Charlie, The hopper car tooling is among those being held hostage by the old factory. While the project isn't dead, I can't even guess when we might be able to produce any runs from it. Dave
Inkaneer, All possible reasonable efforts are being made to get our tooling back. Since other companies are getting their tooling back, it looks like it is a matter of when not if. Telling them (Bachmann's parent company!) to keep the tooling is not wise as then the models might come into the market under another name, even if not in North America. I don't see how this "takes any profit motive away" from them. Suing a Chinese company is VERY expensive, long and drawn out, involves international not Federal court, and is iffy at best as far as the results go. We certainly can't afford to retool AND sue in international court. As for a malpractice suit, no chance of that working in our favor, it would be worse than burning hundred dollar bills to keep warm. Dave
I'll vote for new product over a new website. Hopefully you'll get your tooling back sooner than later and you can get back to some bit of normalcy after losing your plant then getting flooded out. What about the coalporters? I know of a newer and very catchy scheme that nobody has ever done that would likely be a huge seller. I have tons of pics and can get more, if you're interested. http://www.matts-place.com/trains/coal/series/tgnx30001-30540.htm These are the cars that replaced the steel UFIX Coalporters in real life and Atlas sold 90 numbers (and counting) of those to us Wyoming/Colorado/NM/Nebraska/Kansas/OK/Texas modelers. And this isn't a personal wish list type of deal for me...they're out of my era. (I still might buy a set of them though) I was just thinking of stuff you maybe could do to get some sales while waiting on the rest of the dominos to finish falling.
Doug, I wasn't aware that Matts-Place had a whole section on coal cars. Thanks for the link, I'll look hard at doing some of those cars. Dave
The UP are partly finished, the factory didn't have enough bodies and more are on the way there. Look for the UP and WP runs in the second quarter, maybe late April. Dave
We are supposed to be getting a running sample before Chinese New Year. Once it is approved, production will follow quickly. That's the best I can tell you at this point. Dave
Today we got the news that the Maxi-IV sample wasn't completed before Chinese New Year. Now the earliest it will be here is late February. Dave
I hope all the Trainboard folks are appreciating this thread which shows you what a manufacturer has to go through when dealing offshore. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt, glad I'm out of it!
I, too, am glad to be out of it. While I was never directly in manufacturing, I sure know about being in business. 110-120 and more hour work weeks. Fatigue. Stress. They're killers. (Part of what wrecked my health.) Problem is that very, very few ever experience such an investment of self, so will never have a clue. I was quite content to wait for some items which came recently. And I will continue to do so for a a few more much desired pieces. Some of those hurdles Dave is facing to get these items to us are huge. Only enormous dedication is bringing them to be a reality.
It's good to know some of you guys appreciate what I'm going through here. I am working very hard to get things done. Not to sound trite, but thanks for your support and patience. Dave F.
