# Are athearn blue box cars subpar quality?



## ryanmetzler3 (Jul 15, 2015)

Hello,
My first cars were some athearn blue box cars and I was pleased with them. I just got a roundhouse hobbies car recently. The blue box seems to feel lighter and has thinner plastic. I like the detail on the blue box, the construction just feels like lower quality.

I don't have a lot of experience with other brands so I'd like to know if most cars are like this? Or is the athearn blue box subpar? Do you use them?


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## shaygetz (Sep 23, 2007)

Blue Boxes were a long time staple in the hobby, top rated and well loved and respected. The thinner plastic was for more detail relief and allowed more experienced modelers the opportunity for easier modification to suit their particular level of expertize.


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## StBlade (Jun 22, 2015)

I have quite a few Blue Box rolling stock. I always thought it was the best until I saw some of Athearn's new "Ready to Run" cars. Sooo much better detail, but quite a bit more cash wise. Now I try and buy a ready to run and use most of my Blue Boxes for weathering.


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## Chet (Aug 15, 2014)

I started my layout 30 years ago and there wasn't much of a selection of freight cars back then and the Athearn blue box kits were probably the best back then. There was Roundhouse, Tyco and a few others as well as some excellent wood kits such as Silver Streak, which I have a number of on my layout. 

As I was building my layout, I got a lot of the blue box kits, many of them undecorated which I custom painted for my freelance railroad. Kadee couplers and metal wheels, if not Kadee sprung trucks were added and everything was lightly weathered before going on the rails. 

All of them are still in service and still running strong. Over the years I have picked up a few other kits and ready to roll such as Intermountain, Tichy Kadee and others, but when you put the old blue box cars in a train next to the newer more expensive rolling stock, you really can't tell the difference once you step back a few feet. 



















I can't see anything wrong with them plus I'm the only one that I have to make happy.


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## StBlade (Jun 22, 2015)

@Chet. WOW!! Some really nice weathering on those cars. 

This was my attempt at my first weathering of a Blue Box coal hopper.


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## Mr. SP (Jan 7, 2015)

*Blue Box Cars*

There are many Athearn Blue Box freight cars in my collection of around eight hundred cars. 
The Blue Box cars are underweight a bit. I added weight and use a weight standard as follows:
40 Foot car=4 ounces
50 Foot car-5 ounces
60 Foot car=6 ounces 
There is a minimum of 3.5 ounces for any cars shorter then thirty five feet. and a maximum of 7.5 ounces for cars over seventy five feet.
Adair Shops sells weight seta for Athearn Blue Box cars. I used Adair Shops weights for flat cars which I wanted to run empty. A load on a flat car cam make up the weight too.


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## rrbill (Mar 11, 2012)

Nice weathering there, Chet. Subtle and very realistic. So much weathering is overdone, resulting (IMO) in ruined rolling stock and engines. 
In going from full size to 1/87th, the weathering needs to be reduced proportionately or it looks too heavy and unrealistic on models.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

When I started in model railroading (1980's) Athearn Blue Box were top of the line for plastic kits......most all are gone now, due to my quest for more detailed rolling stock, but they were, and still, are, good cars, and Athearn RTR cars are now good quality items.....


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## davidone (Apr 20, 2015)

I like the blue box cars and have allot of them. Although not as detailed as some of today's cars they are still a great looking car. 

You can buy them cheap, most for less then $10. I upgrade them to metal wheels, and #5 kadee couplers. 

It's a way to increase your fleet without spending a fortune.


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## quark51 (Jul 23, 2013)

Most of the cars I have are blue box and a few Athearn ready to run cars. It is to bad that Athearn does not make the blue box cars anymore because they were inexpensive for my limited budget.


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## tr1 (Mar 9, 2013)

*Used Athern BB rolling stock.*

My mistake was not purchasing more/enough when I first started out.:hah: still looking for
used BB'sRegard's,tr1


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## JNXT 7707 (May 5, 2013)

tr1 said:


> My mistake was not purchasing more/enough when I first started out.:hah: still looking for
> used BB'sRegard's,tr1


Same here. I figured Athearn would just keep making the things.
They ARE still readily available at trains shows, but it is a pain to take the time to sort through boxes and boxes of kits. AND, sometimes the prices have been raised to the "these aren't produced anymore" status.


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## TA462 (Oct 17, 2014)

As my skills progressed the 10 or so Blue Box cars I had on my layout soon made it to the work bench to be upgraded. I enjoy ripping them apart and super detailing them to the point that you would never guess they started out as a Blue Box kit.


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## hirailer (Oct 24, 2013)

Most of my rolling stock is Blue Box and Roundhouse, some were purchased 40 years ago and still running strong. A little weathering and a few inexpensive details like stirrups, metal wheels and Kadees make them quite nice. Like Chet says, if you stand back a few feet they look great.

Cheers
Mel


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## Cycleops (Dec 6, 2014)

Nowt wrong with Blue Box stuff. Just look at the efforts by Chet and StBlade.


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## ggnlars (Aug 6, 2013)

Athearn seems to be heading back in the direction of BB items. They probably won't go to kits, but the Roundhouse line has been modified to be RTR versions of BB, where the Genesis line is much more detail. The BB version had to range from toys to scale models. They did this very well. The more detailed are not intended to be toys, even though some end up their. Up close there is a significant difference. A few feet away, the differences fade. The illusion takes over. In the illusion, they are both perfect.
Larry
www.llxlocomotives.com


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## AFGP9 (Apr 8, 2015)

When I started in HO 40 years ago, Athearn Blue Box cars were about all I could find. Later on I bought Atlas. I learned that upgraded detailing and weathering really helped those cars. I still have all 153 of them stored away because I began American Flyer collecting about 30 years ago so all my Ho stuff went into storage. I have always been a Flyer guy since my first train set in 1954 was an American Flyer for Christmas but being a kid with no income, I never expanded that set. Neither would my dad. When I did have some income I went into HO not Flyer. It was a cost thing then. Later I just couldn't resist the Flyer stuff.


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

hirailer said:


> Like Chet says, if you stand back a few feet they look great


That must be why an old time model railroader used to say: them Athearns have a 5 foot finish....(they look great from 5 feet away)....


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## ad356 (Sep 8, 2015)

im just getting back into the hobby but i was going through my collection and ALLOT of my rolling stock is athern blue box. i remember being on a limited budget it was a great way to expand my collection, at $10 or less per piece they hardly broke the bank. i would prefer to buy them today, i am still on a limited budget. i have a mortgage and a child only so much room for extra $$


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## lmackattack (Oct 21, 2010)

Old Athearn Blue box and accurail is about the only freight cars I buy.

Most are $10 or less and they don't have all the fragile parts that often fall or break off.

In fact just this week I purchased 60 some blue box kits. And all were 1/4 the price of what a ready to run car cost.


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## A&NRR (Aug 2, 2015)

I've been running Athearn B.B. since I was a teenager. They are still my favorite. I've spent amany enjoyable hours building the kits, adding metal wheel sets and Kadee couplers. I still buy them today from G&G Hobby Shop down in Houston. And always look for anything with the S.P. road name at train shows.


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## cv_acr (Oct 28, 2011)

The old Athearn 'blue box' cars are rugged, easy to build and reasonably good performers, so great beginner cars.

However the tooling on many of them is extremely dated (some of those models date back at least to the 1970s or even late 1960s) and in a lot of cases based on a total mish-mash of details or total fantasy with regards to being accurate for anything in real life. To many, this may not matter, but if it does, these old cars become virtually unacceptable.

I particularly dislike their older boxcar models with the sliding doors, as those door runners and the "claws" on the bottom of the doors are just crude.

Accurail is a nice alternative, with a similar level of detailing (no separately attached ladders and grabs) and ease of assembly, but much nicer tooling and accuracy to real-life equipment.

So like I said, it depends on whether you care about details or accuracy; if you're not overly concerned, then they are great value, and much better than most toy train set options. (Model Power, IHC, Bachman (non-Spectrum))


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## Chet (Aug 15, 2014)

I can't say that the blue box kits are crude. I posted pictures of a couple of them on the first page of this post. I have a number that I custom painted for my own freelance railroad and others that we decorated for different assorted railroads. 

All were equipped with Kadee couplers and either Kadee metal wheels or Kadee sprung trucks. All were lightly weathered and have been in service on my layout for over 25 years. They still operate as good as the day they were first put on the tracks. I don't have a large collection of freight cars, probably a total of 80 to 100, the majority being blue box cars. 

Over the years others have been added. Some from Con-Cor, Tichy, some old Silver Streak wood kits, which have excellent details, Intermountain and Kadee. 

I can mx them all up into a train and the old cars, with less detail are hard to tell apart from a highly detailed Kadee car unless you just about have your face into the train. 

Being that the old Athearn cars are still operating so well, it sure doesn't make a lot of sense to get rid of them and pay big bucks for more highly detailed cars. The blue box cars operate just as well as the high dollar cars.


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## quark51 (Jul 23, 2013)

*are Athearn Blue box cars subpar quality*

I picked up at a garage sale today, a Athearn yellow box kit, three blue box kits, a Mantua kit, two Roundhouse kits, a Accrurail kit, and Athearns rtr Maersk GP60M for $130.00.


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## JNXT 7707 (May 5, 2013)

cv_acr said:


> The old Athearn 'blue box' cars are rugged, easy to build and reasonably good performers, so great beginner cars.
> 
> However the tooling on many of them is extremely dated (some of those models date back at least to the 1970s or even late 1960s) and in a lot of cases based on a total mish-mash of details or total fantasy with regards to being accurate for anything in real life. To many, this may not matter, but if it does, these old cars become virtually unacceptable.
> 
> ...


Good lord, if I read another "toy train set" comment again I think my head will explode lol. What makes the difference between a toy and a model? And how close to prototype must it be to gain that status? It's only perspective, nothing more. 

If your perspective is examining rolling stock at the magnifying glass level, then yes the BB models - and many other brands - will come up short. 
If your perspective is watching a train run through the rolling scenery of a layout, and as a big picture you can suspend reality for a moment and "see" a glimpse of a real railroad - then the BB models are more than adequate.

And as with most anything out there new or old, it depends a lot on your own modeling skills.


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## A&NRR (Aug 2, 2015)

We cannot forget the number 1 rule in model railroading, and that's to have fun. Everybody suits their own taste. Personally if my cars go down the track smoothly without coming uncoupled on the mainline then I'm happy. Some of my cars I don't weather at all, some look like they should have been scrapped years ago. Main thing is that I have fun even if it's just turning on the power and watching them roll.


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