MEGA Vintage Athearn Locomotive Collection - Let's See What Runs!

The red black and yellow SF locomotives are Santa Fe. That’s the Kodachrome paint scheme from when they were going to merge with southern pacific but the merger wasn’t approved. They were going to paint SPSF on them once the merger was approved. Since it was never approved the joke is that SPSF stands for “shouldn’t paint so fast”. You can also find Southern Pacific locomotives with the same paint scheme just lettered SP.

Seeing all of those BNSF locos reminds me of when I used to work with the BNSF at their Phoenix Mobest yard. Phoenix is a terminus for BNSF, so loaded trains would come in with 3 or 4 locos on them and stop. Then they had to get empty train cars out of Phoenix to the rest of the system. They'd also occasionally have to send extra locomotives out to the rest of the system. Twice a day they'd run a "Baretable" train of empty container cars out to LA, and occasionally combine it with a "power move" of excess locos. I saw trains with 9 or 10 locomotives heading out at least once a week.

I am jealous of the fact that every single one of these units is an Athearn blue box

Great way to start a Friday morning

In a time where products are designed and manufactured for planned obsolescence it is so nice to see the longevity of an Athearn Blue Box locomotive. A model that could be built 30 years ago, run hard for years, put away in storage for a decade then brought back into operation with minor servicing. I could handle a few Athearn project locomotives but the amount sent to you would seem a bit overwhelming to me!

The strength of the blue-box line (of locomotives and rolling stock) is their simplicity and robustness. They’re really easy to service as well. One thing I like to do is solder some 24-26 ga. stranded wire from the metal strip on top of the motor to the metal current-pickups on both trucks, as well as the one on the light; this improves the conductivity as opposed to the metal current pickups just riding on the top strip with only the springiness to rely on. 😊

Super. A lifetime supply of HO locomotives for most model railroaders for free, and only three out of dozens of boxes of locomotives and train cars and train stuff donated and mailed to you. Incredible. Hello again from the Tracy Mountain Railway in Colorado. 💙 T.E.N.

OMG it's just unbelievable, here in Argentina you have to save a lot of time to be able to afford one of those, they're sold as "new" and really expensive :( You're really lucky to live in a country with good economy and to have such generous friends!!

He did it again, folks, he bought another collection of engines Better yet, they’re all Athearn!

Sometimes I think I need to start posting more train videos on here so I can get followers who would send me stuff. Then I look at the pile of projects I've already got going and realize... I'm doing fine on my own there. The blue and yellow Santa Fe F-unit is the same paint scheme as my very first engine (also an Athearn blue box F7) back in the early 200X's. It's gone through a lot but thanks in part to things I've learned watching your videos it's still running strong.

I’m definitely sad to see that they weren’t handled properly during shipping but super happy you finally got to see what was in those boxes! Have fun! Ricky 🚂

Those SD40-2s with the longer nose was called a "snoot". The longer nose was necessary to house the radio control equipment for the remote helpers in mountain territory. Some SP tunnel motors had that long nose as well.

Please record your fixing of some of the trains. Your previous videos tackling taking apart and fixing your broken locomotives have inspired me to fix an old GO train n scale locomotive from my childhood. Your videos explaining the parts and what to look at for which problem, helped me get the courage to figure out and fix mine. Runs great now, it was only drawing power prior.

Wow Harrison nice haul from this guy named Ricky here! Very generous of him to send you all of this! I also have a Santa Fe fp45 too from athearn.

Nice to see people sharing their equipment!

The long nose Santa Fe SD units were called "Snoots". They held the first version of electronic loco-control in the nose. Yep, late 70's or early 80's electronics. No vacuum tubes. "Solid-state" as we called it back in those days. Edit: Michael beat me to it. Still, for the algorithm. One more thing. If you want to accurately portray the Espee units, mask off the numbers and then completely coat the sides/top with grey primer and then dust the roof with flat black. You want to barely see the color underneath. I saw many an Espee with the cab numbers wiped clean, and nothing else. Running diesels constantly in tunnels and snow sheds makes that happen.

The ATSF Geep is a GP50. You can tell by the longer hoods and larger radiators (as compared to a GP40). GP38s only have two fans. Also, the road number checks out against a GP50 (796317-4) built in 1981.

I was at the Mad Town train show this morning and i got a SF Kodachrome F45 at the cost of 25 dollars! And it was also an Athearn.

It’s fun having you pen boxes! Feel like I’m right there w/you!! A ghost…haha😂😅🎉❤

here's some info on the actual locomotives (if they existed in real life): 2:20 ATSF 0-6-0 switcher, appears to be fictitious. 2:35 ATSF F7A #271C, no information found, although likely retired. 3:03 BN SD40-2 #6777, appears to be retired. 3:11 BNSF SD40-2 #6836, still in service on BNSF to this day. 3:17 BNSF SD40-2 #6915, still in service on BNSF to this day. 3:22 ATSF SD40-2 #5059 "Kodachrome", still in service on BNSF to this day. 3:43 ATSF SD40-2 #5027, still in service on BNSF to this day. 3:55 UP SD40-2 #3626, appears to be retired. 3:58 ATSF SD40-2 #5036, appears to be retired. 4:06 ATSF F7A #326, no information found, although likely retired. 4:37 BN SD40-2 #6784, appears to be retired. 4:45 UP SD40-2 #3623, still in service as RCPE #3434. 5:22 CNW F7A #4073C, preserved as SLRG #576 in the Lehigh Valley paint scheme. 5:30 CNW F-unit, unknown number. 5:33 MP #234, no information found, although likely retired. 5:42 ATSF FP45 #92, preserved in the IRM, looking to be restored. 5:48 CNW AC4400CW #8814, still in service on UP to this day. 6:06 (top): UP AC4400CW #6872, still in service on UP to this day. 6:06 (bottom): UP C44-9W #9711, appears to be retired. 6:13 BNSF C44-9W #1000, still in service on BNSF to this day. 6:23 ATSF GP50 #3827, still in service on BNSF to this day, although the model appears to be a GP38-2 instead of a GP50 like its real life counterpart. 6:28 UP AC4400CW #6736, still in service on UP to this day. 6:45 ATSF FP45 #5946, destroyed in the 1994 Cajon Pass derailment. 6:47 ATSF FP45 #5945, preserved in Barstow CA. 6:51 ATSF FP45 #93, preserved in Wichita KS. 6:55 ATSF FP45 #5975, appears to be retired. 6:58 ATSF FP45 #5950, appears to be retired. 7:01 ATSF FP45 #5913, no information found, although likely retired. 7:05 Amtrak SDP40F #506, appears to be retired. hopefully this helps.