The end of the Athearn Blue Box Kit

Well, since yall is talking bout how you got started I guess I will. As I mentioned before (it might have been on a different thread IDK) what got me going was the rail road in front on the house and thomas. At the age of about5 or so I recived some of that thomas wooden railway stuff for christmas. I had fun and every time I visited Toy R Us I bought something for it. Every time we were at silver dollar city I asked mommy to take me to the toy shop and there I would buy something. I was tought at a young age that the only time anything train like is "handed" to me is B day or christmas. So I saved money and spent it on that. Eventually I out grew it.
Then in 4th grade I don't know why, but all the sudden I wanted a train set so bad. So I had saved up a lot of money. And I had saw at walmart a John Deer train set by Athearn. I took it home and I had a piece of plywood under my bed (it had been chopped from 8' to 5' 4"). So I took all the plastic track off of it and put my new stuff on. Now here is the part of this set that still has me stumpped. The box said athearn, but it had power lock track instaed of ez track, had LL cars instead of athearn cars, an Athearn F unit and a Athearn power pack. You ask how I know this, after gainning experience for a few years I can remember parts of that set and figured out the different brands. But with in 2 weeks it quit working. So I took it back to walmart and got a refund. Then the weeks crept by till christmas and I had been wanting a new train set. Well I didn't get one. So in January of 06 I convinced my parents to take me a place called hobby world. I had seen an advertisement for it and it had trains in it. So I ended up with a Life Like set called Iorn horse. It was a lot of fun at first. Had a UP 0-4-0 steamer and cars. Also had an incline with a "bridge", but wasn't up and over. I had also bought a switch and extra track. Then I kinda got bored with it till I bought a Kato BNSF Dash 9 I had been wanting. But the problem was I had 18R curves so it didn't work. I had to take it back. I ended up with an N scale set. So now I'll try to make this long story short. I bought 22R curves for my layout, then a month after I bought a Dash 9 from Athearn. Then from there I went on to collect cars and locomotives for HO and N scale. And I'll fast forward to Jan 09. That's when I took my first step at becoming a frisco fan. I bought a frisco GP40-2 by Athearn. I remeber how much fun I had with it, and having a Green monster SD40-2 behind it. Then in April I bought a trainman GP38-2 in frisco o/w. Also I painted my SD40-2, but the paint remover messed up the shell. Then in May on Memorial day week end I went to Katy Days and met a great guy named Bob Wintle and his friend Mike (aka Katy Slug). They were nice enough to show me their layouts. I even got to have fun on Bob's layout with a frisco switcher. That marked my first DCC experience and first sound experience. Jump to September and I went to the Frisco convention And met More nice people such as Rick, KLR, andre and many many more very nice peolpe. I also picked up my 4th frisco power, another GP38. Now I have 5 listed in my signature at the bottom. Now looking into the future I see an op session on Rick's layout, and a great layout to come.
Thanks for reading the biography of how I became instested in trains and eventualy the frisco. Sorry about it being so long.

 

I don't, but is the place he moved to called trainland hobbies? I've benn in there a few times. Nice place with lots of stuff. Infact thats were my frisco GP40-2 came from.

 

No Trainland is a totally different store and is much older than Battlefield Station. Battlefield station had been in several locations in Springfield and infact had at least two different names.
Bob Wintle

 

"Now here is the part of this set that still has me stumpped. The box said athearn, but it had power lock track instaed of ez track, had LL cars instead of athearn cars, an Athearn F unit and a Athearn power pack. You ask how I know this, after gainning experience for a few years I can remember parts of that set and figured out the different brands. "

I had a Coca Cola Athearn train set and had the same experience, LL track, Athearn power pack, a VERY cheap knock off of an Athearn F7 diesel, and some cheap Athearn-like cars. It cost me $75 but in the instructions it said that "this set is NOT considered hobby quality" meaning it was probably a contracted train set between the two companies.
FriscoGeorge |-|

 

Hey Guys,
If anyone is interested there is an unbuilt powered Athearn Frisco SD40-2 Blue Box kit diesel right now on eBay for a "buy it now" price of $44.95. It is not mine, and I am in no way associated with the seller, I just saw it and thought someone might want it while it is still available.
Here is the item number:290374255758
FriscoGeorge

 

It sounds like my experience was similar to Keith's:

My interest with trains, in general, began with a wonderful Aunt who treated me like I was a valued grandson. She was a beloved school teacher during her entire working career - most of her years were spent teaching elementary school in Raytown, Missouri. Every year, up until the passenger trains were discontinued, she would take her class on a short jaunt for a field trip. As I recall it was usually on the K.C.S.

At about Kindergarten age, she of course, began taking me on several short trips, as well. Once in a while, she'd ask me what I'd like to do. I'd respond: "can we go watch the trains go in and out of Union Station (K.C.) ??"

Right about this time, I received, as a gift, a Tyco H.O. train set from one of my Dad's friends (a business associate). A Pennsy F-7 (Tuscan scheme), some freight cars and a caboose that went around a small oval, like Ethan's layout.

Then, about a year or so later, my brother and his friend put a bunch of effort into a 4x8 H.O. layout. This was a surprise that was waiting for me down in our basement on Christmas morning. What a surprise! I still rate my (one and only) big brother as one of the best. Most of the scenery, and all the track was complete. It conveniently sat on on two saw horses - which was perfect for my height, at the time.

That was the begining of a love affair with trains. My Aunt said, several times: "you were born a generation too late". Though I wasn't around for steam, or it's finale, saw the tail-end of first-generation diesels, able to recall trains with cabooses, and many of the fallen-flag railroads in these parts.

This is how it began for me - Bob

 

Ah, yes, good old Athearn. Bought many of them from the old " Hobby Chest" down on Sutton Ave. in Maplewood. Good old Ed and his parrot, Mike! I still have a few left from my HO days, but no boxes.
My " first" train was an old Penn Line set, a Northern Pacific passenger set. It had the old link type couplers, kind of like todays LGB hook and loop, only upside down. There was a guy that ran a train shop out of his basement, down the street from us in Springfield, on Fremont. Don't remember his name, just remember the train " empire" he had!
Dan

 

Yeah, that's the way us (we) Postal workers are...............right Keith (klrwizkid)?


You're obviously referring to my mailman brother (the grumpy bear - at least that's what my kids call him). klrwhizkid

 

I remember Frank quite well too. He was great guy as was his wife [Ruby] who was also in the shop. They used to put some of my custom stuff in the display case and sell it for me. I think the people before were named Hahs. The first place I remember in Cape was the Hobby Horse in the Town Plaza (klrwhizkid note - my slot car phase). They had trains but they also had an eight lane slot car track setup. It was so cool! Then there was the Hobby Hole on Broadway. Keith you should remember that place (klrwhizkid note - my model rocket phase). It had a very narrow circular staircase to the basement of the last building on the southside of the street. For a while in the early 1970's Walmart on South Kingshighway(now Hobby Lobby) had every item A.H.M. had to offer. At the same time there was also a pretty good shop in Jackson on the street that faced the court house. After I was old enough to drive I discovered a place in Murphysboro Ill. called R.J.'s Hobbies. On one side of the store was trains and planes and such and on the other side was probably the world's largest collection of x-rated VHF movie rentals! WOW! Then there was Mark Millers place in Marion and a place in Carbondale. All are closed now but there is a store in Marion that is the best. It is called Chuck's Depot. Chuck retired and built the building that houses the store from SP depot blueprints. He actually lives in the second story along with his wife. I have been to hobby shops all over the country but this one beats them all. He has everything you could ever want IN STOCK. None of this I can order it for you, he has it. Having said all that I have not been to Chuck's in a year so I hope he is still open! I bet he has a bunch of blue boxes left! If you get a chance stop by there. It is only about a mile off of Interstate 57 at Marion, Ill. Take the route 13 exit. In my opinion, for my style of modeling, the end of the blue boxes means the end of kitbashing and probably my modeling altogether. It's bad enough that my eyesight has become very poor but the end of the blue boxes makes my modeling even harder. Farewell old friend!

 

The first Hobby Horse was on Broadway west of Sheridan(?). That was in the 50's.

 

I was about 12 when I wanted a train set. For Christmas I got the standard SF Warbonnet F unit a couple of cars and an oval. A short time later my uncle came to visit from KC, we were living in Louisville at the time. My uncle was fearless, never knew a stranger and was I guess what you would call a drinkin' man which helped social lubrication I guess. So he gets off the airplane arm and arm in with this big bear of a guy. He comes up and introduces himself , "Hi son, I'm Roe Bartle, mayor of Kansas City". If you are from KC you know he was a force during the 1950's, our convention center is named after him. Not knowing Roe Bartle from Row Your Boat I guess he thought he needed to impress me. So he wips out a wad of cash and hands me a five dollar bill. That doesn't sound like much, but to a 12 year old kid in 1960 it was like being on Who Wants to Be A Millionaire.

My mother worked with someone whose two sons had a "real" layout. So a couple of days later she drops me off at their house and soon we are off to the hobby shop, my first trip. I remember my sense of wonder at all the trains, and I with my new found liquidity was good to go. I dropped that fiver on an yellow Athearn Hustler, rubber band drive. Since at that time the only railroad I knew was Pennsy I bought some Pennsy decals and was quite proud of myself. Heck, I probably left with change in my pocket.

Years later I was a train show and saw a used yellow Hustler. It brought a smile to my face and I bought it for old times sake. I don't think it was the same one, no Keystones.

John

 

John .. I had Mayor Bartle on a couple flights out of the downtown KC airport in the 60's. To say that he was a "big bear of a man" almost does not do him justice. He always had two first class seats with the armrest removed .. huge man!
I remember that he always gave the flight attendents a nice "tip" when he exited.

Then there were the Bartle sisters (flight attendents) - I think relatives.
They were so beautiful that all the guys were tripping over each other trying to date them. Those were the good times.

This has nothing to do with railroads, but you sure brought back memories.

 

WOW, Keith....
I had heard the story about the "Chiefs" before, but it had been pushed into some unknown precipice of my mind. Seems like I am getting more of them everyday. Back in the days when KC had a real team - I hauled Len Dawson in the cockpit from KC to Hartford making 5 stops in between. He told his secretary to book him on the first flight from KC - We were the first - not necess the fastest. By the time we got there he did not mind at all, but he just barely made his speaking engagement.

I always enjoyed having the Mayor on board. He was always very nice and friendly to everyone. I did not know Jimmy.

However, after blowing away some of the cobwebs, I remember now that one of the attendants I am referring too was Joyce Bartles - so probably a name adjustment way back in history one way or the other.

Thanks for posting Rick's layout pic. I had just finished looking at your Flicker album when you did that.

 

I finaly got time and I took pictures of mine. Not only did I take picutres of the BB kits, but also the older Rondhouse and Acurail kits. I have no clue exactly how old the accurails are, but the box is white.

Edit: helps if I atach pictures. Note the Railboxes were kindly donated by KLRwizkid.

 

Ok, 3rd times a charm.