The photos of Athearn undecorated locomotives I' looking at do not have hand rails, windows and other details installed on the model bodies. Are these items included in the undecorated units for later installation, or not?
Welcome to TrainBoard. Athearn is one of the companies that glue pieces of their engines together. If the handrails are not painted yet, maybe they are not yet attached as there is no need to glue them. I would be surprised if the handrails, etc. are not included. But the bottom line is, "I don't know."
according to the athearn site they should come with the handrails and such. they should have everything the painted models have but just not fully assembled.
All of the Athearn undecorated models that I have assembled come with the windows, handrails and truck detail parts. The newer one may come with grabirons. They are not included in the photos to show you where you start with your painting. It's harder to decal/paint with the details in place.
I just picked up 2 U30C's, 1 SD9, and 1 F45 all undecorated and the handrails, couplers, number glass, and windows were in a little envelope underneath the engine. Now I'm guessing these engines are older (the dates on the parts sheet was in the early 70's on all of them), so I'm not sure if they include that stuff today. I would imagine they would. That would be like buying a car with no doors or windows. :tb-biggrin:
Athearn Blue Box The old Athearn Blue Box kits included wire handrails and other parts to be added by the customer. The add on parts varied with the model.