# "Athearn" Alco PA unit....



## Rick (Jan 10, 2007)

I have an Athearn Alco PA unit, HO guage, done in the Santa Fe warbonnet paint scheme. I got it for Christmas in 1970. It has remained in a glass case for 34 years and has not been ran. Would it be a collectable of any worth or just an old friend from my childhood. I would never want to part with it, I've had it for so long but I am curious.....thanks for any comments!


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## MrFSS (Jan 10, 2007)

Rick said:


> I have an Athearn Alco PA unit, HO guage, done in the Santa Fe warbonnet paint scheme. I got it for Christmas in 1970. It has remained in a glass case for 34 years and has not been ran. Would it be a collectable of any worth or just an old friend from my childhood. I would never want to part with it, I've had it for so long but I am curious.....thanks for any comments!


Look on eBay - they have massive amounts of HO stuff for sale. Might be able to get an idea at least.


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## Newyorkcentralfan (Mar 2, 2007)

Old friend from your childhood.

Athearn locomotives have been around for decades, they're not collector's items. They were in production until recently and have been supplanted by the vastly superior Proto2000 PA in terms of mechanism and detailing.

Who knows, they *might* be worth big bucks down the road. But I tend to doubt it.



Rick said:


> I have an Athearn Alco PA unit, HO guage, done in the Santa Fe warbonnet paint scheme. I got it for Christmas in 1970. It has remained in a glass case for 34 years and has not been ran. Would it be a collectable of any worth or just an old friend from my childhood. I would never want to part with it, I've had it for so long but I am curious.....thanks for any comments!


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## Amtrak Kid (Mar 3, 2007)

Save it, if its been with you that long, why put a price on it?

Corey


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## Rick (Apr 7, 2007)

Rick said:


> I have an Athearn Alco PA unit, HO guage, done in the Santa Fe warbonnet paint scheme. I got it for Christmas in 1970. It has remained in a glass case for 34 years and has not been ran. Would it be a collectable of any worth or just an old friend from my childhood. I would never want to part with it, I've had it for so long but I am curious.....thanks for any comments!


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## Bob Tobin (Jan 1, 2010)

Rick said:


> I have an Athearn Alco PA unit, HO guage, done in the Santa Fe warbonnet paint scheme. I got it for Christmas in 1970. It has remained in a glass case for 34 years and has not been ran. Would it be a collectable of any worth or just an old friend from my childhood. I would never want to part with it, I've had it for so long but I am curious.....thanks for any comments!


I recently bought Athearn PA units, A and B, on E-Bay. They're in PRR tuscan red and they'll join another PA to form the Pennsylvania's classic A-B-A lashup used in the PRR's 5 trainsets comprising these units. They'll be under glass on permanent display because I plan to keep them for my grandsons-- if they want them. If not, they might accrue in value after my death, thus benefiting my wife or children. Keep your AT&SF PA, by all means, if it has a lot of sentimental value for you; my PRR units are already in that category as far as I'm concerned.


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## OlympianHiawatha (Jan 1, 2010)

Athearn was a very reasonably priced line back in the 70s when Dad and I were modeling. Cars ran less than $5 and engines generally were not more than $15-30. I recall "early" Athearn engines were rubber band driven, then switched over to gears and even added flywheels in the late 70s to help accurately simulate slow braking. It was always fun when Dad came home from a "surprise" trip to Hobby Lobby with a big bag full of those classic blue boxes!


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## Fang53 (Dec 13, 2016)

I have an A-B-A set of Athearn Santa Fe Alco PA's I acquired in the mid-1980's. They have been upgraded to DCC and run like clockwork. I use them to pull my El Cap (Lo- and Hi-Level) as well as my Super Chief, Chief, and, on occasion, the Fast Mail.


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## cirdan (Dec 14, 2016)

No idea about values, but if something is in near new condition and is even in the original box, that does tend to bump up the value quite a bit.

Something that's been intensively played with and scratched and broken is probably not worth much. There were simply so many of them made and are still plenty around that they aren't likely to accumulate much value.

Modern models have a much higher level of detail and also have better motors and are thus better runners. Older models are thus more for collectors than for operational modellers. This cuts down the market quite a bit unfortunately.


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