MEGA Vintage Athearn Locomotive Collection - Let's See What Runs! 

The red black and yellow SF locomotives are Santa Fe. That’s the Kodachrome paint scheme from when they were going to merge with southern pacific but the merger wasn’t approved. They were going to paint SPSF on them once the merger was approved. Since it was never approved the joke is that SPSF stands for “shouldn’t paint so fast”. You can also find Southern Pacific locomotives with the same paint scheme just lettered SP.

I am jealous of the fact that every single one of these units is an Athearn blue box

The long nose Santa Fe SD units were called "Snoots". They held the first version of electronic loco-control in the nose. Yep, late 70's or early 80's electronics. No vacuum tubes. "Solid-state" as we called it back in those days. Edit: Michael beat me to it. Still, for the algorithm. One more thing. If you want to accurately portray the Espee units, mask off the numbers and then completely coat the sides/top with grey primer and then dust the roof with flat black. You want to barely see the color underneath. I saw many an Espee with the cab numbers wiped clean, and nothing else. Running diesels constantly in tunnels and snow sheds makes that happen.

Wow Harrison nice haul from this guy named Ricky here! Very generous of him to send you all of this! I also have a Santa Fe fp45 too from athearn.

WOW!!! I'd say that was worth the wait! Knowing you Harrison, these be riding the rails within a few weeks!! :)

Wow Harrison those are nice looking athearn locomotives and I wished I could get more of those C44s because they're usually a lot of money and those long nose sd40-2s are called "Snoot nose" and awesome video and I always enjoy watching your videos and so does my grandmother and I also love your older videos and also greetings from United States of America

The ATSF Geep is a GP50. You can tell by the longer hoods and larger radiators (as compared to a GP40). GP38s only have two fans. Also, the road number checks out against a GP50 (796317-4) built in 1981.

WOW, that is a massive score. Well done Harrison.

here's some info on the actual locomotives (if they existed in real life): 2:20 ATSF 0-6-0 switcher, appears to be fictitious. 2:35 ATSF F7A #271C, no information found, although likely retired. 3:03 BN SD40-2 #6777, appears to be retired. 3:11 BNSF SD40-2 #6836, still in service on BNSF to this day. 3:17 BNSF SD40-2 #6915, still in service on BNSF to this day. 3:22 ATSF SD40-2 #5059 "Kodachrome", still in service on BNSF to this day. 3:43 ATSF SD40-2 #5027, still in service on BNSF to this day. 3:55 UP SD40-2 #3626, appears to be retired. 3:58 ATSF SD40-2 #5036, appears to be retired. 4:06 ATSF F7A #326, no information found, although likely retired. 4:37 BN SD40-2 #6784, appears to be retired. 4:45 UP SD40-2 #3623, still in service as RCPE #3434. 5:22 CNW F7A #4073C, preserved as SLRG #576 in the Lehigh Valley paint scheme. 5:30 CNW F-unit, unknown number. 5:33 MP #234, no information found, although likely retired. 5:42 ATSF FP45 #92, preserved in the IRM, looking to be restored. 5:48 CNW AC4400CW #8814, still in service on UP to this day. 6:06 (top): UP AC4400CW #6872, still in service on UP to this day. 6:06 (bottom): UP C44-9W #9711, appears to be retired. 6:13 BNSF C44-9W #1000, still in service on BNSF to this day. 6:23 ATSF GP50 #3827, still in service on BNSF to this day, although the model appears to be a GP38-2 instead of a GP50 like its real life counterpart. 6:28 UP AC4400CW #6736, still in service on UP to this day. 6:45 ATSF FP45 #5946, destroyed in the 1994 Cajon Pass derailment. 6:47 ATSF FP45 #5945, preserved in Barstow CA. 6:51 ATSF FP45 #93, preserved in Wichita KS. 6:55 ATSF FP45 #5975, appears to be retired. 6:58 ATSF FP45 #5950, appears to be retired. 7:01 ATSF FP45 #5913, no information found, although likely retired. 7:05 Amtrak SDP40F #506, appears to be retired. hopefully this helps.

That truly is an amazing collection of locomotives. I particularly like those Kodachrome units. Also you should do a video organizing all your locomotives into different railroads, I feel like that would be really cool to see.

In a time where products are designed and manufactured for planned obsolescence it is so nice to see the longevity of an Athearn Blue Box locomotive. A model that could be built 30 years ago, run hard for years, put away in storage for a decade then brought back into operation with minor servicing. I could handle a few Athearn project locomotives but the amount sent to you would seem a bit overwhelming to me!

Athearn bluebox is a good well rounded product they last long and I’m happy to own a few products from the bluebox range that run well and are great for simple dcc units

im jealous of the fact that theres that many locomotives smt mainline i love your content keep it up!!! i have never had any athearn locomotives ever keep it up!!!

Man this would be a dream haul, all those engines to work on, tune up and get rolling. I wish Ebay and the like sellers wouldn't be so greedy, a shame to see many old items just sitting and not running on a store page. Great video, looking forward to seeing some of the repairs. Can't beat an old Athearn, they run forever and when they don't they are very easy to get going again.

Nice haul Harrison! I think the silver and red F unit is either a Genesis or Intermountain model.

Quite the haul,, looks good probably could get 85% running just fine.

18 of 32 officiallly run - yes I was keeping track WOW what a great find

Lots of good EMDs! The SF is Santa Fe. The UP 9700 series are D9Ws. The 6700 series UP should be an AC4400CW. This is an impressive unboxing! Lots of project locomotives! Keep it up Harrison

Wow you hit the jackpot I’m generally surprised that you got that many engines in one haul congrats

Amazing video, truly the previous owner was very dedicated. And I fell quite jealous I've been in the hunt for a BN sd 40-2 for quite a time.

The up and cnw operation lifesavers are both AC4400CWs. Note there big AC converter box under the dynamics vents on the conductors side. The santa fe GP unit you called a gp38 is either a gp40 or gp50

Very nice haul Of locos. Most just need a Cleaning and regrease. Probably just cleaning commutators ect.... Cosmetically.....some clue and re-alining rails Overall man good find!!!

The amount of locomotives he's sent you is impressive hope we get a video of you fixing some of them

Video got my 'like' when you found the 'low rider locomotive;' :D

I’ve got that same little 3-axle N-scale switcher, but different paint scheme. What’s weird about it is that - although a 4-axle unit like a GP30 will go around a somewhat tight curve just fine, the little switcher has a nasty habit of derailing. I don’t know if it’s because it doesn’t have a “blind” driver in the center, or if one of the wheel sets is out of gauge. So I’d check the gauge on yours if you’re going to put it in service. 😊

These would be cool to see all cleaned up and repaired, and maybe a few new parts (the CNW dash 9) some of these would look good back to back as pairs/sets.

10:38 that one does have a loose fly wheel, I have a few athearn units with loose fly wheels and they sound the same

Dude, that is some pretty incredible stuff. I've never seen such a collection of old blueboxes. Basically the definition of what I do at train shows lol. Also the UP units in the 6700-6800 series are AC4400s while 9711 is a Dash-9. Also, how in the world do you store all this stuff that you get?

Love the video SMT. Jealous!!!

Genuinely cool

Whish I could come across a deal like that congratulations on your purchase

SD-40-2s are amazing. very lucky!

I got my snow spreader today and also bought my first ho swicher locomotive today now just waiting for it to be shipped out its the exact same locomotive our mill had back in the day it a Pennsylvania rail locomotive but I will repaint it to match the one our mill had I'm going to make an unboxing video when I comes in and I'll insert a picture of the actual smurfit stone locomotive from my home town little fact our mill went through a bunch of different owners but the first name was BATHURST POWER AND PAPER all caps olive green with black accent and gold pinstripe On the first diesel locomotive from our meal before that one they had steam

Hey Harrison! How much would you sell that. War Bonnet Santa Fe?

The Amtrak unit is a FP45 modified to depict an SDP40F.

CNW 8814 is now UP 6716 while UP 6736 was CNW 8834

Boys, SMT uploaded. Get out the popcorn and soft drinks.

Most of my locomotive collection is Athearn Blue Box. I'm rostering 600+ Diesel's and I have at least 200+ for parts, not all are Athearn.

That’s a lifetime of collecting for most modelers.

Also the SF units are Santa Fe in a paint scheme from a failed merger with the southern Pacific

Nice Video, did you figure out the AC stuff?

well folks in todays video 🗣️🗣️🗣️💯💯🔥🔥❗️❗️❗️❗️

That is awesome.

One of the up widecab locomotives is a dash 9 the other is an AC4400CW 9700s up locomotives are dash 9s the similar locomotives that begin with 67 or 68 are the ac4400s

6:50 i just got one of these ATSF SP45s at a hobby store

I would love to buy that kodachrome F45!

There is a lot of ho scale trains in Huntsville Alabama and there is a soo line one if you interested in them the store up there is call r/c hobbies up stairs there is n scale and ho scale and g scale

All,the,train,you have from the guy gave you ar,the best

When is your next live stream?

hi, are the trains used here? where do you buy them?

Way to go Ricky

I bet that was that Ricky from Trailer Park Boys. He says Arizona to throw off Lahey and Randy. They probably got drunk and broke the network. Unboxing The Patrick Swayze Express.

6:13 mi tren favorito xd

17:03 Hello. I would like to connect with you so I can get help on engines and repair. I am trying to help my Grandson get excited about trains. Is there any place to get motors and gears? I have some steam engines that have worn out splines on the gears and won’t move. Is there any place that has directions other than just diving into the engines to fix them? Thanks!!😊😊

These are trains that Baby Boomers and Generation X Railfans Grew up with.

Hi! ? For you sir whats the best Ho trains track? I'm thinking about sitting up Ho 😊

Wow that's a lot of stuff. I have that same Santa Fe war bonnet fp-45. Athearn is one of my favorite brands. One thing about those locomotives and some of them sounded like the drive system is cracked or starting to go. They use spline drive shafts which you can get readily available they use spline drive shafts which you can get readily available by A-Line number 12030 it comes with the universal joint connectors for the worm gear the spline shafts which you can cut to fit which is how I fixed my fp45 and a Burlington u-boatloco then i added nickel silver wheels part number ATH40028 to replace the steel wheels entirely because I misplaced a brass square bearing. It runs absolutely beautiful especially when I replace the motor mounts what's the new ones are silicone White. Just so you know the older blue box locomotives use 40 inch type wheels where is the newer ones use 42" . If you replace the wheels from Stihl to nickel silver it makes your life a lot easier and is a great upgrade to your locomotives. The steel wheels oxidized very quickly as you know and have to be cleaned frequently. Also if you upgraded to DCC on some of them it makes it better because of the Sparks that are created with steel wheels will destroy the decoder as I was told by a hobby shop that I went to in Warwick RI.

They still use the 80s abd 90s units here n bham al. I ddnt realize tvwe were xld n shhht jts Alabama Tennessee River I thnk railroad

All for the price of shipping??? Oh, man….

ive counted them there are 32 ho scale and 1 nscale

My dad bought me a Athearns genesis csx sd60m

Hello smt I wonder if you have any Chicago northwestern passenger cars if you don’t have any we fans might send some in if you want 😊

Great way to start a Friday morning

He did it again, folks, he bought another collection of engines Better yet, they’re all Athearn!

Seeing all of those BNSF locos reminds me of when I used to work with the BNSF at their Phoenix Mobest yard. Phoenix is a terminus for BNSF, so loaded trains would come in with 3 or 4 locos on them and stop. Then they had to get empty train cars out of Phoenix to the rest of the system. They'd also occasionally have to send extra locomotives out to the rest of the system. Twice a day they'd run a "Baretable" train of empty container cars out to LA, and occasionally combine it with a "power move" of excess locos. I saw trains with 9 or 10 locomotives heading out at least once a week.

OMG it's just unbelievable, here in Argentina you have to save a lot of time to be able to afford one of those, they're sold as "new" and really expensive :( You're really lucky to live in a country with good economy and to have such generous friends!!

I’m a locomotive engineer for BNSF I’ve been trying to get my hands on some BNSF units mainly a dash 9 or some kind of gevo. Also I’m looking forward to a video of the repair video.

The strength of the blue-box line (of locomotives and rolling stock) is their simplicity and robustness. They’re really easy to service as well. One thing I like to do is solder some 24-26 ga. stranded wire from the metal strip on top of the motor to the metal current-pickups on both trucks, as well as the one on the light; this improves the conductivity as opposed to the metal current pickups just riding on the top strip with only the springiness to rely on. 😊

I’m definitely sad to see that they weren’t handled properly during shipping but super happy you finally got to see what was in those boxes! Have fun! Ricky 🚂

Probably one of the biggest collections you’ve unboxed! Lots of variety and look alike as in there lol! I have a CNW AC44 from Athearn asw and I hope someday to find some SPSF merger painted power for my layout sometime! Kinda sucks not all of them run but I think you might be able to tackle the problems!

Super. A lifetime supply of HO locomotives for most model railroaders for free, and only three out of dozens of boxes of locomotives and train cars and train stuff donated and mailed to you. Incredible. Hello again from the Tracy Mountain Railway in Colorado. 💙 T.E.N.

Please record your fixing of some of the trains. Your previous videos tackling taking apart and fixing your broken locomotives have inspired me to fix an old GO train n scale locomotive from my childhood. Your videos explaining the parts and what to look at for which problem, helped me get the courage to figure out and fix mine. Runs great now, it was only drawing power prior.

That is a serious haul of loco's. Very nice 😁👍

Wow a really nice collection I love all of the Santa Fe I also like the one Chicago great Western

Wow so fantastic thanks Harrison some more fixer uppers!

Saludos hermosas locomotoras

Athearns are practically indestructible. A little TLC is all that's needed. Good unboxing. From Texas.

At 5:48 you called that CNW AC44CW a Dash 9 just keep that in note and I would love to see that unit nice and repaired

Nice to see people sharing their equipment!

Sometimes I think I need to start posting more train videos on here so I can get followers who would send me stuff. Then I look at the pile of projects I've already got going and realize... I'm doing fine on my own there. The blue and yellow Santa Fe F-unit is the same paint scheme as my very first engine (also an Athearn blue box F7) back in the early 200X's. It's gone through a lot but thanks in part to things I've learned watching your videos it's still running strong.

The "SF" locomotives are actually Santa Fe locomotives in a paint scheme called the "kodachrome" paint scheme. Some SP or Southern Pacific locomotives also had the "Kodachrome" paint scheme. It was supposed to be a merger between the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific in 1987, but they were a little too confident the merger was going to happen, so they painted some units in the kodachrome paint scheme and the railroad that the unit belonged to would for example if it was a Southern pacific locomotive it would only say SP and they would add the SF later when the merger happend and vice versa with the Santa fe. But when the "SPSF" (Southern Pacific Santa Fe) merger was denied by the ICC, they had units that were left on both railroad in a merger scheme that never happened. Railfans eventually made a joke about the failed merger, and they started calling it a joke. "Shouldn't paint so fast," railfans called it. I think there might still be at least 5 units still in the kodachrome paint scheme from 1987 running around the United States ringht now. Well, besides that, this was a fantastic video!

It’s fun having you pen boxes! Feel like I’m right there w/you!! A ghost…haha😂😅🎉❤

Actually working on my layout at the moment of watching one of your videos so maybe I'll make a video before it gets too late but I'm not sure

Amazing the stuff people give you, all is well deserved too...! ...watched some of your last livestream, enjoyable, seems alot of "Youngsters" follow along The MEGA anything box/lot videos generate the most views... ...I'm an "Oldster", love watching you dig through those boxes P.S. enjoy your trip!

This is incredible. Surely you are running out of space, hahaha. Don't worry, I still have some empty shelves if it just gets too much for you.

Looks like the Santa Fe Corwith yard engine facilities circa 1996 in HO. The CNW dash 9 was the last new power the CNW got before being borged and saw similar Fs hauling commuter trains through town growing up. The long nose -2s were called snoots in the railfan community for obvious reasons. IIRC they were SF and UP only and the extra nose space was to house the radio control gear for mid train helpers. The Superchief FP45s are interesting in the fact the smaller Santa Fe lettering one is the actual passenger livery one while the billboard lettering ones are the late 80s/90s repaints for hotshot intermodal service. The Amtrak FP45 mod could possibly be an attempt to simulate an SDP40 (IIRC) an early Amtrak loco that had a derailment issue the ended their careers fairly early. Something to do with the location of the steam generator at the rear of the locomotive and either weight of the water tanks or sloshing of the water as the tanks emptied would under certain circumstances force the rear truck to derail. Kind of a PITA if it does that in the approach to Chicago Union Station but can ruin your day very effectively if it happens at speed out where Jesus lost His sandles in Nebraska.

I was at the Mad Town train show this morning and i got a SF Kodachrome F45 at the cost of 25 dollars! And it was also an Athearn.

surprised you did not set the bad ones on the side

You know what's crazy, when you find somebody with the same name as you.

hello SMT Mainline & it's is Randy and i like Yours video is cool & Thanks Harrison Friends Randy & Good Luck on The Vintage Athearn Locomotive Collecttion Thanks Harrison Friends Randy

Harrison=you're like a kid at Christmas time==HA HA==you are so lucky

That's an amazing collection of athern locomotives.

It looks like you now have a Western railroad starter pack. There are a lot of locomotives with detail parts, but two caught my eye. The first would be the Red and Silver Santa Fe Warbonnet F7A. I noticed that there was not any steam generator detail which should be actually correct for the locomotive. The Red and Silver Warbonnet F7Bs would have the steam generator, but not the A units. Steam generation was necessary for passenger operation, but not all of the locomotives needed them. The second unit was the Mopac geep. I noticed it had four exhaust stacks which the Athearn shell normally had the standard two. Also, the person went the extra step to remove the dynamic brakes which was a standard feature on the Athearn shell. Overall, this is a neat addition to the collection, and it will be nice to see a future update(s) on how these locomotives are brought back to top order.

Those SD40-2s with the longer nose was called a "snoot". The longer nose was necessary to house the radio control equipment for the remote helpers in mountain territory. Some SP tunnel motors had that long nose as well.

5:44 OMG! A Illinois Railway Museum Resident!

Love all of the F and FP45s. By some of my favorite locomotives

So which do you have more of, locomotives or passenger/freight cars?

Dang, worth the wait for sure. That’s my kind of haul, full of Santa Fe. I can just hear all the kids who watched this video. Kid: Hey ma, pa, can I have a PO Box? Parents: Why? Kid: People will send me trains.

Super super early

Talk about being Loco loco 😂. Imagine a lashup of all those, looking as if they were all on the way to the desert storage tracks.