Athearn Announcement

[ebtbob]

Good Afternoon All,

     With Mr. B's permission,   I want to share with you some good news from Athearn.    They will be offering the Ford,  Model A pickup trucks,  roadsters and sedans that they currently make in HO scale.  The scale will be 1/50 scale,  much closer to O scale(1/48) than 1/43  Orders should be placed in August and they expect to have them available to the public in November. 
       To me this is GREAT news as I am always on the look for vehicles etc that are not 1/43 scale.

[the Bach-man]

Dear Bob,
Thanks for the heads-up. I'll be ordering several!
Best,
the Bach-man

[kendoitall]

Good Afternoon All,

     With Mr. B's permission,   I want to share with you some good news from Athearn.    They will be offering the Ford,  Model A pickup trucks,  roadsters and sedans that they currently make in HO scale.  The scale will be 1/50 scale,  much closer to O scale(1/48) than 1/43  Orders should be placed in August and they expect to have them available to the public in November. 
       To me this is GREAT news as I am always on the look for vehicles etc that are not 1/43 scale.

Great news indeed! I was hoping Athearn would do just that, but in 1/48 scale, not that goofy1/43 or 1/50 stuff. Most scale model railroaders in O scale are Americans after all and work in 1/48.

I suppose the Lionel toy crowd would be happy though to have something from the 40's and 50's to place alongside their giraffe and aquarium cars.

I wonder if Athearn or Atlas would possibly consider doing On30 rolling stock and locos. Hope springs eternal in model railroading, after all.

[Royce Wilson]

Do they have a website?
                                               Royce Wilson

[kendoitall]

Do they have a website?
                                               Royce Wilson

http://www.athearn.com/

[ebtbob]

Good Morning All,

       While I agree that 1/48th scale would be perfect,  the difference between 1/48 and 1/50 is almost un-noticeable.   1/43 on the other hand, is quite obvious.    Anyway......this is still one of the best announcements I have seen in a while.

[dto]

While I'm curious over why Athearn chose 1:50 over 1:48, I agree that the difference is barely discernable.  Compared to 1:48, 1:50 is just 4% smaller, while 1:43 is approximately 112% larger.  And it's often preferable to have scenery objects slightly smaller so as not to visually overwhelm the main subject (trains, of course).   

Forced perspective also favors smaller vehicles, while an oversize car tends to stand out regardless of positioning.  Cars can take up a significant amount of precious layout scenery area, so even a 4% savings in "parking space" can help.

However, 1:50 scale is large enough to permit modifications and kitbashing.  I predict we'll soon see aftermarket conversion kits for the Model A pickup -- tow trucks, extended Model AA truck frames, delivery vans, fire engines, fine photoetched wire spoked wheels, etc.

[C.P.R.R. Manager]

I did some quick math, and the difference between a 1:48 and a 1:50 car of this size is about 12/100".  My On30 track is already 3/32" out of whack, compared to On3 track, so I can live with the difference.  To me, the only problem is that we are going to see is that these same vehicles will show up on everyone's layout, until we start bashing them.  Some of Keith Wiseman's metal kits would certainly break up the monotony.

http://www.locopainter.com/store/

If the Bach-Man needs to delete this, no problem, but here is the link to the new Athearn vehicles:
http://www.athearn.com/Newsletter/071707/50_Model_A_071707.jpg

[dto]

Aha!  It all makes sense now -- I was unaware that Athearn's diecast vehicle line was in 1:50 scale.

The vehicles in the product announcement photo look like the HO scale line, which is acceptable for such advance notices.  I expect the final product will have greater detail than was technically feasible in HO, perhaps with thinner wire wheels and black radiators (they shouldn't be completely chromed).

The greater weight of diecast is a welcome feature, though unfortunately it will be harder to convert the pickups as I envisioned in my earlier post.  Hopefully the pickup bed can be removed without too much aggravation.

Checking the model numbers, I suspect a second release will complete the color range (black, burgundy, dark green, cream, tan, blue) for all the vehicles.  While monochromatic, I'll probably get a black pickup since my grandfather once drove one.  The dark green sedan looks good, but I might wait for a cream or tan sports coupe -- those color combinations with the black fenders and whitewall tires look quite sharp.

[ebtbob]

Good Morning All,

        I would make it a point to keep checking the Athearn website for info.  Friday I saw the announcement sheets that get sent to hobby shops.  As I recall,  there will only be three colors,  dark green,  blue,  and burgandy.  Also,  I am not sure they will be diecast,  although I seem to remember something about vynal(sp?) tires.  List price will be $24.99 which makes them just a tad more than double the HO list prices.

[ebtnut]

I agree that 1:50 is better than 1:43, though I tried to convince them in Pittsburgh to go 1:48 if they were going to do them in "O".  But they (and much of the "toy" world does 1:50, so I guess they had to go with the flow.  I'll just have to make sure these models are no where near the large group of 1:43's I've assembled over the years as the only recourse.

[kendoitall]

I agree that 1:50 is better than 1:43, though I tried to convince them in Pittsburgh to go 1:48 if they were going to do them in "O".  But they (and much of the "toy" world does 1:50, so I guess they had to go with the flow.  I'll just have to make sure these models are no where near the large group of 1:43's I've assembled over the years as the only recourse.

Yes, I too have a load of 1:43 vehicles. I guess they should be placed in the background somewhere on my ECRR. I have used "forced perspective" before with my N Scale layout: Z Scale buildings in the background to make the scene look larger. And the smaller 1:50 stuff would most likely do ok in the foreground area. That leaves the immediate area around our railroad equipment for the much more expensive true 1:48 vehicles.

Heck, if O Scale Standard model railroaders have survived with five foot gauge track for generations, I suppose that we narrow minded folks can live with some out-of-scale road vehicles.

Ken

[dto]

According to the announcement, they will be diecast.  Here are the colors:

Sports Coupe:  Burgundy, Dark Green and Blue

Pickup:  Black, Cream and Tan

Sedan:  Black, Dark Green and Blue.

Hmm... shouldn't be too difficult to paint the black sedan doors white for a police car.  Hopefully it won't be too difficult to separate the body to repaint as a yellow taxi cab -- otherwise you'll have to be careful masking the sedan.

[br549]

Out standing news! count me in for an order no doubt.