Model Railroading > New run of Athearn 60' TBOX Gunderson Boxcars.

Received my order of the new Gunderson 60' boxcars and noticed the TBOX cars are painted a brighter, more lemon yellow than previous runs. Anyone else notice this or know why?

Mike Peters
Brentwood, MO

If you want to see a color difference the new run of Athearn RTR Maersk Maxi I well cars are a darker, greener blue than prior runs... When I asked Athearn rep why they said they are now trying to color match to Tru-color paints. Or take a look at the Wisconsin Central SDP45 and compare it to the WC FP45s and SD45s done years ago.

On the TBOX 60' boxcars, MBK sold through 108 of those latest run TBOX cars - 36 of each number - in less than 36 hours a couple of weeks ago. After a closer look (Note: Be sure to open the box and look at the cars without the wrapping that can alter the appearance of the cars!) I think the color actually looks a slight bit deeper/darker yellow on this latest run (ATH 75069-75071) than it did on the prior run with the newer red logos (ATH 75051-75053). The online photos of the prior run also looked much brighter yellow than what the production cars I received looked like to me. Anyway, both look fairly close to me. Not as much of a color change as on some of the other products...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/18 12:16 by CSX602.

That's my thinking, the earlier runs look more accurate color wise to what I see on the prototype, while the new cars look almost toyish to me. The color reminds me of the earliest 40 and 50 foot car schemes.

Mike Peters
Brentwood, MO

Not knowing anything about the details of these latest releases... Were these possibly marketed as part of Athearn's 'Ready to Grime' line of RTR models, perhaps (pre)faded? Not that the prototypes appear to have faded much over the last 10 years or so....


Mr. MRL

The TBOX cars were not marked as a ready-for-grime car... but KCS ex-TBOX cars were done in the same run (but delivered earlier for some unknown reason).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/08/18 12:06 by CSX602.

I got about a half dozen for my store, and they all appear to be the darker, dirtier yellow. Is RND75069 one of the numbers? Maybe the batch itself got split on the colors...

Jason Eminian
Smith Bros Hobby Center

I took a quick grab shot of the new cars compared with the old ones. The previous run car is on top, with the new, just delivered car in the middle. I also included the "patched" KCS car on the bottom, which is also in the same color since it was also mentioned.

Along with the color there are also differences in the placement of the reporting marks. It only took a quick search online to find examples of prototype cars that match the position of the lettering on the new cars. And there is plenty of variance in the yellow paint among prototype cars to deem the different yellow acceptable.

I prefer the look and color from the original run, but the differences are not a deal breaker.

Mike Peters
Brentwood, MO

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The prototype of the KCS ex-TBOX car is actually from a different number series (the NSC built cars I believe instead of the Gundersons) and that's why the patches line up differently on it.

I'm glad you took the time to post photos of all three cars for comparison. Either one would be acceptable for a modern-day modeler....

All of the KCS former TBOX boxcars I have seen were built by Greenbrier.