I'm working on painting a pair of old Rivarossi E8 shells today, and a question popped up again in my head that I've been meaning to throw out on Trainboard. I wonder why Athearn never did an E-6/7/8/9 in the 'Blue Box' line? They certainly seem to have cornered the market on F7s! I'm sure there are other models they missed, but the E seems like an glaring omission. Far as I can tell, they never had one offered in their Genesis line or RTR.
What, no Athearn insiders lurking? Conspiracy theorists? :question: It just seemed like one of those 800 lb. gorillas sitting in the room.
It probably just had to do with all those Rivarossi/ahm/ihc imports. Someone else had already done it. Back then anyone who wanted a E unit had a couple of the Rivarossi's on the layout. I had a UP set as a kid.
The thought occurred to me last night in bed - I wonder if there is a good BB six-axle candidate to put a Rivarossi E shell on?
A line / proto power west made one based on a modified athearn sd45 chassis, but it is out of stock, for cary / hobbytown /ahm e units, along with e truck frames and details this custom moppac cary e7 set have the ppw/athearn drives.
Athearn pretty much standardized a lot of their components, the 40" wheels on the diesels were the standard size to fit all the diesels that Athearn made, (The Baldwin S12 should have had 42" wheels). But the E Units required a 36" wheel or the truck size would have been off which is why Athearn probably never made an E-Unit. Rick J
Athearn inherited the F unit molds from Globe models when they went belly up. The next batch of EMD geeps and stuff that athearn bought out came from one EMD catalog from the early 60's that had announcements for upcoming EMD models. Thus athearn had models for the GP30 and DD40A's long before EMD actually came out with them (or in the case of the DD40A's, they never did make those, UP ordered DD40AX's instead). It wasn't until the Blue box SD9's came out that athearn actually made a mold not based on a present or upcoming real life unit, and that wasn't until the mid 70's (correct me if I'm wrong on that date someone!)
Geep, I don't believe you are wrong as this is how I remember it. There was a time all the tooling and manufacturing was all done in down town Los Angeles. Not to far from the Santa Fe Passenger Yards. The only thing I question is the SD9. I don't think Athearn ever made a SD9. You may be thinking of the Atlas HO SD9. Athearn did come out with a six axle SD45, suffering from size compression in length and the width was oversized to accomodate a larger electric motor. That was the first six axle....as I recall it. Darn things wouldn't hardly pull around an 18 inch radius without derailing. Had to rebuild my layout and push out those dratted tight radius curves. Sigh! All Athearn ever produced was those F...ing machines. I've always wanted to say that. I gave up an AB set yesterday to a friend. I only hope he get's to enjoy them. I know you are tired of hearing about my family of rails but my granddad an engineer for the Santa Fe called them the F....ing machines. Well, they were new, full of problems and the early FT's needed as many water stops as the stoves required. Once, that problem was resolved...look out...and they rolled in, in force. What a negative impact on the stoves. Gone forever! Exception being those saved in museums, parks and UP and NS steam programs. Just in case you missed what Geep said:
Athearn did in fact make an SD9. I have one of them. Post Rubber band, but with the older metal trucks. It is also too wide just like the GP9/GP35/SD45/Assorted GEs) The first correct width hood unit Athearn made was the SD40-2 in I think the 80s. Followed by the GP38-2/40-2/50. Those correct width models are the basis for decades worth of Kitbashes.
Now THAT'S what I'm talking about! Yes! And it appears I have missed the boat again. Funny because I was just thinking that MAYBE a SD45 or FP45 might be close enough. I sense a project coming on BTW, nice looking Es!
Great stuff...I never knew that. ALTHOUGH, I did always wonder about those Athearn DD40s! Why did they make them when the real DD40AX had a different cab? And there you go. And I guess I did know the part about the Globe F being 'inherited' by Athearn. Interesting!
here's the link, the chassis pictured at the top of the page is the e unit drive. basically the trucks are put in backwards with the worm gear end towards the motor, the fuel tank width is cut down flush with the frame rails, the length is shortened to make room for the air tanks, the one pictured has the lead can motor cradle option, which fills the athearn motor well, and puts the motor at the right height. http://www.ppw-aline.com/custom_built_chassis.htm EDIT!! it appears that although the complete RTR chassis is out of stock, all the needed parts are available http://www.ppw-aline.com/frppwe.htm
I think, you are thinking, about the GP9 that Athearn came out with, in both the HiF drive and later with a geared model. I would have purchased any Athearn, SD9's they came out with for my SP Diesel Fleet. None available... until, Atlas came out with there Kato Chassis and Atlas Shell SD9. Sweet running locomotives. Well, I stand corrected. I went on an oogle google search and found these: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=athearn+sd9 I don't know how I missed them. My apologies YoHo.
Neat little fact here, the SD9 was the first engine athearn designed that came from the factory with both geared trucks and flywheels as standard. There never was a hi-fi band drive or non flywheel equipped SD9 that athearn sold.
And that folks is how I missed it. By then I was buying Atlas/Kato combo's. Makes perfect sense. Again, my apologies all around. On the flipside of all of this, I knew they didn't have any HiFi type SD9's. Test me on this one: You can check the AT&SF rosters but to the best of my knowledge (we all know how that works) they didn't own any SD 9's or GP 9's. They were busy buying up GP 7's and SD24's.
Correct, the athearn SD9's in Santa Fe are fictional. But they are cool looking! Edit: some more info regarding the SD9's http://www.ho-scaletrains.net/athearnlocomotives/id119.html November of 74' was the release date.
When I was involved heavily in H0, I had stuff, mostly Mantua engines at the time, and a mix of Mantua and Athearn cars. This was late 50's to late 60's. My buddy had some Athearn F units, with flywheels, weights, and both trucks geared. I don't recall SD9's back then, thought they were a bit later. I recall the F units were in a time frame....1965. Dave
