Athearn Bay Window Caboose

[wm3798]

Just received the Conrail bay window caboose from Athearn...  It's a beaut.  I know it's a foobie, but it's a very well executed one.  This is my first piece of Athearn N scale rolling stock, and it's very impressive in its detail.  Separate grabs, nice underbody and roof details, very fine plastic end railings, nice crisp paint and lettering.

This is also my first brush with McHenry couplers...  They look to my eye a little bulky, but I'll be able to judge better when I get it upstairs to compare to MT and Accumate knuckles..

My only disappointment is that the bay is cast as part of the body, which will make whittling it down to a proper window-only bay (N-7?... I can't remember)... but it looks good enough to stand in for now.

Pictures and more comparisons later...

Lee

[C855B]

...  I know it's a foobie, ...

[temper_tantrum]

What in the * is the problem with both MTL and Athearn with this SP caboose???  >

They produce only enough in the actual prototype paint to meet buyer demand for... what?... maybe 2 days? 3 days? Yet the dealers are lousy with foob schemes of the same plastic, mostly gathering dust. MTL I sort of understand since that's the way they roll, but Athearn bloomin' knew that there was scads of demand for it in SP and still under-produced it. Adding insult, they're not cataloging reruns in the brown SP, just some oddball schemes.

What are these people smoking?

[/temper_tantrum]

[lock4244]

Probably pot.

You raise a good point about under producing the prototype, and I think it's kinda obvious that there are alot of SP modelers out there (vs BN or WP or IC). I suppose the lure of the foob is too strong to resist by the committee that came up with their production numbers. This van (sry, caboose) should have been done for SP in 12 numbers.

[asarge]

They produce only enough in the actual prototype paint to meet buyer demand for... what?... maybe 2 days? 3 days? Yet the dealers are lousy with foob schemes of the same plastic

If the other schemes haven't sold as well as the SP's, that doesn't mean they are not selling because they are "foobies". Most don't care, close is good enough. Could be the other roadnames are nowhere near as popular as SP. Conrail is pretty popular, Chessie and that CNW scheme not nearly as popular as CR or SP. Nothing wrong with any of them just an excercise in mathmatics.

[Mark5]

This van (sry, caboose)

Get it right - Cabin Car!

Espee people - let Athearn know. I'm actually begininng to think Athearn listens.

Mark

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Ooh, Lee, I didn't know you had gotten one of these! Good call. They're on my list for a future purchase (gotta get a new radiator for the volvo first though... ugh!).

Athearn does listen, they actually reached out to the CRHS about these early on (and you'll notice, they did 21166 I think, not the 21165 that we have, because we couldn't bless a foob like that, even though I wanted to...).

It's actually not all THAT bad for the N7Es, especially with the windows.

I'd keep it in that series instead of trying to hack down the bay, since it's not so far off.

http://thecrhs.org/PreservationProjects/Caboose21165

[bbussey]

... You raise a good point about under producing the prototype, and I think it's kinda obvious that there are alot of SP modelers out there (vs BN or WP or IC). I suppose the lure of the foob is too strong to resist by the committee that came up with their production numbers. This van (sry, caboose) should have been done for SP in 12 numbers.

It is surprising that the SP run was as short as it was while the other roads still are plentiful, as I thought they took advance reservations on these for a couple of months prior to production.  It would seem Athearn takes an educated guess as to what to produce, based on the availability of this release.  Hopefully they will rerun the scheme if they demand truly is as great as it appears to be.

[Packer]

What in the * is the problem with both MTL and Athearn with this SP caboose???  >

They produce only enough in the actual prototype paint to meet buyer demand for... what?... maybe 2 days? 3 days? Yet the dealers are lousy with foob schemes of the same plastic, mostly gathering dust. MTL I sort of understand since that's the way they roll, but Athearn bloomin' knew that there was scads of demand for it in SP and still under-produced it. Adding insult, they're not cataloging reruns in the brown SP, just some oddball schemes.

What are these people smoking?

It's called "Limited Production," and I loathe it. Make many less pieces, and jack the price way up. It's one of the main reason my locomotive roster is soo imbalanced (0 switchers, 7 local engines, 28 road diesels; need at least 2 switchers, and a few more local engines to balance)and I'm lacking one of BN's staple locos. Try finding an Athearn or BLI BN SD40-2 in HO, it's next to impossible (I some how got a hold of the even more elusive Bicentennial one, but none of the Green/black ones). Strange considering BN had over 800 of them!!!

[Bob Bufkin]

Hope you have luck with those couplers.  I just ordered 2 replacements since the ones I had came apart.  Cost most for shipment then the couplers (actually I ordered the whole truck).

[DocGeoff]

So far I have had no problems with the three I am running. Couplers work fine and really if you look at the way Athearn copied the prototype as compared to MTL, theirs have the correct look with the extended coupler. I have more per-ordered and wish I had all Athearn. I jumped at the MLT's, but they do not compare. The SP caboose is fantastic in detail.
 

[sizemore]

I picked up two in Cheesie, and two undec, I think they'll make great stand-in's for B&O cabooses with decals from Skipgear. I just have to finish painting your LRV GP's first...

The S.