Indeed. Four items, two of which are just different paint schemes on the same model. Whoop de do. Wish they'd do that reefer in N though.
At the risk of asking a hopelessly stupid question, has anyone sent Athearn a well-written, flame-free email asking what they think their long-term outlook for n-scale might be? Echoing other folks, in my opininion they have added to the n-scale hobby with some interesting products and hope that over the long haul, they will stay in it. I cannot blame a business for producing product that brings in revenue quickly, and keeps the lights on and the doors open. Most of what I've read here looks like speculation.
Just maybe this means they have come out with nothing new for N Scale this last quarter???? Think positive
Yeah along with every other quarter for the last 6 months. I have not seen hardly one new product from Athearn in n scale in quite some time now.
Athearn has already said publicly, don't expect any HO RTR, Roundhouse or N scale announcements till next year. Items that have already been announced should start showing up in 2013. Daniel pretty much spelled it out earlier in the topic and nobody seems to have read his post. Short version..... Athearn lost their production facility that was used for HO RTR, Roundhouse, and N scale. 6 months before that, they had lost the facility that produced their Genesis product. They had just found a new place to make the Genesis product when the other plant was closed. Genesis product was delayed a couple months so they were already playing catch up when the RTR plant closed. They have been in the process of recovering the tooling from the RTR plant all summer. In the meantime there is no reason to announce a product that you have no clue when it will arrive. They have been announcing only Genesis product until they get the RTR/Roundhouse/N tooling completely switched over to the new plant that makes the Genesis. At that point they can plan prodction schedules and start cranking out product again. Some of you seem to think they have a magic machine that they just push a button and out pops a train car, and somebody at Athearn is choosing not to push the button.
Interesting if true. But didn't Bowser stopped making N stuff before the situation in China started and they never did make any of the Delaware Valley stuff although it is still on their website. But if they are going to do things in house as you say then all well and good.
http://www.bowser-trains.com/Plasti.../Plastic Injection Molding Dept July 2012.htm The only Delaware Valley cars I know of are the Cylindrical Hopper and Airslide and both have been available from Bowser. We have some in our shop the last I checked.
Thanks for the explanation. However, facts are often of little interest in online discussion. Hope this mess in China gets sorted out eventually. Tried pre-ordering again. Product vanished in thin air. Manufacturer promises it will arrive...eventually, not sure when. Lots of great new stuff, but you can't be sure when and if it will arrive. Must be a nightmare for a lot of dealers. Best of times, worst of times.
I seem to notice that problems in Red China mess up manufactures N Scale supply and their abilty to make new products so I say move the factories to the US of A, even though it probably won't ever happen.
Oh it could easily happen. But with the increased labor cost, us modelers would ¤¤¤¤¤ and complain having to pay maybe double for the same product just to have it be made in the USA.
A major obstacle is even getting things moved out of China. Especially if the factory there owns the dies, equipment, etc. In which case, you're really stuck. Years ago, when the big shift that direction began, I foresaw and stated there'd be problems with all phases of control. It was simply either not understood, or deliberately ignored how that is completely different culture, with different political and business philosophy. Here we are today, a lot of problems. Oh well.
Well if somebody can make tooling similar but different they might be able to make money and have stuff made here. Their tooling is hostage and someone else makes money. Too bad someone couldn't make Thrall gons like the HO Athearns...
The reason there is no Athearn N logo is because there is no Athearn N announcements. As Daniel explained, they are getting production back up and running, so we'll hopefully see some new announcements in N soon. We just need to wait it out a bit, me I like the lack of announcements, means I can save up some money for other companies announcement. Look at last month's announcements, there was no Ready-to-Roll logo, so according to your thought process, that means that Athearn has dropped the Ready-to-Roll line, and as we can see by this months announcements, they haven't.
For the sake of debate.... IF Athearn where to drop "N"...would there be a rip in the time-space continuum ??? Enquiring minds want to know.... I am sure the other manufactures would be happy to pick up the slack if they did. Then again...as had been stated by others...Athearn just may not have any new N to announce. I wouldnt get my knickers in a twist just yet. JMHO...YMMV Thnxs
Coming in off the first page, you guys have to remember that right now as an HO scale mfrg, Athearn is fairly limited In Their HO department too. Give them time to get over the whole warehouse fiasco, get the tooling set up and the People trained, and then we'll see if they're actually done with N or not. Regarding the factories coming back over, I highly encourage you all go back and read some of Jason Shron's posts and emails about Rapido looking at it. It really isn't as easy money wise as we think, requires retrofitting old buildings to the point of building new.
Just got my monthly update from Horizon and NOTHING mentioned of anything in N scale. I think the writing is on the wall at Athearn HQ that they are out of N scale.
It's weird how sites are completely sold out of the F/FP45's, and Athearn hasn't announced new numbers or anything. It's like they said, "Well those sold extremely well and made us a ton of money. So that means we should never make them again." They're getting the "KATO" mentality.
I'm beginning to think many people don't read, only write. BoxcabE50, many manufacturers went into this with their eyes wide open. Many talked of "making a deal with the Devil". But competitors were doing it, so like the proverbial lemming............. Beside, what part of Communism, and the state owns part of your tooling was surprising? Typical short term thinking.
For myself, I read, but really did not need to. Having some first hand familiarity dating back several decades. I long ago knew what the handwriting on the wall said about this shift overseas. Long before most folks developed even a slight inkling of oops. Deal with the devil? That's a fools paradise. You will get burned, the only question is when. The moment you sign on, your time begins running out. That's part of what I was saying. And, Frank Campagna, also that far too many went into this without even first looking.
