Athearn Blue Box "era's"

[nwdrummer379]

Forgive me if there is another topic, or information on this elsewhere but I've looked all over. Now, I've been buying these things on a weekly basis from the LHS and I noticed 3 different art styles on the boxes. The first and probably oldest is the one with the steam locomotive on the front, next is the Santa Fe F-units, and then the box with the Santa Fe wide cabs. Can someone give me the eras of these boxes? If you need more info like serial numbers I could provide those as well. -Jeff

 

[UP2CSX]

I can give a general idea based on my memory. The one with the steam engine alone is from the first runs is of the plastic body cars, the original RTR, so to speak, since you didn't have to assemeble the body. this was from the very early 50's up until about 1960. The classic blue box, with the steam engine coming from one side and the F units on the other, lasted from about 1960 until at least the late 80's. Sometime in the late 80's, they switched to the Santa Fe wide nose engine, and that was the box up until the demise of the BB last year. This is from memory so someone else may have more definitive information.