Athearn Colors

Discussion in 'Electo-Motive Division (EMD)' started by adams, Apr 30, 2019.

  1. adams

    adams QLA-QSF

    Maybe you all can refer me to an older post, but my question here is how many iterations have Athearn diesels gone through in O/W? I own some older blue box which we are all familiar with, but I’m looking online at a blue box GP38-2 that seems to have an improved orange color. It’s still the old 671 with metal handrails. Did Athearn (pre-Genesis and pre-current) change paint during the blue box runs? Thanks, Chris. (Could just be the lighting of the pic).
     
    Last edited: Apr 30, 2019
  2. klrwhizkid

    klrwhizkid Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    Frisco units were not available in the old Athearn blue box kits. Any that you see with the metal handrails and stanchions did not come from Athearn painted in the Frisco scheme. It was not until Athearn got into the Ready To Roll blue and yellow end-opening boxes that Athearn began to offer the Frisco scheme. The Genesis series came second.
     
  3. adams

    adams QLA-QSF

    Really? (I added the beacon on top)
     

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  4. klrwhizkid

    klrwhizkid Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    Chris, that looks like a classic blue box Athearn. The hood width is out of scale, as are the handrails and stanchions. Custom paint job.
     
  5. adams

    adams QLA-QSF

    I’ve got to respectfully beg to differ, unless there’s something I don’t get...I also have the SW 1500 and SD40-2 in the same styles.
     

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  6. adams

    adams QLA-QSF

    The box
     

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  7. Iantha_Branch

    Iantha_Branch Member

    I think Athearn offered that model right around 2000, I remember seeing it on their site at one point in time. These models occasionally show up on ebay all with the same road number and it definitely looks like a factory paint job so at some point someone produced a run of these
     
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  8. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member Staff Member

    If I recall correctly, Athearn offered an SW1500, GP83-2 and an SD40-2 in their BB line factory painted for SL-SF.
     
  9. I am nearly certain of the same trio. I don't have them but my dad does.
     
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  10. meteor910

    meteor910 2009 Engineer of the Year Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    IF I recall correctly, that Athearn Frisco trio (SW1500, GP38-2, SD40-2) used the new Athearn motor and thus were each correct hood width, as opposed to the older GP7, GP35 and SD45 BB models that used the older motor and hence had the excessive hood width. I also think that later trio had a pretty good rendition of the orange in the o/w scheme.
    K
     
    Last edited: May 19, 2019
  11. klrwhizkid

    klrwhizkid Administrator Staff Member Administrator Frisco.org Supporter

    Guys, thanks for educating me on these units. They would be good candidates for DCC and sound upgrades as they came.
     
  12. meteor910

    meteor910 2009 Engineer of the Year Staff Member Frisco.org Supporter

    Corrected my comment above to "excessive hood width" regarding the original Athearn BB models.
     
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