Athearn Announcements

[wm3798]

Well, maybe it's like this...  Athearn had a photo that was taken in the late 70's so the car had been re-stenciled, but not repainted.

They took the easy road and shot the model to have a later appearance, perhaps because the motive power they are selling (which I honestly don't know what they're peddling at the moment) might be better suited to the later appearance of the cars.

Put another way, if the car were modeled in the "as delivered" appearance, there might be just as many hoots from the unwashed masses that they have to go back and add ACI labels and black/white lube plates!

I have to do the same thing to the Atlas 55 ton cars.  All of the numbers, with few exceptions, that they've released are from the earliest repaints of these cars, Class H-7 mostly.  Yet, the WM engines that Atlas sells, again with a couple of exceptions, are primarily later models (GP35, SD35) so it would have been more appropriate to issue the 55T cars as they would have appeared in the late 60's, with higher number series as they were rebuilt into H-29, H-32 and H-33 classes.  The outward appearance is the same, but the numbers are different, as would the rebuild dates and a few other detail markings.

The good news is that there were still quite a few of the H-7 class cars drifting around by 1970, so I can keep a bunch of them and weather the hell out of them.

But we grin and bear it, and I made my own decals so I could start the re-numbering process myself.  All in a day's work.  If I get really ambitious, I'll cut off two of the cable rings, and replace the separate grabs with brass ladders, but that's for my next spell of OCD.

Lee

[Mark5]

Jason,

We are talking about the accuracy of the paint scheme - period. 

Athearn has had good photos for at least 4 years (pointed out to them by me).

If you model coal trains, you cannot get the correct cars. This applies to just about any railroad in any era. If you're lucky you can get some of the cars in nearly correct form.

So that leaves you to pick from cars that are "close enough". Since nearly 100% of N&W hoppers built from the 1930s through the early 1960s have peaked ends, you kind of need these. For 3 bay rib side peaked end 70 tonners, at some points N&W rostered over 20,000 of these in several classes.

So therefore, as a N&W modeler, I need to look at what's available. Well, there is only one 3 bay ribbed side hopper in N scale, and that is the old MDC 3 bay rib side peaked end. Is it correct? No. Is it close enough? Well, given the alternatives, for me yes. A train of these properly lettered looks like a N&W train to me (with other classes of hoppers of course).

It would have been nice if Athearn chose to letter these for a class that the car more closely resembles (the H2a or H3) but they made their choice (apparently).

Mark

[Mark5]

Well, maybe it's like this...  Athearn had a photo that was taken in the late 70's so the car had been re-stenciled, but not repainted.

Lee, they don't even have the right number series. So your theory, as they say, doesn't really hold water.

Mark

[wm3798]

And I suppose the number they used is for a car that's less close enough than the class in question?  That should have been a no brainer.  I'll grant you that.

Lee

[Mark5]

And I suppose the number they used is for a car that's less close enough than the class in question?  That should have been a no brainer.  I'll grant you that.

Lee

(number series in the artwork happen to be from the ex-NKP offset hoppers (279072) they did, and the H-34 VGN hoppers N&W completed in 1960 (76501) - so hopefully it's the artist being lazy and the production models will be correct)

The NKPs are 70 ton offset hoppers. The H34s (76XXX) are flat end rib side 70 ton hoppers that VGN was building at the time of the merger, which N&W finished up.

The funny thing is, they did the homework pretty well on the earlier release (exNKP and exVGN) hoppers.

Mark

[SkipGear]

Mark,
 You're not the only one disapointed this time around. Let's just say the B&O hoppers are wrong on all counts. Wrong body style, paint job and date.

B&O didn't paint the large ampersand B&O billboard on any ribside cars. B&O didn't build any ribside cars durring the dates listed on these cars. They should at least be offset side and they would be closer.

They really should be offset side with the small ampersand billboard scheme.

[Mark5]

Mark,
 You're not the only one disapointed this time around. Let's just say the B&O hoppers are wrong on all counts. Wrong body style, paint job and date.

Ugh. Its a shame Athearn isn't like Atlas. If they were they'd already have the corrected artwork posted.

[wm3798]

Don't they already offer an offset side car in B&O?

Or am I thinking of the Atlas 55T car?

Lee

[SkipGear]

The previous releases were also ribsides, at least the first 2 numbers. The offsets were the last set run and they were the 95% correct 13 States scheme with the help of Brian DeVries. Needless to say, he is a little miffed that they didn't bother to consult on these. He thought he had developed a bit of a working relationship with them.

[Mark5]

Athearn has revised the artwork on the peaked end 70 rib sides - they will now be lettered for class H2a in the correct number series for that class.

http://www.athearn.com/newsletter/102009/16_3_bay_hop_6pk_102009.pdf

That's the good news ...

Mark

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Very nicely done Mark!

But BNSF too? WTF?

[wcfn100]

Yeah, nice work.  Those HO guys will be happy.   


Jason

[Mark5]

Yeah, nice work.  Those HO guys will be happy.   
Jason

Yup, and that's the bad news, at least part of it.

Mark