Yes folks it is true Athearn N scale It's about time eNjoy [ 30. August 2002, 15:12: Message edited by: dbn160 ]
Now Don, How could you have not reported this information my friend? Looks as though this months bonus will have to be forfeited for not meeting your target
Well Holy Smoke!! Athearn entering the N Scale arena. My first thought was that this had to be a hoax. You know the old addage, "If it's too good to be true it probable is." However, it sure seems to be true this time. Athearn producing N scale equipment is great news and also appears to be the best kept secret in the MR industry for a long time. I had a number of Athearn cars in my HO scale days and while they were OK they lacked in the quality and detailing found in today's N scale equipment. N scale tends to be a modellers scale and as a result N scalers generally demand a high level of detail and runnability in their livery. I certainly hope that Athearn will deliver this on par with some other manufacturers such as Intermountain, Micro trains, LBF, Red Caboose, etc. Some of the genesis equipment produced in HO scale looks and runs great. We all can hope that Athearn will cross this over to the N scale world. To this end in producing quality models I was pleased to learn that Athearn cars and locomotives are being equipped with MicroTrain couplers and trucks. Will they follow MT's lead and include both regular and low profile wheelsets with thier cars? The addition of yet another manufacturer to the N scale family is terrific and Athearn being one of the largest around is an added bonus. N scale is truely coming of age!! Bravo!! Athearn. Welcome to N scale!
It was almost a year ago, I was at the Chicago Model and Hobby Expo and I asked Athern WHEN they were going to wise up and get into N-Scale. The Athern Rep told me he was a little busy but to come back later and he'd talk about why I thought they should get into N. Well, I vegged coming back to him until after I got home. I did find it funny that he wanted to talk about it though....I guess I wasn't the only one that's asked about it! [ 03. September 2002, 17:22: Message edited by: Maxwell Plant ]
If Athearn is going to equip their products with MT couplers I doubt they will be aimed at the low end of the product price range. That plus their mission statement leads me to think that we can expect them to be in competition with Atlas and Kato. But what I think is the best part of this is not the locomotive offereings but the rolling stock. Kato and Lifelike do not compete with Atlas in rolling stock and while Red Caboose, Intermountaiin MDC and M T do compete there are affordability or availability problems with them. Athearn has done the research and has the drawings to reproduce their HO line of rolling stock quite easily. A line of rolling stock with body mounted couplers would be the answer to many an Nscaler's prayer. Well, one of them anyway.
Understand that I am a fan of body mounting couplers for my personal use..... but I doubt that you will see body mounts in general on N Scale equipment. It is more difficult to manufacture and it goes counter to the N Scale experience with truck mounted couplers. In HO truck mounts don't work well, in N they do. Some attribute the N.E.M. flanges (pizza cutters) to this parodox; I for one don't buy it as I have used low profile flanges on some of my equipment since Keith Edwards passed out trial low profile plastic wheels (to be mounted on Atlas/Roco axles and trucks) in the earyly seventies... during the trials we couldn't find any meaniful difference in derailments between standard metal Kadee wheelsets and the low profile test plastic ones. Track was a mixture of Peco and Shinohara. At any rate, since MT couplers are going to be used, don't be surprised to see MT trucks or, trucks set up to take the MT couplers. Should be a good thing. Charlie
I'll agree with what Charlie has stated. I don't think we'll see factory body mounted couplers any time soon. I do body mount all of mine. And am happy with the results. In both operation, and improved appearance. One thing that I appreciate, is that at least some manufacturers, (deLuxe Innovations, MT, and ?), make their cars so that doing body mounting is quite simple. Perhaps we could hope that most others will eventually follow this practice, and make it standard on all cars? BoxcabE50
Well, I've finally seen the ads, so I guess it's true. One of my local train pushers is going to Chicago to the yearly meetings, and promises to come back with more info. Now, as to the quality of Athearn rolling stock.... From what I've seen of the HO ready-to-roll stuff, the quality has greatly improved. And the Genesis kicks it up another notch in quality (and, sadly, in the case of the Trinity covered hopper, price). I can only hope that the N scale rolling stock will have no worse quality than the HO RTR stuff- if it is, I'll be happy.
