Model Railroading > New Athearn Goodies!

Awesome batch of new F89 flatcars posted too!

F89F flat cars are welcome by me.  Anything pre-1990 in the Trailer Train, the SP, ATSF, brain TTX would be useful.  Interesting the old blue box F7A is being sold under the Round House name now.

A general appeal:

What we really need the very most are triple deck autorack auto carriers - by far.  The bi-level were welcome but as I did research on what were most common in freight trains, it appears that tri-levels far outnumbered the bi-levels.  I did some asking especially about the D&RGW bridge route on the Yahoo Groups Rio Grande email list - the answer was overwhelmingly tri-level autoracks in a ratio of at least 10:1 to the bi-level's!!!  Yet as it so happens in my case I have ended up with mostly bi-levels and only a few tri's in HO as chance would have it.  As nice as the Genesis bi-level autoracks are, and I did get a few, really Athearn, and hopefully other companies really need to step up to the bat to help us reflect what the railroads actually ran and offer lot's of tri-level autoracks in both open and semi-enclosed variants.

To that end I do hope Athearn and other companies such as ScaleTrains and Tangent will take a look at helping us model auto carriers of the 1960/1970/1980 period of which tri-level autoracks were the most common. 

Lacking particularly are the mid-1970 thru mid-1980 period where the open autoracks began getting protective side shields and there were also semi-enclosed racks being added to fleets.  Again, most common were tri-level autoracks.  This is something we need in the HO modeling world.

Cheers, Jim Fitch



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/15 10:25 by SPDRGWfan.

Jim....not sure if you are aware....Accurail has made both tri and bi racks (open sides) in kit form and more recently RTR.

railburner Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Jim....not sure if you are aware....Accurail has
> made both tri and bi racks (open sides) in kit
> form and more recently RTR.

As it happens, those are included in the batch of the "too many" bi-levels" I have, and i do plan to add more Accurail tri-levels but I want Athearn to do Genesis tri-levels and we need especially more variety to add on to that which fit 1975-1985 period specifically and include semi-enclosed.

Cheers, Jim



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/15 12:38 by SPDRGWfan.

The big problem with tri-levels is that by the early 1970s or so, most if not all tri-levels were being put on purpose-built low level flats that had the draft gear above the deck and 28" wheels.  For a model manufacturer there is very little spin-off use for these flats - no piggyback or container cars, and only more recently relatively small numbers of JTTX etc. cars generally repurposed from wrecked autoracks and used for miscellaneous loads.  Without the ability to amortize the tooling cost over more products, a tri-level immediately becomes a more costly propositionfor a manufacturer. ExactRail for one has the right trucks for a trilevel from their Vert-a-Pac, perhaps someday something will appear from them.

Doug Stark

BN_FAN Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Without the ability to amortize the tooling cost over
> more products, a tri-level immediately becomes a
> more costly propositionfor a manufacturer. ExactRail
> for one has the right trucks for a trilevel from
> their Vert-a-Pac, perhaps someday something will
> appear from them.
>
> Doug Stark

Perhaps those models would be a one purpose model just like others one the market, but if the demand is there ... then would they still not sell?  The 1975 - 1985 time frame is
still missing autoracks so somehow I would like to see more offered. 

Certainly Athearn can offer tri-level's on their F89F right so I'm assuming it's a matter of time until we see those announced.  What about tri-level's on the flat cars offered by BLMA?  It's hard to see in photo's but seems some have flat cars looking like those in some.  Then there also were enclosed or semi-enclose racks which were of similar style to those offered by Custom Rail with no-end doors or partial end doors etc. but high quality RTR version?  The 1975-1985 period in need of autoracks.

Cheers, Jim Fitch

Has anybody looked at those chiphoppers ????
This something Athearn should be prazed for..............
Chipmills look out................

obsessedfoamer Wrote:
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> Awesome batch of new F89 flatcars posted too!

Just got one but noticed it is not a true F89, but the previously released 85' model with different numbers.

Just speculating: I wonder if Horizon Hobbies is just going to keep re-re-releasing already introduced patterns and that is why certain former Athearn employees decided to start their own company and make new models?

70ACE Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> obsessedfoamer Wrote:
>
> Just speculating: I wonder if Horizon Hobbies is
> just going to keep re-re-releasing already
> introduced patterns and that is why certain former
> Athearn employees decided to start their own
> company and make new models?

What is this about?  I thought those guys were under a "non-compete" payout which would preclude them from maybe 2-5 years. 

Rick

Has the current Athearn group come up with any totally new product?

rschonfelder Wrote:
> What is this about?  I thought those guys were
> under a "non-compete" payout which would preclude
> them from maybe 2-5 years. 

If that is so, the "no compete" time might be up by the time a model actually becomes available for sale.

Lighter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> rschonfelder Wrote:
> > What is this about?  I thought those guys were
> > under a "non-compete" payout which would
> preclude
> > them from maybe 2-5 years. 
>
> If that is so, the "no compete" time might be up
> by the time a model actually becomes available for
> sale.

The "no compete" clock is up. 

Athearn's current staff has been very productive. I believe the next Genesis announcement will be a best seller thus far.
 

RetireMe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Lighter Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > rschonfelder Wrote:
> > > What is this about?  I thought those guys
> were
> > > under a "non-compete" payout which would
> > preclude
> > > them from maybe 2-5 years. 
> >
> > If that is so, the "no compete" time might be
> up
> > by the time a model actually becomes available
> for
> > sale.
>
> The "no compete" clock is up. 
>
> Athearn's current staff has been very productive.
> I believe the next Genesis announcement will be a
> best seller thus far.
>  

I might have missed the announcement, so might I ask, what is the name of this new company made up of ex-Athearn employees? 

ScaleTrains

I'm not disagreeing, more autorack variety would be a good thing.

First off, there were no autoracks of any sort mounted on F89Js, i.e. the BLMA model, so that one is out.

I think I know the cars you mean that resemble the BLMA car, those were Pullman-Standard cars with low-level decks (vs standard height for the F89J/BLMA model).  Here's one of the P-S cars with an open rack, note the draft gear extends above the deck level:

[url=http:// http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=rttx900903&o=ttx]http://freight.railfan.ca/cgi-bin/image.pl?i=rttx900903&o=ttx[/url]

Hee's a shot of mine that illustrates why low-level decks have limited re-use potential, model or prototype - the bulges up over both trucks for clearance, and that draft gear tends to get in the way.  A few of these de-racked flats have found there way into wrecked car transport and pipe loading, and a handful were used for transporting locomotive frames from London, ON to Mexico for EMD.  For what it's worth this is the same car that's under the Walthers tri-level with it's combined flat and rack superstructure body.



SPDRGWfan Wrote:

> Perhaps those models would be a one purpose model
> just like others one the market, but if the demand
> is there ... then would they still not sell? 
> The 1975 - 1985 time frame is
> still missing autoracks so somehow I would like to
> see more offered. 
>
> Certainly Athearn can offer tri-level's on their
> F89F right so I'm assuming it's a matter of time
> until we see those announced.  What about
> tri-level's on the flat cars offered by BLMA? 
> It's hard to see in photo's but seems some have
> flat cars looking like those in some.  Then there
> also were enclosed or semi-enclose racks which
> were of similar style to those offered by Custom
> Rail with no-end doors or partial end doors etc.
> but high quality RTR version?  The 1975-1985
> period in need of autoracks.
>
> Cheers, Jim Fitch

---

Doug, that photo you have with the P-S car does resemble the BLMA flat car from the side - I can see the similarity.  In many of the photo's of autoracks from the 60's and early 70's, it's hard to get a good look at them unfortuntately.

So it looks like the draft gear had to be cleared for loading purposes with the ramps or the bridge plates because they were up pretty high there in the middle when driving the cars over them onto the bottom decks.

Cheers, JIM



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/25/15 07:06 by SPDRGWfan.