Late Athearn Bluebox

As I've been going through my collection, updating JMRI with all my decoder-equipped locos, and building a to-do list for those as yet not converted to DCC, I've run into several that give an insight into what the hobby was like in the 1980s and 1990s. At this remove, the exact year when Athearn moved from Compton to Long Beach and gave up production of bluebox locomotives escapes me, but I think it was sometime in the late 1990s.

At that time, Athearn was an economy brand and didn't have provision for DCC. The bluebox locos were also semi-kit, and although the Dash 9s were one of the last bluebox offerings, I don't believe they ever produced them with the celcon handrails -- they were all equipped with the steel wire and staples, I believe.

You also needed to drill out the shell and add your own grabs and aftermarket details. I was pretty diligent about doing this at the time. I can see that I got UP 9820 maybe 95% done and then stopped work on it for whatever reason.

The photo above is what modelers had to do before DCC if they wanted to run Atlas and Athearn diesels together. A-Line produced can motor repower kits that included a weight/motor mount that fit in the cavity of the frame where the Athearn motor used to sit, a motor-flywheel assembly that was compatible with the Athearn cardan shaft, and wiring hardware that replaced the steel strips used for contact on the stock bluebox model.

The result was a loco that matched Atlas loco speed and operating performance much more closely and drew less current, allowing bigger consists. I used this technique very successfully on my old layout from the 1980s that formed the core of my current one. However, as I got more Atlas, Athearn RTR, and other higher-end locos over the years, I didn't use those as much.

I have a number of other bluebox locos with this conversion that I may or may not convert to DCC. On the other hand, new decoders cost about $20 for this purpose, and the updated wiring from the old conversion will make adding them somewhat easier. I may even add a PTC antenna array to this one. Here's a shot of 9816 with a red sill stripe, PTC array, and lightning stripe scheme like 9820, although it also has a flag:

UP 9599 is a former SP loco with a UP number patch made from a Microscale set. At the time, I was being sent to the Midwest for work and railfanning ex-SP lines there in my time off work. I was seeing a lot of these.