Lost somewhere in the N scale news from Athearn was the announcements that the popular HO manufacturer also acquired the assets of Rail Power Products (whose diesel shells are made to fit on Athearn chassis) and the freight car line from Details West. Rob (Yankinoz) mentioned the RPP purchase in another thread (thanks, Rob). I bought several of the DW cars back in the early 1980s, and I can tell you they're great cars. Then and now, they'd make a great addition to the roster of any HO layout. As for RPP, it was reported that the shells will be used in the line of Ready-to-Roll diesels coming soon. Geez, could we actually get CF7s in HO? Or perhaps scale-width GP35s, GP60Ms, B23-7s, SD40s, and so on? A cheaper alternative to Kato, sure, but still way ahead of train-set quality. All I can tell you is, stay tuned!
Hmmm, Proto Power West made a lot of stuff. I have bought their motors, by A-Line. But I liked other things as well, like their rolling stock carrying bags and boxes. Makes me wonder.
A-Line has developed a close relationship with Intermountain - with Intermountan releasing built up, ready to run A-Line rolling stock (at least they are meant to, I havn't seen any of it down here in OZ yet)
The Husky stacks I have seen advertised as "in stock", but they were something of an odd choice to start with as Athearn had also just done them as a RTR item! I'll be interested in a set of "bulkhead" stack cars if/when they appear from Intermountain. What boxcars did Details West do? I know of a 52' double plug door and a 50' single plug door car, any others? Ref the RPP range, the trailers i'm sure will sell well, they are all really nice models, the 56' well Husky Stack should do well too. Loco's should be interesting, I did a quick search on the net to try & find a list of what they did, RPP's website has gone already but I got these from the Internet Trains site and thought i'd make some observations... *C32-8 - Well I don't see anyone else doing one... *C30-7 - Atlas has since done a nice version that can be picked up fairly cheap, so this might be unlikely to be seen again. *C40-8W (Santa Fe & Std Cab) - Hmmm, Bachmann have just promised a retooled one for 2003, we'll see what happens with these! *C44-9W (Santa Fe & Std Cab) - Athearn already has a pretty good one in their lineup. *B23-7 - Might sell well, a much requested loco. *B40-8 - Atlas has just done a great one, lets see if Athearn thinks they are in direct competition? *GP35 (Dynamic & Non-Dynamic) - Should be a staple loco in the new range. *GP40X - These would be very funky RTR *GP60 - Athearn already has one in their lineup - it will be interesting to see which one they choose to use for the RTR... *GP60M - Will sell like hot cakes *GP60B - ditto *SD7/9 (Dynamic & Non-Dynamic) - Might sell, but not sure as P2K has done loads over the past few years. There could be a niche market on 1960's+ paint schemes that P2K has somewhat overlooked. *SD38 (Dynamic & Non-Dynamic) - Appeals to me, I think a "J" one will turn up at some point Expect some nice "limited editions" from this one. *SD40 (Dynamic & Non-Dynamic) - Should become a big seller, even with the Kato as competitor. *SD45 - Ditto, plus the Bachmann spectrum one can be got cheap, and they have also promised a retooled one for 2003! *SD45-2 - Has been one of the more obvious "never done by a big manufacturer" loco's of the last few years, should sell well. ATSF bicentennials please *SD60 - Market flooded with Proto ones? - Or will they release them against the negative publicity that the beautiful-but-incompatible drivetrain has caused? Should be interesting. *SD60M (2 and 3 window cab) - Proto's about to appear, notes as above? *SD90MAC - Just done very well by Kato, it will be interesting to see if Athearn bothers? *CF7 (Round & Angled cab) - I can foresee Santa Fe ones coming out, if you are looking for a shortline one then try and find an RPP shell quick before they dissapear! Should be interesting!
A quick thought ref the C30-7's, if Athearn was mine, I'd throw out some limited edition ones patched into leasing company schemes on this one, Atlas covered the regular roads fairly well, but leasers would be an interesting niche market for them...
Well thought-out list, MArtyn! I can't fault any of your opinions. On the CF7s, I wouldn't be surprised if they did come out as undecorateds, plus maybe a shortline or two. On the SD38s, if that model DID come out, I'd expect to see just about all the US Steel roads. I can only hope Athearn would rework the die to make an SD38-2. Shame there isn't a B30-7 anywhere listed- several roads had them on their roster. As for patch-job C30-7s, the average modeler could just about do that himself with paint & some decal lettering. The MP, UP and CR fans will love to see a good B23-7 on the market.
Possibly...I couldn't think of any shortlines important (thinking wide appeal) enough to produce when I wrote earlier, maybe Twin Cities & Western, cool paint scheme too... Yeah, would be nice, I'd like an SD39 as well but that's *really* likely....not It's not that bad a suggestion really, the Santa Fe used SD39's in road service (before they became yard loco's) and the SP had some too, I would buy Illinois Terminal lime green ones, they went to N&W and some of them went on to Guilford...that sounds like plenty of paint jobs to me... True, but the whole point of this range was to boost their RTR range, so you're aiming at folk who maybe wouldn't do that...however simple a task it is. Yeah, Santa Fe has a bunch as well...so sounds like a winner! Mmmmmm Mopac blue ones....(Homer moment! )
Just a bit of inside info, Athearn plans to do everything they got from RPP. THe first on tap are the GP60M/B sets. They will NOT be cheap.
Any definition on "not cheap"? List prices on the RTR line so far has been $65-$80-ish...depending on the loco...i'm hoping they won't push that boundary too far, at least not without throwing in lots more details...
Well, with the current price of regular Athearn diesels in the 30-60 dollar range, and the Genesis line over 110-120 dollars (I'm sure that range is low), you can bet the R-T-R line will be in between, much like the R-T-R freight cars. One interesting observation- the R-T-R cabooses have plastic end rails and ladders. Wonder if the diesels will also have this feature? Martyn- you're most likely right on the CF7s. But, if they did come out with private-owner paint schemes (Midsouth, Twin Cities & Western, industrial locomotive supplier Rescar, for instance), I wouldn't be too surprised. And on the C30-7s, yeah, I'm looking at it from a personal point of view as far as leasers go. It would be nice if they came out, but I don't expect them any time soon (except from private custom painters). One final note- Smokey Valley made some nice handrail kits for the RPP shells. Wonder what'll happen to these kits now that Athearn has RPP?
