Request for info on Athearn's "October" new product news

[wagnersteve]

9/26/27, satarting 7:40 p.m., EDT

This being the last Friday of the month, Athearn's new product announcements for the next month are almost sure to be posted tomorrow morning, I hope by 10 a.m. EDT.  But the sooner I can get them the better, because submissions for possible use in the November issue of the Bridge Line Historical Society Bulletin, the monthly all-volunteer publication of a group of Delaware & Hudson fans, for which I've written for years, are due by noon tomorrow.  The firm used to post some "nutshell" announcements the evening before but has not been doing so lately.  I'm particularly eager to know about any items decorated for the D&H but also for ones for other Northeastern US and Canadian lines.

Athearn's "Train Tuesday" video two evenings ago was prerecorded.  The one next Tuesday will be "live"; that will continue until the early Spring next year.

[cera2254]

Keep checking the new announcements page on the Athearn website throughout the morning.

[ambluco]

If it’s all volunteer, why can’t the deadline be moved to a bit later in the afternoon? That way it’s not so urgent every month.

[wagnersteve]

9/26/24, nearly 10:30 p.m., EDT

Gents, thanks. cera2254, I'll be doing that. ambluco, the one person that who gets paid in connection with the BLHS Bulletin is the printer, and the schedule for submissions set by our unpaid Editor and Publisher is driven by the printer's schedule. I've just now submitted my second piece for our November issue.

[wagnersteve]

9/27/2024, about 9:48 a.m., EDT

Athearn's "October" new product announcements are now up on its website. I'm about to examine them.

[packer]

www.athearn.com/new-announcements/

[wagnersteve]

9/27/2024, starting 1:55 p.m.

I didn't get to write as much as I wanted for "Modeling Matters", but submitted what I could about 12:05 p.m.

Here are a few comments on items Athearn announced this morning.

Re Athearn Roundhouse "36ft Old Time Box Car": clearly meant to represent cars built in the very early 1900s when K-type air brakes, archbar trucks and truss rods were widely used. Four paint schemes are appropriate for that period. The green Minneapolis & St. Louis car with yellow lettering has a NEW date of 3-39; the paint scheme is probably correct for that time period, but given its archer trucks and K brakes the cars wearing it surely wouldn't be proper for interchange onto other railroads later than the 1950s, if then. The Wellsville Addison & Galeton R.R. cars have no legible date on them, but their colors match those of that short line's diesels, not its plain red boxcars with white lettering. The WAG did have boxcars numbered in the 4000s, but I have not found any photos of ones with numbers as low as 4001 and 4007, let alone cream and orange ones.

Re Athearn "40ft Pfaudler Milk Car": The video Athearn posted on YouTube shows that these have round roofs. The "prot otype and background info" on Athearn's PDF sheet is correct, and the livery of the Hood's milk car is accurate; I have one from an earlier run; these did go to the H.P. Hood & Sons bottling plant in Boston's Charlestown section. The much later (1964) livery is also very plausible; I have an old Binkley or Laconia model for a similiar car in an older mostly silver livery; and the CV did repaint some of those in the scheme Athearn is using. The Boston & Maine livery Athearn shows is wildly incorrect for models of this type; it was used only on longer all-steel cars of two types -- one actually meant to carry milk in bottles or loose cans -- that were probably the last miik cars built in North America, circa 1957 and were used for their intended purpose only for a few years.

Re Athearn "Wide-Vision Caboose": Most participants in this forum probably know that the bodies Athearn uses for these are fairly close only to a group of Rock Island cars International Car built on old underframes shorter than those on most of its extended-vision cupola cabooses; moreover their roofs don't match those on the real RI ones. Soome modelers might consider the two Maine Central cabeese as acceptable stand-ins for MEC 541 and 652. At least the Athearn cars now come with clear windows.

Re Athearn "PS 4740 Covered Hopper": Level of detail close to average for that brand. I've seen the BNSF and CSX liveries in upstate New York and New England, probably not the others.

Re Athearn "30k Gallon Ethanol Tank Car": A new run of one of the most nicely detailed Athearn models not branded as Genesis. The DODX "plain Janes" clearly wear the oldest paint job. Procor was and is UTLX's Canadian affiliate and its cars regularly visit the USA.

Re Athearn Genesis "GE AC4400CW Diesel Locomotive": Much too long and too recent for my small layout, but CP modlers will probably like the two liveries applied in 2001 much more attractive than the spelling of the railway's first name as "Candian" in the caption on the PDF sheet; I think the rendering of CP 8638 with a smaller variation of the "Dual Flags" emblem as well as the "Golden Beaver" unusully handsome. I have the same opinion of the UP 's livery with the big full color US flag shown as if "flying" in a breeze.

Re Athearn "Freightliner Tractor": Athearn comes close to saying the era for these is from 1974 into the early 1980s. Is that correct?

Re Athearn: "28ft Wedge Trailer and Dolly": Athearn says many of these "can be seen in TOFC service to this day". When did they start being used? I've certainly seen some sort of trailers wearing the ABF Freight System Inc. livery shown; I don't recall seeing the others.

[edwardsutorik]

Sept 27, 2024 10:30:59 GMT -8 wagnersteve said:

Re Athearn: "28ft Wedge Trailer and Dolly": Athearn sasy many of these "can be seen in TOFC service to this day". When did they start being used. I've certainly seen some sort of trailers wearing the ABF Freight System Inc. livery shown; I don't recall seeing the others.

Around late '90's, I believe. These smoothside models are of trailers built by Wabash. First owners apparently Viking.


Ed

[ambluco]

Those WAG car colors are accurate. Here is one much later in life. Even some outside braced cars were painted this way.

[wagnersteve]

9/27/2024, starting 3:42 p.m., EDT

Another correction to what I wrote earlier, partly based on photos on pages 17 and 19 of Railway Milk Cars Volume 2 by Robert A. Liljestrand [of Bob's Photos] and John Nehrich [long active in the model railroad club at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute]:

B&M's all-steel milk car 1911, with two plug doors per side and a mechanical refrigeration unit installed in its A end, was part of B&M series 1900-1914 builit by General American in 1958. The photo of it, from the Harry A. Frye Collection, made at Manchester, NH, October 20, 1966, shows swing-motion trucks that "could be operated at passenger train speeds".

B&M's all-steel milk car 1928, with one plug door per side, was no longer being used to transport milk when Russ Monroe photographed it in Mechanicville, NY, October 320, 1965. The photo shows the B end of the car.

On page 63 of the Northern New England Color Guide to Freight and Passenger Equipment, by David R. Sweetland with Stephen Horsley, Edison, N.J.: Morning Sun Books, 1994, a color photo made by Stephen B. Horsley at Gardner, MA in 1969, shows B&M 1931 with one plug door per side; the caption says it was part of series 1915 to 1934, built by General American in 1917 to haul ice cooled milk cans. By 1969 they were used for company salt service.

[ST974]

Every month we see this post. My suggestion is put a Microsoft outlook reminder or a calendar reminder in your phone for the last Friday of every month. Then go to Athearn's website and click on new announcements and there they will be. They can be posted any time that day but it's usually early early AM.

[wagnersteve]

9/27/2024, starting 4:39 p.m., EDT

ST94, thanks for the good suggestion. One problem is that I don't have a "smart" phone and am none too adept at using the simple flip-type cell phone I do have. I should certainly try to be more organized; my wife is much beter at that than I am. I've been trying for days to find most of the smallish printed calendar I use for appointments as well as the copy of the Laurel Line RHS's 2025 calendar that I bought and received.

[lvrr325]

I was about to say I had seen pictures of some early boxcars in the orange and cream, but don't think they were in revenue service, or not in interchange service. At least not on arch bar trucks, as those were banned from interchange in 1949 and the WAG came to be in 1954.

[marknycfan]

Several new items each month, always the last Friday of the month, some of you must punch 3:00 minutes in your micro-wave then stand there and shout that it's taking too long!

[ambluco]

Here's one a bit fresher. This is an outside braced one:



The Athearn cars are attempting to represent:

4000 (Note 1) 36' Box, B&O M-41, 188000-188485, prob'ly 188339, un-mod, ex BR&P 3500-3999.
4001 (Note 1, 2) 36' Box, B&O M-13B, 190186, "Indestructible End".
4002, 4003 (Note 1) 36' Box, B&O M-41, 188000-188485, (one 188098, other 188408) modernized, ex BR&P 3500-3999.

Note 1: 4000-4003 used for on-line Icl. Painted C&TO. Al DS, they were conveyed with formation of road. Not listed ni WA&G era ORERs.

Note 2: WA&G classed as M-13 although records indicate no M-13 cars on B&O after 1949, 182184 and a second car were on property in early 1950s. Records indicate one M-13A in 1955 and 1956, thereafter none. Door opened to left on B&O M-13/13A cars. One M-13B, 190186 survived long enough to be conveyed to WA&G. M-13B doors opened ot right as they did on 4001. WA&G is likely the 190186. RGN notes this car as 19-136 but this is likely typo.

The above is from an old file.

[wagnersteve]

9/28/2024, nearly 9 a.m., EDT

Gentlemen, thanks VERY much for the additional info on and photos of the WAG's cream and orange boxcars!

[mitchgd]

About 23:39pm AEST, Saturday 28th September easiest suggestion I can make is get the publisher onto a day after the announcements happen so you can ensure you have that info first.

23:41pm possible easy way also to keep track is put a sticky note on your computer or fridge to remind you what day the monthlies come out.

[hudsonyard]

Nothing to add here other than if someone did a high quality accurate outside braced WAG car in all the schemes they wore they would get a bunch of my money.