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Post by Spikre on Oct 14, 2014 14:32:46 GMT -8
 the Globe/Athearn F7 Shell is at least 60 years old now. it had an interesting history,orginally meant to be a Silver Streak Product,some how the model ended up as Globe for awhile,then moved to the Athearn line when the Globe line was absorbed into the Athearn sphere of growing Injected Molded Plastic models. the Models were announced as early as Fall 1953 with an .89 cent price point for the all Plastic Dummy units.dont think they really were ever sold at that price level,but have seen some boxes at $1.29 for kits. so at least some of the Dummy kits were out by Fall 1954,which makes the basic shells 60 Years Old by now. will let someone who knows the Power Chassis progressions to fill that info in . the one main change to the A unit came about 1963 when the Seperately Added number Boards were replaced by Cast On Number Boards. the Shell is almost ready to collect Early Retirement now. Spikre 
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Post by atsfan on Oct 14, 2014 17:04:03 GMT -8
The same shell as Athearn sells today in the RTR line ?
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Post by riogrande on Oct 14, 2014 17:48:48 GMT -8
AFAIK, it's the same shell, just gussied up with better paint.
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Post by The Ferro Kid on Oct 14, 2014 18:02:15 GMT -8
I was born right around the same time they were and grew up with them. And Walthers even still makes their "dress-up" kit for them (grab-irons, lenses, and windshield and porthole glazing).
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Post by alcoc430 on Oct 14, 2014 18:24:51 GMT -8
Hey Sipkre
How about posting some pictures of your globe F units?
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Post by bar on Oct 15, 2014 8:22:12 GMT -8
Spikre--do you mean to say that Athearn is still popping shells out of 60 year old molds? Even with good ol' postwar American steel, I find that highly unlikely, given the usual wear and the number of shells produced, which is legion.
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Post by edwardsutorik on Oct 15, 2014 8:42:32 GMT -8
Spikre--do you mean to say that Athearn is still popping shells out of 60 year old molds? Even with good ol' postwar American steel, I find that highly unlikely, given the usual wear and the number of shells produced, which is legion. I found this article on mold cycles: www.ptonline.com/articles/how-to-determine-maximum-mold-cycle-countsI noticed that it mentioned the number 250,000. Hmmmm. BUT that's the number of cycles possible before cleaning the mold. And then you recast another 250,000. And another. Farther down there's a mention of running 1.5 million cycles before cleaning. And then running some more. It appears from this article that with anywhere near proper design and maintenance, you could cast F7A shells until...... Ed |
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Post by riogrande on Oct 15, 2014 11:34:42 GMT -8
until the year dot... as my wife would say. Maybe our great grandchildren will be buying new globe/blue box molded F7's many years from now unless someone accidentally on purpose breaks that darn mold! heh heh.
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Post by Spikre on Oct 15, 2014 12:57:37 GMT -8
 think the last Athearn F7 shell here was from the 70s on one of the "Super Power" weighted chassis that now has either a Cary F3 or a Varney F3 shell on it. boy can that Mongrel Pull !! the only actual Globe type shell here has been gone for ages. got a Burlington 3 car streamliner train either late 59,or early 60. that unit had a Pittman rubber band conversion motor for awhile. then was on a Hobbytown chassis for awhile. then it had the Silver Streak "Dress Up" kit badly added by a newly teenaged kid. then disapeered sometime after 1965 when Slot Cars were favored. Note -- that the Diesel Dress Up kit was by Silver Streak, the Company that was Originally supposed to Market the F7. Walthers got the Dress Up Kit when it acquired Silver Streak about 1970. Note 2 -- its also a sure thing that LJ Munson did the Tooling on the F7. Spikre
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Post by edwardsutorik on Oct 15, 2014 13:46:09 GMT -8
Youze guys surely remember that "Model Trains" used to do kit reviews--they'd build 'em and report. I recall that they did, once, a review of "all" the repower kits for the F7. I think there was the Athearn heavy duty drive, the Pittman repower, Olympic Cascadian, and one or two others. It was neat to have a compare and contrast kinda thing--something not likely to show up in "Model Railroader" these days.
Ed
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Post by Spikre on Oct 15, 2014 14:01:29 GMT -8
 Ed, one obscure drive for the F7 shells was from Baker of Coupler fame. never saw one, but have seen them mentioned at times in old articles. Baker also had a drive kit for the Varney and Lindsey EMD NW2s. when PFM offered RTR Lindsey NW2s about 1958 some, or all of units where powered by the Baker Drives, assembled and Decorated by Tenshoda in Tokyo. some really International units. Spikre
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Post by Paul Cutler III on Oct 15, 2014 16:51:20 GMT -8
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Post by kentuckysouthernrwy on Oct 16, 2014 6:46:50 GMT -8
I like the instructions to paint your own red color separation stripes. |
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Post by bigblow69 on Oct 16, 2014 9:20:02 GMT -8
Time for a celebration. Time for every Manufacturer to introduce another F-Unit.
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Post by Judge Doom on Oct 16, 2014 21:10:32 GMT -8
I'd pay Genesis with sound MSRP just for the Chinese worker in the factory to accidentally drop and break the shell tooling, so we all won't have to see any more square-window F-units.  |
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Post by riogrande on Oct 17, 2014 5:50:54 GMT -8
I'd pay Genesis with sound MSRP just for the Chinese worker in the factory to accidentally drop and break the shell tooling, so we all won't have to see any more square-window F-units. I don't care for them either and wouldn't be sad if the molds took a bad fall. To me the Globe based F7 is an eye sore; the windshield openings are horrible. As soon as Stewart brought out their F7, I rejoiced and quickly bought some to replace and sell off what few blue box Athearn F's I had. As an aside, at my peak I had about 21 Stewart F units, but with the advent of the Genesis F, I have sold off 8 of them but plan on keeping around 12 as they are great runners and still pretty decent looking - those are 4-stripe F7's which at the earliest of my modeling periods were pretty sooty so when appropriately weathered, they should look good. If there is anything positive about the blue box based Athearn F, they may allow Athearn to bring in cash to help them bring out better models. |
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Post by stevewagner on Oct 17, 2014 6:35:33 GMT -8
Two additions to the history of these pioneering shells.
Either Globe or Athearn painted some of the early dummy kits solid gold.
At some point Athearn did offer one major option to their "blue box" F7 A units. Originally, all the shells came with two headlights. I cut away whatever part of the lower one stuck out on one of the shells and glued a rectangular piece of sheet styrene over it to make it look more like a Boston & Maine loco before painting and decaling it for the c. 1970 simplified blue and black paint scheme. (NOT one of my better models!) Some time after that one of the mail order dealers -- I forget which one -- sold the first Athearn F7 A shells with only one headlight.
Like some other Athearn EMD locos with four-wheel trucks, the blue box F7's eventually got greatly improved Blomberg truck sideframes, with the bottom of the top part having the proper gradual arch instead of being horizontal. The space for my layout is so limited that my yard has #4 switches, and some of the brake detail on the newer trucks fouled one step (or more) on the F7A's when taking the sharp curves. I trimmed the detail as necessary.
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Post by Spikre on Oct 17, 2014 12:08:23 GMT -8
 Steve, originally the Globe shell only came with a single headlite. the 62/63 revisions that added the molded on Number Boards also added the Door headlite. around 1973 Bev-Bel persuaded Athearn to let them sell Single Headlite undecorated shells. later they also had some that were decorated in Eastern Roads. not sure when,but later Athearn did sell the Single Headlite shells. Spikre
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Post by stevewagner on Oct 17, 2014 16:04:38 GMT -8
Spikre,
Thanks for the corrections. I got into HO in about 1959 or 1960, when I was in junior high school.
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Post by Brakie on Oct 17, 2014 17:14:19 GMT -8
Jim:I don't care for them either and wouldn't be sad if the molds took a bad fall. To me the Globe based F7 is an eye sore; the windshield openings are horrible.
-------------------------------------------
Jim,I still like the looks of the F7A with 2 BB GP7s especially if they are letter for NYC and pulling a string of Athearn cars..
It serves as a reminder of the early days of the hobby and how far we came over the years.
However..
For me it reminds how laid back this hobby was at one time..
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Post by onequiknova on Oct 17, 2014 17:14:39 GMT -8
Wasn't the tooling also modified at one point to be an F3?
I remember having an ABA set of Mantua F7's in Rock Island Rocket paint that used the Athearn shell, or at least an exact copy of it. Only difference I remember was the huge hole in the pilot for the truck mounted couplers. The chassis were junk Mantua.
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Post by slowfreight on Oct 18, 2014 17:03:15 GMT -8
Somewhere in my great pile o' stuff, I have an original Globe F7A dummy painted gold. Got it from a box of free stuff when I was in junior high, but even then I knew it was a collector's piece.
About 8 years ago, I kitbashed a GO Transit power car from a blue box F7B just for the fun of building something out of the "original" plastic diesel. Considering the mold designer had the foresight to leave off handrails and grabs 60 years ago, they really clean up nicely. Athearn didn't think to do that again until about 1986 when the GP38-2 came out. Over on protomodeler.com, somebody started upgrading old BB shells just to see how nice he could make that old tooling look. Haven't seen an update in ages, but the progress shows we shouldn't write 'em off out of hand. Not Genesis, fer shur, but still not bad.
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Post by onequiknova on Oct 18, 2014 17:48:36 GMT -8
The guy upgrading the BB F7's was none other than the owner of this site, Donnell. The results were pretty impressive.
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Post by Donnell Wells on Oct 18, 2014 19:11:36 GMT -8
Here's a link to the thread on this board: The "Blue Box" Chronicles: The F7. It's been a long slow progression, and as of the beginning of this summer, my modeling efforts have ground to a halt. Hopefully things will pick back up toward the end of the year, and then maybe I can complete an A and B-unit. Personally, I like the old Globe/Athearn units. Yes, it's a lot of tedious work to get them to look good, but the challenge is exactly what I like about them! Once they are done, you'll be hard-pressed to tell their origin (at least that's my hope!) Another beneficial aspect of my modeling "hiatus" is that I have time to developed new ideas that I am eager to try out once I set up shop again!
Donnell
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Post by Spikre on Oct 18, 2014 19:56:44 GMT -8
John, don't recall Athearn ever offering a BB F3. about 1975 Cox did offer an F3 that was likely tooled by LJ Munson. but it had a Hong Kong copy of the Mantua 4 wheel Power Truck. it wasn't that bad of a shell,in the same league as the BB F7. the Mantua "F9" was a direct rip off of the BB F7 shell.Mantua replaced the Cast Metal Sharknose with the "F9" about 1957/58. the shell did have cast on number boards before the Globe/Athearn shell. the side grills get Wavy near the rear of the shell for some unknown reasons ?? this was just one of the Copies of the BB F7 over the years,others include: Penn Line, Varney, Life Like, Walthers. Flieschman. and some firms that used the Athearn Shell like OK-Herkemer,Lionel,maybe Parkway ? sure there were others. Spikre
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Post by Donnell Wells on Oct 18, 2014 20:03:37 GMT -8
Take a look at Tony Cook's website:Cox F3A
Donnell |
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Post by Spikre on Oct 18, 2014 20:31:27 GMT -8
 Donnell, don't need to check Tony's site,there are a couple of the Cox shells here that are on Athearn Chassis. one was painted Erie in the early 80s using the then "NEW" Accu-Cals, and Accu-Paint. originally the shells had a small number box that didn't look rite. later that was retooled to look more like the Small Side Mounted EMD Number Boards. about 1980 Model Power purchased the Cox line. sometime later they did an 8 wheel chassis for the F3,but didn't include any flywheels. they did have a Mabuchi Motor that looks like what some companies are offering today. Mantua did make an 8 wheel drive chassis in the late 80s that did have at least 1 Flywheel,Model Power got that when they purchased Mantua in the early 2000's. Spikre
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Post by edwardsutorik on Oct 18, 2014 20:55:51 GMT -8
Take a look at Tony Cook's website:Cox F3A
DonnellWere we that desperate? Yes, we were. Ed |
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Post by catt on Oct 19, 2014 5:20:25 GMT -8
Revell used the Athearn stuff too.I still have a Santa Fe passenger train set that is pure Athearn complete with rubberband drive.It still amazese that those locos (two powered a units-one dummy B) could pull that train which I added eight cars to for a total of 12.
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Post by Brakie on Oct 19, 2014 6:47:51 GMT -8
Take a look at Tony Cook's website:Cox F3A
DonnellWere we that desperate? Yes, we were. Ed No,Ed,Many of us choose not to buy Cox models after all we had our individual modeling standards back then just as we do today. Many of us "advanced modelers" decided the lessor of the evils (of that era) was either brass steam locomotives or Athearn shells on Hobbytown drives.Athearn's 1960 era"new and improved 8 wheel drive" was most welcome back then as was their SW7 (aka SW1500). At one time Athearn made RTR cars for Atlas which amounted to the same road names with higher prices-you was basically paying for Atlas name on the box and prebuilt BB cars.. |
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