Irv Athearn founded The Athearn Company along with his love of accumulating and building model trains in the year of 1938. He initially launched himself by building a large O-scale configuration at his parents’ residence, which he eventually marketed for a large ten thousand dollar amount. Dollars. For this period, that was truly a large amount of money that also gave him all the foresight and vision to create the Athearn Company, which would definitely be his income for many years to come.
By 1946, Irv had turned his hobby into a full assembly and production crew still working out of the limited space of his mother’s house. It was time to expand. He moved to California in 1948 with the release of HO scale model trains. He then pursued the refrigerated kit that gives customers the fantastic convenience of pre-built models, his keen business sense helping him realize this was what his customer base demanded. It was soon followed by the very famous Ready To Roll model trains which, due to their high production quality and cheap pricing structure, became the most popular among enthusiasts of the time.
Irv Athearn has always manufactured model railway products that were of the highest quality and provided the greatest value to their customers. Irv was able to stay on top of his game once he devised prototypes for the first locomotives to be built that had flywheels on the axle. In 1991 Irv Atthearn sadly passed away. Athearn Model Trains continued to grow after his death and was eventually purchased by Horizon Hobby Incorporated, which continues to uphold the high standards that Irv Althearn worked so diligently to create during his lifetime.
Heavyweight Passenger, Streamlined Passenger, Warbonnet and Iron Horse are all types of model trains that the Athearn Company is very famous for casting. The locomotives, rolling stock, vehicles and accessories are all HO scale and have been well produced by the Athearn Company. The most current model is the Genesis, which now comes with Sound Traxx Tsunami sound and DCC drivers. Some of the most sought after kits are the HO Ready To Roll type which, due to their brilliant paint schemes, numbering decals, detailed air hoses, MU hoses, and tie rods, became popular with enthusiasts.
Very rarely do we make a living doing something we are passionate about like Irv Athearns did. With his mindset and company, he established and produced a high-quality, respected product. These standards were established and still hold true in the model train industry today. RIP Irv Athearn.
