Athearn CNW GP35 #853

Recently I purchased a number of items from a gentleman who was selling his father's trains.   We had a cordial exchange and I was pleased to become the new bearer of some very nice Athearn Blue Box Locomotives and cars including this and the SD45 I posted earlier.  

This is an Athearn Blue Box kit GP35 in the livery of CNW #853.

The CNW shell arrived separately along with a powered Erie Lackawanna example.  The EL shell is already off to friend of mine and the CNW shell now sits on the powered Chassis.

As with other early Blue-Box tooling, the detail is fairly accurate, but it does have the wider-than-prototype body to accommodate the larger motors Athearn was using in the 1960's.  This doesn't bother me, but I generally don't mix wide-body locos with others in my consists.  

Athearn BB Tip:

Some early GP35 shells have ridges inside that don't look notable, but are just thick enough to rub against the steel flywheels that some  Athearn drives have.  Remove these ridges or the motor will not turn.  It was the case with this shell but once the ridges were removed the motor turns freely.

As seems to be the case on all the locos his father had built, quite a number of nice minor improvements have been made.  On this one the railings  have been nicely painted, number boards added plus a few other decals and minor paint details.

A fine addition from one of my favorite railroads!

-Karl