Athearn Blue Box Recall from the 1980s

[ebtbob]

Good Afternoon All,

      Recently on the Athearn Facebook page,   Athearn announced "a recall"    It seems that several ready to run Wabash cabooses got out with windows painted in and they ask for them to be returned.
     This made me think about another "recall" that Athearn did thru Model Railroader Magazine,  sometime in the 1980s.   It was a blue box kit of an Erie gondola with red canisters.  I thought some of you might be interested so here is a picture of the car,  still in kit form with the box wrapped in clear plastic wrap.  Reason for the recall,  look closely at the bottom of the car between the 2nd and 3rd canisters.   You will see the Lionel "L" logo on the car.

[Atlantic Central]

In the early 60's, right after Athearn stopped production of RTR versions of its plastic freight cars, they made RTR items for one of Lionel's several attempts at the HO market.

This "blooper" is obviously artwork left over from those products made for  Lionel.

Sheldon

[ebtbob]

Interesting Sheldon.   I did not know that about Athearn working with Lionel in the 60s.   Thanks for sharing.

[Atlantic Central]

They also produced a RTR line for COX during the late 60's, then no RTR until what we have now.

Additionally, Athearn and MDC were actually very close "friends", did tooling for each other based on equipment/abilities and had very little "overlap" in their product lines on purpose - so it was a perfect fit when Horizon both both companies.

Sheldon

[tonycook1966]

Athearn also produced rolling stock for inclusion in late '70s Atlas HO-scale train sets:  http://tycotrain.tripod.com/atlashoscaletrainscollectorsresource/id9.html

Here's info on the Athearn-made Cox model trains:  http://ho-scaletrains.net/coxtrainsresource/id10.html

Thanks,

Tony Cook
HO-Scale Trains Resource
www.ho-scaletrains.net

[Atlantic Central]

Tony, thanks for the update. I was working in the business but had forgotten all about the Atlas venture back then.

Sheldon

[Ken S.]

They also produced a RTR line for COX during the late 60's, then no RTR until what we have now.

Additionally, Athearn and MDC were actually very close "friends", did tooling for each other based on equipment/abilities and had very little "overlap" in their product lines on purpose - so it was a perfect fit when Horizon both both companies.

Sheldon

I guess some of the "overlap" is why I have Railbox cars from both Athearn and MDC.

Horizon actually intergrated both lines. I have a couple of MDC hoppers that were sold as Athearn kits and many other MDC kits were resold as Athearn kits as well as being merged into the RTR line. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Athearn RS3 the MDC RS3.

[tonycook1966]

They also produced a RTR line for COX during the late 60's, then no RTR until what we have now.

Additionally, Athearn and MDC were actually very close "friends", did tooling for each other based on equipment/abilities and had very little "overlap" in their product lines on purpose - so it was a perfect fit when Horizon both both companies.

Sheldon

I guess some of the "overlap" is why I have Railbox cars from both Athearn and MDC.

Horizon actually intergrated both lines. I have a couple of MDC hoppers that were sold as Athearn kits and many other MDC kits were resold as Athearn kits as well as being merged into the RTR line. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Athearn RS3 the MDC RS3.

MDC (Model Die-Casting) Roundhouse offered an FMC prototype Railbox in a couple of variations.  MDC had a 50' FMC 1-1/2 Door Box Car and an FMC Single Door Box Car that both came decorated for RailBox, among others.  Roundhouse also had a Double-Door FMC prototype Box Car of similar appearance.  All date to the early 1980s for their HO introduction.

The Athearn tooling is similar to the FMC, but is ACF's version of the 50' Single Door RailBox.  The Athearn model was introduced in 1976:



Today, both cars are Horizon Hobby owned and the company's philosophy has been to separate tooling based on prototype era.  MDC-Roundhouse is old stuff and Athearn gets the more modern pieces.  Thus, today you'd find both the MDC and original Athearn Railbox models in the current Athearn product line.

The ALCO RS-3 currently found in Athearn's Ready To Roll line is the former MDC-Roundhouse tooling with revisions/updates.

Here's an example of the Roundhouse RS-3:



The Roundhouse RS-3 arrives in a mid-'80s three-way introduction of these models.  In addition to the Roundhouse example, Atlas was back in HO locos with its first Kato-made model the RS-3 in 1985.  Stewart also arrives about the same time its RS-3, as does the previously mentioned Roundhouse model.

This follows the hobby rule that we don't have a model of some prototype, until we have at least 2 or 3 of them!  

[DUCKY01]

EBT Bob,

Athearn was hired by Lionel to produce several HO Scale freight
Car Kits in the 1960's., one of them being the Erie 50' Gondolas
with the Cement Cannisters. There was some disscussion between the two
companies concerning adding the Lionel "L" Logo on the cars, in which
Athearn went ahead and started producing the cars, with the "L" logo,
without Lionel's permission. Once Lionel found out, the production was
stopped and all cars were recalled back to Athearn and distroyed. Of
course, a large amount of the cars were already sent to distributors,
and were sold and never returned. I also have one of the Erie "L" cars,
still in the original box. The Erie car was rereleased with several different
car numbers over the next 30 years, but without the cement cannisters,
or "bottles" as they were called by railroad employees. The other Erie car numbers were #14414, #14444, #14427, #15837, & #10387. In the 1990's, Athearn produced a Special Edition set that included an SW-1500 and two gondolas for the Philadelphia, Bethlehem, and New England Railroad. If you have the set, look closely at the PB&NE Logo on all the cars, there is a major typo in the lettering! These were never recalled.

Scott "Ducky" Drake

[RAM]

I have an Athearn sw1500 that different number on the end than on the side of the cab.  Now if it was a coin, it would be worth a lot of money, but since it is a model it is just an error.

[john tricarico]

hi guys

many of us know that athearn did make trains for lionel
during the 1958-1964 era 

im dont know why athearn didnt continue making some of these
cars in there regular line   not the space car stuff

there were some damm good looking maintainace of way cars
made   including what looked like a wire car  lionel called
a maintanace car    a flat with small floodlight
and wheel flat car   
these would make really great m.o.w. cars in assorted roads
if only athearn would make them again  or can they
never researched these cars  but they are in older lionel H.O.
catalogs  could have these cars been exclusive for lionel

good luck   john t  brooklyn ny

[bcjim]

In the mid 60's I had several cars made by Crown, such as the 200ton
4 truck flat car with a pipe load another was a 3 dome tank car.
They were dead ringers of the Athearn cars.
How did this happen?
Jim

[Pacific Northern]

I just bought the caboose in question from MB Klien. It was part of a larger purchase, of which I make a couple per year. Large purchases keep the cost of S&H to reasonable amounts.

The cost of sending it back would be half of what I paid for the item. So will keep it.