Model Railroading > Athearn February Announcements

Greetings- Last Friday of the month normally means Athearn new announcements, and they seem to have one of the biggest lists I've seen from them in a long while. 

Genesis GP-7u, HO scale: ATSF patched, to be provided with a decal sheet for custom road numbers; Undecorated; Central Kansas Railway #701 and #903; Florida Central #57; Idaho Northern & Pacific #2074 and #2094; and Santa Fe Southern #07 and #0927.  The INPR units will go nicely with the CA-11 caboose they announced last month.  

Genesis 77' Pullman Standard Chair Cars, HO scale, offered in four different Southern Pacific paint schemes and two Athearn schemes.

Genesis ACF 4600 covered hoppers in both HO and N scales.  Road names for both scales include Rock Island, Western Pacific, BN, Undecorated, and two patched Rock Island cars for St. Marys Railway West and First Union Rail.

Genesis UTC 33k LPG tank cars in both HO and N scales.  Exxon Mobile Corp, Transportation Equipment Inc., PLMX, North American Tank, Rocky Mountain Transport, Capital Finance.  

Athearn PS 5277 Boxcars, HO scale, road names Frisco, Southern, Railbox, St. Marys Railway, CNW, St. Johnsbury & Lamoille County 

Athearn FMC 60' Smooth Side Double Door High Cube boxcars, HO scale, road names Nortfolk Southern (ex-SOU); CSX, SSW, Ventura County, Transportacion Ferroviaria Mexicana

Athearn FMC 5077 Offset Double Door boxcars, HO scale, road names Sierra and then three numbers each of former City of Prineville and Camino, Placerville & Lake Tahoe cars patched for McCloud River Railroad.

Athearn 52' Mill Gondolas in both HO and N scales, road names Rio Grande, BN, Grand Trunk Western, Nacionales de Mexico, Delaware & Hudson, Canadian Pacific

Athearn 65' Mill Gondolas in both HO and N scales, road names SSW, Lehigh Valley, CSX, SP, DRGW, Southern

All told, that's quite a list.  Appears most models are tentatively due June 2025. 

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

Thanks for the info on new Athearn releases.

Silly question of the year (it's early yet, give us time, we can do better).

Doing research on one product of the Athearn Line, bot in HO and N scales, that started out with the MDC/Roundhouse family.  Where can I find a long term listing of item numbers and what was contained in each offering.  Namely, in this casse, the Thrall high side gondolas for UP and D&RGW.  Since the Athearn website went to hell, it is no longer of any supplying that information.  I can supply a list of both HO and N scale items, but I have some confusion, and a few missing item numbers and who know what else.

TIA,

RR

It looks like around half of the models are those that are being rerun having been run in the past.  Good those who missed out.  

Cheers,
Jim

JDLX Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Greetings- Last Friday of the month normally means
> Athearn new announcements, and they seem to have
> one of the biggest lists I've seen from them in a
> long while. 
>
> Genesis GP-7u, HO scale: ATSF patched, to be
> provided with a decal sheet for custom road
> numbers; Undecorated; Central Kansas Railway #701
> and #903; Florida Central #57; Idaho Northern &
> Pacific #2074 and #2094; and Santa Fe Southern #07
> and #0927.  The INPR units will go nicely with
> the CA-11 caboose they announced last month.  
>
> Genesis 77' Pullman Standard Chair Cars, HO scale,
> offered in four different Southern Pacific paint
> schemes and two Athearn schemes.
>
> Genesis ACF 4600 covered hoppers in both HO and N
> scales.  Road names for both scales include Rock
> Island, Western Pacific, BN, Undecorated, and two
> patched Rock Island cars for St. Marys Railway
> West and First Union Rail.
>
> Genesis UTC 33k LPG tank cars in both HO and N
> scales.  Exxon Mobile Corp, Transportation
> Equipment Inc., PLMX, North American Tank, Rocky
> Mountain Transport, Capital Finance.  
>
> Athearn PS 5277 Boxcars, HO scale, road names
> Frisco, Southern, Railbox, St. Marys Railway, CNW,
> St. Johnsbury & Lamoille County 
>
> Athearn FMC 60' Smooth Side Double Door High Cube
> boxcars, HO scale, road names Nortfolk Southern
> (ex-SOU); CSX, SSW, Ventura County, Transportacion
> Ferroviaria Mexicana
>
> Athearn FMC 5077 Offset Double Door boxcars, HO
> scale, road names Sierra and then three numbers
> each of former City of Prineville and Camino,
> Placerville & Lake Tahoe cars patched for McCloud
> River Railroad.
>
> Athearn 52' Mill Gondolas in both HO and N scales,
> road names Rio Grande, BN, Grand Trunk
> Western, Nacionales de Mexico, Delaware & Hudson,
> Canadian Pacific
>
> Athearn 65' Mill Gondolas in both HO and N scales,
> road names SSW, Lehigh Valley, CSX, SP, DRGW,
> Southern
>
> All told, that's quite a list.  Appears most
> models are tentatively due June 2025. 
>
> Jeff Moore
> Elko, NV

If I was doing the 80s, the patched cars with MR would be great

Actually, those patched MR cars could be seen anytime between the middle to later 1980s into the middle 2000s, though the surviving cars spent much of the final years sitting in storage in McCloud until owner GE Capital sent them off to Canada to be scrapped around 2005/2006. 

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV

koloradokid Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Silly question of the year (it's early yet, give
> us time, we can do better).
>
> Doing research on one product of the Athearn Line,
> bot in HO and N scales, that started out with the
> MDC/Roundhouse family.  Where can I find a long
> term listing of item numbers and what was
> contained in each offering.  Namely, in this
> casse, the Thrall high side gondolas for UP and
> D&RGW.  Since the Athearn website went to hell,
> it is no longer of any supplying that
> information.  I can supply a list of both HO and
> N scale items, but I have some confusion, and a
> few missing item numbers and who know what else.
>
> TIA,
>
> RR

If you like, I can tet the numbers for the Athearn Hi Side Thrall gons I have - Kaiser Coal Train service Coal Liner.  I have the 5 D&RGW, and about 30 numbers of the UP.

JDLX Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Actually, those patched MR cars could be seen
> anytime between the middle to later 1980s into the
> middle 2000s, though the surviving cars spent much
> of the final years sitting in storage in McCloud
> until owner GE Capital sent them off to Canada to
> be scrapped around 2005/2006. 
>
> Jeff Moore
> Elko, NV

Saw some SERA cars in MR numbers and reporting marks in 1981 on the Sierra RR

In 1980 McCloud subleased 100 of their white and brown cars to Sierra, they removed the McCloud River lettering but kept the logos intact, then changed the reporting marks to SERA and renumbered them 4500-4599.  Sierra terminated the sublease and conveyed those cars back to McCloud in December 1986.

Financial recording documents filed with the ICC only show one group of Sierra's orange boxcars getting McCloud River reporting marks, a series of 88 cars Sierra turned back to Itel in 1986 that they immediately leased to McCloud.  

I'm not sure what SERA cars would have been doing wearing MR reporting marks in 1981, could have been some form of a temporary re-marking while financial or legal matters got resolved.  

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV 

Here is an example of the restencilled MR cars wearing SERA reporting marks. SERA 4570 is an FMC 5077 CuFt Plate C boxcar built new for MR in June of 1977. Slide scanned from my collection; photographer, date, and location not noted. As Jeff noted, these cars got moved around to SERA, CPLT, and SNCT based on fleet needs at the time. 

-Rick

Rick Selby
Redmond, WA
Pacific Northwest RPM

---

Thanks for that photo.  Sierra terminated their sublease on those 100 cars on 12 December 1986 and conveyed them back to McCloud, which simply applied a black box over the SERA reporting marks, added white MR stenciling in it, and otherwise kept them in the 4500-4599 number series.  A few lost parts to all of the logo but most retained it until the end. 

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV