see that these kits were being reduced in number, and that probably their days were numbered. It's too bad that young folks won't have an in-expensive - decent looking alternative, like these, that will lure their interest in model railroading. Bob McKeighan
I have fond memories of the local Hobby Shop owner here in Wichita at the time (mid 70's) opening each blue box when he unpacked it to make sure all four corner drop steps were still intact and not broken as this was a constant problem. They became known as "shake in the box kits" and that didn't help matters any. Also, a Hobby Shop that I visited in Austin, TX that had little round rubber stamps made with the herald of the major RR's of that area and they would stamp each box swith a different color ink so that the customer could easily find his favorite RR. This is truly the end of an era that is akin to taking Matchbox cars out of the little wooden box! By the way, can anyone remember the lowest cost they ever paid for one of these kits? Bob Hoover FriscoFriend
My first experience with the Athearn blue box was at a hobby store on South Street in Springfield about 1968. I went in and saw dozens of blue boxes stacked neatly on the shelves. I opened up a few and noted how realistic they looked compared to the Tyco cars I was more familar with. Unfortunately, I didn't have the $2 or so to buy one so I had to wait until I got a job during my high school years in the mid 1970s. then I got a bunch and started kitbashing/detailing during my years at Drury. I have managed to keep a few of my early effort for nostalgia and self entertainment. I have many fond (?) memories of struggling to Frisco-ize these kits. In the early days it was easier because I wasn't comparing all the details between the prototype and the Athearn kits. Later when I did, they started falling short. The important thing was that they got me hooked on model railroading and I could afford them. Those attributes will be missed. Athearn won me over again when they started retooling back in the 90s (?) with correct hood width locomotives. Then they really won me back with their Genesis, Ready-to-Roll, vans, etc lines. While the new equipment is expensive by our standards, I think it is still affordable when compared to all the other diversions out there. Video game equipment/software, sports fees, rock concerts (upwards of $100), body art and other diversions are more expensive than a nice Atlas, Intermountain or Athearn car/locomotive. And today, the locomotives have functionality we didn't even dream of in the 60s/70s. I still have a few Blue Boxes and I wasn't sure what to do with them. Maybe we could start a museum. Ship IT on the Frisco! Rick
I just checked my boxes - I have a undec pulpwood car kit at $1.89 as the lowest. Still running in Rock Island colors with a neat wood load on it! There are several other cars at $1.98. Those days are gone! Ken
Back in 1964, I sent off $3.99 plus shipping for a Warbonnet F7A with "Hi-F" drive. It was about half list price because I think they were phasing out rubber band drives in favor of geared drives. It was such a long time ago that the box was yellow instead of blue. The frame and trucks live on as a dummy B unit decorated as Frisco 5118. Accurail still makes relatively inexpensive "shake-the-box" kits, though not as cheap as blue box. As one who patronizes train shows, it's clear that it will be a long time before the Athearn kits become scarce, let alone unavailable. Rich
89 cents for an Undec boxcar. At the hobby shop in Sheridan Village, across from Hell...I mean Bell Jr. High Admiral & Sheridan), in 1957 or '58 Glenn (the Graybeard) in Tulsa
Interesting sotries. Cheapest Car I've ever found (that worked) $7.50 at a train show and it was a BB, but some were oolder round house's and acurails.
I would venture to say that 95% of my rolling stock fleet is Blue Box. This is sad news indeed. I took it for granted that these would be around forever. I guess this is the end of an age. I think I will set all the flags on the layout to half mast. and by the way..Go SOONERS!
I can't even begin to count how many BB cars I painted & decaled for Frisco. I had more than a little fun putting together blue-box and MDC kits, and they were (and still are, when you can find 'em) a cheap way to increase the rolling stock fleet. And lately, adding Kadee number 58s and metal wheels were not so much a chore as a fun thing to do, as well as improve their operation. There's just too much instant gratification these days................
I'm sad now. Alma Lost to Greebrier now this!!! My first actual HO train set was a loop of track and 6 Blue Box frisco & cotton belt kits. It was purchased by my grandma on the way home from a model train show in Fayettville,AR I still have it today. I modified most of the cars and weathered them. They run on my current layout. I repainted on of the Cotton Belt box cars into a mopac car. but the rest carry the original colors.
My very first HO car was an Athearn Blue Box kit - a NYC Jade Green 50ft double door boxcar, from Tom's Trains here in StL in the summer of 1961. It was really neat, but I wasn't sure I wanted to make the jump into HO (my dad and I still had all of our Lionel stuff). Tom said go ahead and take the kit for free. Build it, and if you like it, come back and buy some more HO stuff. The car was really neat, I loved the detail and the scale - it did a lot to set the hook for HO. I did come back and buy more HO - still doing that, but alas, Tom is long gone. As I recall, my third or fourth Athearn BB kit was an undec gondola. I painted it red oxide and lettered it for the Frisco using Champ decals. Still running that puppy, even though it is not totally accurate for a Frisco gon. It has a nice load of junk in it. We sold all the Lionel stuff in 1964 - in hind sight we should have kept some of it as an investment! The late Irv Athearn was a big reason behind the huge success of HO scale model railroading. Ken
No BB for me, I had even worse: LifeLike, not P2K, LifeLike. With the coming of the new layout, all my LifeLike stuff has been retired, but the Cars and enigine were retiered within a year. Now on the other hand I have a tyco car I'm gona try to rebiuld...............
