Athearn

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Athearn is an American manufacturer of model railroad equipment, which produced and distributed by American hobby manufacturer Horizon Hobby of Champaign, Illinois, USA.

The story of Athearn really began in 1938 when its founder, Irv Athearn, started an elaborate O-scale layout in his mother's house. After placing an ad selling the layout, and receiving much response to it, Irv decided that selling model railroads would be a good living. He sold train products out of his mother's house through most of the 1940s. When he became a full-time retailer in 1946, Irv opened a separate facility in Hawthorne, Ca in 1948, that same year he branched into HO for the first time.

Irv Athearn died in 1991, new owners took control in 1994 but Irv's commitment to offer high-quality products at reasonable prices remained.

Athearn was bought in 2004, by Horizon Hobby Inc. Athearn was then moved from its facility in Compton to a new state-of-the-art facility in Carson, California.