Post by wagnersteve on Dec 30, 2023 6:56:00 GMT -8
12/30/23, starting 8:38 a.m., EST
I found a great many of these on as short videos, prerecorded by Jim Wiggin as spokesman for the firm, with no live "chat" but good links to PDF pages, on YouTube last night and this morning. I'll just summarize the HO ones here with a very few comments of my own. I have not yet taken the time to look for photos of the real cars represented.
This time most of the "eras" on Athearn's PDF pages seem to be reasonably accurate.
Orders due 1/26/24, ETAs stated as May 2025.
Roundhouse 30' flatcars: (improved versions of old MDC Roundhouse cars based on Milwaukee Road cars from the 1940s): Two car #s each for ATSF (dark red, shopped 6-44), B&O (black, BLT 7-39), CP (black, BLT 1-42), C&O (black, BLT 6-41), Colorado & Southern (red or brown, BLT 8-40), Pennsylvania (dark red), shopped 1945. $29.99 per car.
Roundhouse 50' smooth side mechanical reefers: (not new models): Two paint jobs surely were used on longer and larger cars built much later than the ones on which the models were based: UP white cars with ARMN reporting marks and blue & white CHILLED EXPRESS (Athearn says era is 2000+) and Cryo-Trans mostly white cars ("era 2005+). The others are more plausible. All have rooftop running boards. CN aluminum or silver with blue door, black graphics including big "noodle", shopped 3/7 9 CN 231119,, 231142, 231160. Merchants Despatch with similar colored roof & ends, sides mostly yellow with probably dark blue band and NYC modernized oval herald; NYMX 1004, 1012, 1020. Santa Fe with dark orange sides and ends, mostly dark blue door, black roof, small black & white circle/cross herald and, apparently on both sides, ship and travel (small sans serif caps) Santa Fe all the way (larger italic with only S and F in caps); SFRD 2068, 2070, 2072. Western Fruit Express with yellow sides, roof and probably ends silver or metallic, black graphics including large Burlington Northern (sans serif caps) and big BN herald above smaller Western Fruit Express, BLT 10-70' WFEX 134, 138, 143. $34.99 per car.
Brand new model: Athearn series FMC offset double door boxcar, 5077 cu.ft., newly tooled. None have running boards on their roofs, mostly simulated metallic. Except as noted, all paint jobs are from the incentive per diem era of the 1970s. All but one have CUSHION SERVICE lettering but coupler pockets are not extended. Camino, Placerville & Lake Tahoe with even the roof green, white graphics with billboard herald: CPLT 7703, 7706, 7728. Galveston Wharves entirely orange with mostly black billboard graphics including large road name and slanted "Serving PORT OF GALVESTON (in large sans serif caps) TOTAL OPERATIONS PORT (smaller), with large white seagull left of the slogan and smaller ones in the big Os; GWF 1144, 1179, 1200. East St. Louis Junction, yellow sides and ends with black graphics including shield with three pairs of long horns and fairly large road name; ESLJ 7704. 7716, 7744. Union Railroad of Oregon, light green skies with mostly darker green graphics except for brown beaver next to an evergreen tree in a circular herald, big road name; UO 1501, 1503, 1504. Texas, Oklahoma and Eastern dark blue "plain Jane" with minimal white lettering, (era 2004+); TOPE 265 4, 2682, 2684. Also three cars as patched by the Lamoille Valley: "Primed for Grime" ex-UO LVRC 4219; "Primed for Grime" dark blue billboard ex-Yreka Western (era 2002+), not PfG ex-GWF LVRC 4213. $39.99 per car except PfG $44.99.
Genesis series GATC 20k tank cars. Not a new model. GATX off-white "plain Jane", for carbon tetrachloride (era 1974+); GATX 44013, 44027, 44030. GATX de Mexico, black "plain Jane" with white lettering including large GATX reporting marks, (era 1970s+); cars 43927, 43941, 43955. PPG Industries, black "plain Jane' with white lettering except warning sign black on yellow (era 1972+), PPGX 10843, 10854, 10877. Reagent Chemical & Research, white "plain Jane" but with large vertical dark red area in center a little wider than the top platform, for hydrochloric acid (era 1990s+), RCRX 1144, 1150, 1177. Relco Tank Line, black "plain Jane" with white graphics (era 1972+), RELX 2207, 2222, 2235. $54.99 per car.
Genesis series 23k Tank Train tank cars. Not a new model but new paint schemes for sure, two types of cars, stated to be "282-series: era 1977 to present" and 486-series: era 1982 to present) though none of the car numbers start with those numbers! Can any reader explain? Each paint scheme has one unnumbered intermediate car $64.99), a 2-pack of the first and last cars in a string ($119.99) , and either more 2-packs or 3-packs (the latter ($149.99 per pack -- all prices are "subject to Horizon's MAP policy") of intermediate cars . Canadian National white with red and black graphics (era 2012+); cars in 2-pack are CGTX 78001 and 79001; the cars in the five 3-packs have the numbers between them. GATX off-white with black graphics except same red or orange "TankTrain TrainTrain" under a big black GATX as on the CN cars (era 2002+); 2-pack has GATX 5551 and 57767; the 3-packs have the numbers between them. Quaker State green with yellow and white billboard graphics; top handrails not continuous as on the preceding cars (era 1980s+); 2-pack has GATX 69251, 69267 [wrongly shown as 69257]; five 2-packs have the intermediate numbers. GATX white with black lettering and only VERY small TANK TRAIN in sans serif caps, top railing as on the Quaker State cars (era 2022+). End cars are GATX 44589 and 44592; three 2-packs are shown with these cars: 44582 and 44592; 44587 and 44588; 44594 and 44599 -- why I don't know.
It's now 9:55 a.m., after a few interruptions while working on this. I must turn to other matters. I'll try to report on the model locos announced later today.
I found a great many of these on as short videos, prerecorded by Jim Wiggin as spokesman for the firm, with no live "chat" but good links to PDF pages, on YouTube last night and this morning. I'll just summarize the HO ones here with a very few comments of my own. I have not yet taken the time to look for photos of the real cars represented.
This time most of the "eras" on Athearn's PDF pages seem to be reasonably accurate.
Orders due 1/26/24, ETAs stated as May 2025.
Roundhouse 30' flatcars: (improved versions of old MDC Roundhouse cars based on Milwaukee Road cars from the 1940s): Two car #s each for ATSF (dark red, shopped 6-44), B&O (black, BLT 7-39), CP (black, BLT 1-42), C&O (black, BLT 6-41), Colorado & Southern (red or brown, BLT 8-40), Pennsylvania (dark red), shopped 1945. $29.99 per car.
Roundhouse 50' smooth side mechanical reefers: (not new models): Two paint jobs surely were used on longer and larger cars built much later than the ones on which the models were based: UP white cars with ARMN reporting marks and blue & white CHILLED EXPRESS (Athearn says era is 2000+) and Cryo-Trans mostly white cars ("era 2005+). The others are more plausible. All have rooftop running boards. CN aluminum or silver with blue door, black graphics including big "noodle", shopped 3/7 9 CN 231119,, 231142, 231160. Merchants Despatch with similar colored roof & ends, sides mostly yellow with probably dark blue band and NYC modernized oval herald; NYMX 1004, 1012, 1020. Santa Fe with dark orange sides and ends, mostly dark blue door, black roof, small black & white circle/cross herald and, apparently on both sides, ship and travel (small sans serif caps) Santa Fe all the way (larger italic with only S and F in caps); SFRD 2068, 2070, 2072. Western Fruit Express with yellow sides, roof and probably ends silver or metallic, black graphics including large Burlington Northern (sans serif caps) and big BN herald above smaller Western Fruit Express, BLT 10-70' WFEX 134, 138, 143. $34.99 per car.
Brand new model: Athearn series FMC offset double door boxcar, 5077 cu.ft., newly tooled. None have running boards on their roofs, mostly simulated metallic. Except as noted, all paint jobs are from the incentive per diem era of the 1970s. All but one have CUSHION SERVICE lettering but coupler pockets are not extended. Camino, Placerville & Lake Tahoe with even the roof green, white graphics with billboard herald: CPLT 7703, 7706, 7728. Galveston Wharves entirely orange with mostly black billboard graphics including large road name and slanted "Serving PORT OF GALVESTON (in large sans serif caps) TOTAL OPERATIONS PORT (smaller), with large white seagull left of the slogan and smaller ones in the big Os; GWF 1144, 1179, 1200. East St. Louis Junction, yellow sides and ends with black graphics including shield with three pairs of long horns and fairly large road name; ESLJ 7704. 7716, 7744. Union Railroad of Oregon, light green skies with mostly darker green graphics except for brown beaver next to an evergreen tree in a circular herald, big road name; UO 1501, 1503, 1504. Texas, Oklahoma and Eastern dark blue "plain Jane" with minimal white lettering, (era 2004+); TOPE 265 4, 2682, 2684. Also three cars as patched by the Lamoille Valley: "Primed for Grime" ex-UO LVRC 4219; "Primed for Grime" dark blue billboard ex-Yreka Western (era 2002+), not PfG ex-GWF LVRC 4213. $39.99 per car except PfG $44.99.
Genesis series GATC 20k tank cars. Not a new model. GATX off-white "plain Jane", for carbon tetrachloride (era 1974+); GATX 44013, 44027, 44030. GATX de Mexico, black "plain Jane" with white lettering including large GATX reporting marks, (era 1970s+); cars 43927, 43941, 43955. PPG Industries, black "plain Jane' with white lettering except warning sign black on yellow (era 1972+), PPGX 10843, 10854, 10877. Reagent Chemical & Research, white "plain Jane" but with large vertical dark red area in center a little wider than the top platform, for hydrochloric acid (era 1990s+), RCRX 1144, 1150, 1177. Relco Tank Line, black "plain Jane" with white graphics (era 1972+), RELX 2207, 2222, 2235. $54.99 per car.
Genesis series 23k Tank Train tank cars. Not a new model but new paint schemes for sure, two types of cars, stated to be "282-series: era 1977 to present" and 486-series: era 1982 to present) though none of the car numbers start with those numbers! Can any reader explain? Each paint scheme has one unnumbered intermediate car $64.99), a 2-pack of the first and last cars in a string ($119.99) , and either more 2-packs or 3-packs (the latter ($149.99 per pack -- all prices are "subject to Horizon's MAP policy") of intermediate cars . Canadian National white with red and black graphics (era 2012+); cars in 2-pack are CGTX 78001 and 79001; the cars in the five 3-packs have the numbers between them. GATX off-white with black graphics except same red or orange "TankTrain TrainTrain" under a big black GATX as on the CN cars (era 2002+); 2-pack has GATX 5551 and 57767; the 3-packs have the numbers between them. Quaker State green with yellow and white billboard graphics; top handrails not continuous as on the preceding cars (era 1980s+); 2-pack has GATX 69251, 69267 [wrongly shown as 69257]; five 2-packs have the intermediate numbers. GATX white with black lettering and only VERY small TANK TRAIN in sans serif caps, top railing as on the Quaker State cars (era 2022+). End cars are GATX 44589 and 44592; three 2-packs are shown with these cars: 44582 and 44592; 44587 and 44588; 44594 and 44599 -- why I don't know.
It's now 9:55 a.m., after a few interruptions while working on this. I must turn to other matters. I'll try to report on the model locos announced later today.
