Athearn Bluebox And SP

Around 1980 I met a guy named Howard Moore at the old Troxel Brothers Models on Western Avenue in Los Angeles. He was an employee of Athearn in the very early days and a photographer. I'm not sure how long he actually worked for him, but he stayed friends with Irvin Athearn for many years. (He reported that by the 1970s, Irvin Athearn had become discouraged that modelers weren't supporting his new products, like the PA-1, Train Master, etc, and was reluctant to upgrade the line.)

When Howard worked for him, Irvin sent him out to take photos of rail equipment in Los Angeles. These became the inspiration for many Athearn metal cars in the late 1940s, in both O and HO scales. He showed me many 8 x 10 prints he'd made, including a black SP Overnight boxcar and a Santa Fe map boxcar. He also took other photos in the early postwar years, prints for many of which I bought from him. In the early 1960s he was shooting 8mm movie film, and he showed me some of these. I assume he has passed away, and I doubt if the film has survived.

By the time I knew him, he had a small desk-sized layout in his apartment. I wound up helping him paint and detail bluebox and comparable stuff at the time. Here's a shot he took of some locos I helped him with at the time on his layout:

Here's a bluebox S-12 that I worked on. This was before Detail Associates came out with its SP Baldwin headlight castings, I did these from styrene:

Here's a bluebox SD9. I think he wanted me to give it an SD9E number:

Bluebox stuff wasn't that bad!

Is There A Better Solution Than Forums?

Earlier today, I posted a response in a thread on the Model Railroader forum that was started by a member who was unhappy with a reply to a post he'd made. A number of responses basically told the guy to grow up and get a thicker skin, and that might be part of the problem. But I said,

Isn't there a bigger question here? Forums as they exist leave a lot to be desired, including the fact that there's no good way to screen for the maturity of participants. A number of forums have disappeared in the past few years, including the one that was sponsored by a manufacturer, a very good one that ended when its main sponsor passed away, and one focusing on west coast railfanning. When I saw the title of this thread, I almost thought this one (or another) was going out as well!

One reason they're going away, it seems to me, is that they don't meet the needs of many participants. One thing that was good about traditional model rail magazines is that they had/have editors, who set the tone and screen material. The articles by authors that repeat are arguably worthwhile. Not always the case with forums. Several of the survivors are dominated by "Hi from newbie!" posts, which keep the overall level too low for more experienced hobbyists.

[Model Railroader Video Plus] seems to be moving toward an innovative format of fairly frequent updates with well-produced, stimulative material, with a paid subscription. This may be a better direction to go -- at least, some sort of editorial screening might be a useful addition. Another approach might be the one the late Carl Arendt took, frequent updates with general, but screened, interaction.

I've had ups and downs in my experience with forums. Occasionally, the interactions are rewarding. More often, they represent the difficulty with social media: I can be a 55-year-old overweight guy who posts as a 22-year-old named Ingrid, and things can develop as they develop. Most people who post on model railroad forums post under pseudonyms, and they can give whatever personal issues they have free rein.

I'm still looking for a more productive way to spend hobby time on the web.