Makes me wonder what I could get for a weathered version: We need to email those ebay auctions to Athearn and show them there is still more potential in the n-scale market. I think their new owners Horizon don't see the n-scale business being worth the big effort. It is also worth mentioning that Athearn only did one decorated Big Boy with smoke lifters. The other one was undecorated, so that may be why that particular road number is going for more money. - jamie
The Big Boy was done when Horizon was in full control of Athearn. They only lasted about two weeks in inventory so I am fairly sure that Horizon is aware of how they sold. I wonder if there is some other problem preventing them from making more, they sure keep coming out with big expensive stuff on the HO side of things so it may not be fear of sales potential.
John actually told me that the price would go up quite a bit on on another run of Big Boys as their costs in China have escalated. It sounded like it was enough to concern everyone there. Apparently the factory tells them the n-scale models are far more complicated and time consuming to construct and they resist building these to start with and then want a bit more coin to make it happen. As for Horizon I had a conversation with some Athearn people saying there was a disconnect with Horizon and what Athearn would like to be doing. I'm guessing if they were willing to mention it freely there must be something going on there. I didn't know Horizon was controlling Athearn when the Big Boys were produced (were they already in the pipeline as Horizon took over?). Anyway there was a period of time John was saying that UP FEF units were likely next and then that changed a year later. It is a shame because Athearn did a beautiful job on the Challenger and Big Boy units. -j
That's probably because UP only had one Big Boy with smoke lifters, No.4019, and then only experimental for a short time, it's speculated they were borrowed from a Challenger to see how they worked.
Here is a quote from the press release... Athearn's management and staff will remain the same and Athearn's production and new release plans will continue uninterrupted throughout the transition, including the production of Athearn's traditional "blue box" kits and it's Ready-to-Roll™, Genesis™ and Athearn N scale products. The development and production of the exciting, new products is continuing as planned, including the recently announced sound-equipped HO scale "Challenger" steam locomotive, the HO scale SD70 MAC locomotive, the N scale Coalporter and the N scale Automax. The only significant change resulting from the acquisition is that after March 1, 2004, Horizon will become the exclusive distributor of all subsequently released Athearn products and all new production of existing Athearn products. The HO Challenger had just been announced, the HO Big Boy wasn't for another year or two. The N Challenger came after the HO Big Boy and then the N Big Boy after the N Challenger.
Actually, the person who put this up (My dad) knows exactly what he was doing. The exact same model, as someone else was pointing out in this thread, already had a bid of over $1000 and he decided to capitalize on that by selling his for cheaper. It sold in less than a day, by the way. A fool and their money will soon be parted. Long time lurker, first time poster. :tb-wink:
Smart man. Wait for a ripe market and take advantage of it. I have noticed there is another on the auction site. I just wish I had one to sell now. Alas, I have yet to set a UP locomotive on my layout, probably never will. However, in my next layout I might see a Rio Grande challenger on the tracks or a Yellowstone since they leased them from DMIR for a short period of time and they are just awesome locos.
