I am a bit sad that they finally ended up shutting down. I have been critical of their products for a few years... after being disappointed with the original 4-6-2 Pacific that was released in 2003. They didn't seem to look at making their models with Quality first... and as mentioned before... they were very slow to adopt new industry standards for couplers. I doubt the locomotive lines will be picked up by anyone because their 20th century technology is already ancient. Who knows... maybe Micro-trains will acquire and rehabilitate those models to 21st century standards for their train sets. As for the other aspects of their model railroading part of the business... the structures are probably not their own dies/molds AFAIK... they have been shopped around from different importers in Europe to Asia over the past 50 years. I would imagine we will see Kader (Bachmann) end up producing these items for another importer.
Perhaps its not the 'politically correct' manufacturing New York is lookin for. Its family owned. Not owned by a bunch of suits and skirts. Still to bad... Sent from my Commando
My Model Power Locomotives will remain un touched.. ok,unmodified or cut into due to Respect for this Fallen Company. Tom
Makes me glad I got my 4-4-0 when I did. Sorry to see Model Power go, I have a few of their farm house kits, which I really like.
A quick look on that Internet Auction Community in the "Model Power" category for N Scale reveals that there's still time to place your bet on when the first item is listed as "RARE!!!! VINTAGE!!!! OUT OF PRODUCTION!!!! OUT OF BUSINESS!!!! GONE!!!! LAST CHANCE!!!!" (also, "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!") . I suspect much of what they distributed will be picked up by another brand. I'm hoping against certain ones based in Wisconsin: MSRPs will triple and availability will be questionable.
I wonder how much inventory was still on hand at shutdown? Surely that will not sit and collect dust, or be routed to a land fill.
Or a Mikado now I think about it, the two most common steam loco types and nobody makes them. If no other manufacturer takes up the MP tooling hopefully Bachmann will step up to fill the gap with their own.
Ok. So where were all the locomotives produced? China or Korea? I have heard both. And what happens to all the dies, tooling and whatever else there is? This stinks of foulness the more I think about it. Sent from my Commando
I have a liilte of everything of theirs. The mikado and pacific were both sort of odd ducks. Since Kato had a homerun with the Mikado it was a head scratcher why they bothered making them. But as mentioned earlier they had that Vandy tender no one else made. Now the pacific, theres a nother story. Put a decent tender pickup on any of their steamers and you had something. There are ways to make the tenders all wheels live, but its a pain. And those cast on handrails?? Really?? And the pickup on the engine themselves. Did a government agency design those? Now those FP7s werent too bad. If you needed pulling power there was your answer! Put a couple of those together and there goes fifty cars easy. I think I have three of those. The FP7s could be had for decent money and would be a good starter engine for a young person. RIP MP.
Hmm, I was unaware of them closing. It'll be sad to see them go. Most of my early HO railwaying was founded on Model Power rolling stock.
You might then also ask why Kato stopped making the Mikado and never followed through with a Pacific. Now MP are gone we have neither.
Wellll...I don't have a single piece of Model Power product. I've been at N-scale since the mid-1980's, and I never bought a single Model Power engine, car or anything else. When I was a kid, the train set was an S-scale American Flyer two-track setup my dad had bought for me. A little later it was Tyco, Revell and Mantua HO scale, so I have absolutely no tear-filled memories of MP. I hate to see any company lose their shirts and go belly-up, but it happens...even in the model railroad industry. Bye Model Power. I'm sure there are others who hate to see you go, but I'm not one of 'em. Cheerio! Bob Gilmore
It could indeed happen to any manufacturer, it was just Model Power's number that came up this time, our hobby is only a minor backyard industry in the general scheme of things. Model Power were not a fly by night business or otherwise dodgey operation, they were into HO as well as N and model planes as well as other hobbies and over the years imported some quality and repsected items into the U.S.A. such as the Minitrix diesels which were the best you could get before Kato improved their mechanisms. Even if you don't have any MP products and rather die than have any on your layout they are one of the manufacturers that helped bring American N scale to where it is today. I've just been onto one of the big online dealers who still has some stock left and ordered another two mikados and a pacific.
Think the closure of Model Power is bad? You should be in model rocketry right now (My other hobby); then you would know real pain. We just lost Semroc and while MP produced a couple of niche items a small segment of the N-scale community wanted, Semroc produced well over a hundred of the highest quality low/mid-power model rocket kits available, many of which had no comparable item from any other manufacture. Not only did Semroc produce and sell their own kits, they were THE leading manufacturer and retailer for parts many modelers used for scratch building their own designs with over 200 styles of balsa nose cones and virtually any size of centering-ring and tube reducers etc. etc. etc. In addition to the above Semroc produced and provided custom parts that OTHER small companies used to produce their own kits. So far with the closure of Semroc; two other low-power kit manufactures have shutdown their own operations and another has had to severely cut back on the kits they can provide. It would be like the only company that makes couplers and trucks shutting down thus taking Atlas, Kato, etc. with it or the one and only company that produced the actual rail used by ALL the companies that make track.
Model Power's current locomotive lineup is/was made in Korea by Ajin. Apparently they were a difficult partner to work with as they were very resistant to the idea of making any improvements to the models (or, apparently, improving their QC). That's what I heard from one anonymous MP employee, anyway. Cheers, -Mark
Mark , According to your site MODEL POWER, ATLASin2003, ATHEARN and MT use AJIN. Anyone know what became of this company is it still in business? Patiently waiting to see what happens with or at MODELPOWER .. as noted here; See www.modelpower.com update 24 APRIL 2014. Tom
