A Quick Look: Athearn 2293 N UPS Wedge Trailers and Dolly

Shipped to dealers in August 2021, packaged in a plastic jewel-box, the dolly and pair of Athearn 28' UPS Wedge Trailers have crisp printing, free-rolling wheels, one-piece dual tire assemblies that are molded in black plastic and mounted to a steel axle, mud flaps, and raised and lowered landing gear options.

Using rather generic looking tooling, the Athearn UPS trailer models are disappointing when they are compared to the Trainworx item number 42844 pups that were released in 2016.

Athearn 2293 N UPS Freight 20' Wedge Trailers and Dolly Set

The Athearn models have the following short comings:

1. Although they are printed on the back and front of the models, there are no road numbers on the body sides.

2. Except for the oversized rivets that are found along the four edges of the front and side panels, the body sides and end are perfectly smooth, lacking the vertical lines of rivets that are seen on the prototype trailers.

3. Not seen or visible on the prototype trailers, the models have large vertical lines of rivets on the rear roll up door sections.

4. Oversized, rather than being offset to the driver's side, the air and electrical connections interface box is cast into the lower center of the front of each trailer.

5. The three red clearance lights that are located over the rear door are round, rather than rectangular.

6. Though the tires have nice sidewall detail, the trailer wheels have five hole (i.e., as opposed to the prototype's two hand hold) rims that lack the silver trim that is seen along the outer edge of the prototypes.

7. A trailer dolly with a four (i.e., as opposed to a six) digit road number, painted light gray wheel rims with no silver edge trim and twelve lug nuts (i.e., as opposed to black or dark brown rims with a pair of hand holds), and a spare tire mounted underneath the frame, in between the mud flaps.

Prototype UPS Freight Pup Trailer and UPS Trailer Dolly 989423

With the exception of the two hand hold style rims that are seen on prototype UPS trailers (i.e., because the Trainworx replicas are fitted with ten hole style rims), none of the remaining discrepancies can be found on the Trainworx models.

While the contemporary paint scheme that Athearn elected to use on its UPS pup trailer release differs from the one that was seen on the Trainworx products, the lack of and/or poorly executed body detailing on the generic models are major issues that cannot be remedied by an end user.

Trainworx 42844 N UPS 20' Pup Trailers with Dollies

Although the Trainworx models have not been re-issued since the initial 2016 production run, given the lengthy list of short comings, I am unable to endorse the purchase of the new Athearn product.

View additional articles like this one in the Trains N Scale™ Models and Prototypes Blog.