Anyone else noticing the barrage of announcements? Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is what I've gathered. The AC4400s in BNSF and CP are just arriving and already another # of each is now coming. The SD70 MACs in CSX, BNSF, and Conrail just arrived and already another # of all 3 are coming. UP and SF SD40s - 1 # each. Conrail and UP SD80/90s. 2 #'s of each!!! And of course the GS4 and GG1 go without saying... Holy........
interesting.... but since i already have more than 60 different roadnumbers of cp rail ac-4400 i probably don't need more ... ;-)
Too many goodies at once! Looks like a few people might need to skip the house payment... mg: Boxcab E50
If only Norfolk Southern would get some love. I've been trying to get an okay deal on a pair of Kato NS locos on eBay for a few weeks. Ending bids on them are HIGH. I'd say other road names end around $50-65. But NS locos are 80-100+!
Maybe they read the various boards and see that N scalers in the US were unhappy with the release rates here and responded to meet demand. Or maybe, given how popular they are worldwide, they have some sort of master plan to flood different markets, and then let them rest awhile for wallets to recover. If they watch the US stock market, and saw it break 14K a while back, they might very well figure that there is a rise in disposable income in the US, which has been somewhat lacking since 2000 or so. In any event, I have to believe the US is their biggest market (at least potentially) and they should respond with enough product to meet demand and satisfy customers to max out sales. Or, maybe they are just following the old model of bringing in quick cash by re-issuing old models in new paint or numbers to pay for tooling on all the new stuff. In essence, the modern diesel fans are paying for the new steam tooling!
OH MERCIES!! mg: Don't do that!!! :thumbs_down: The first thing the mortgage company will do after repossesion is keep the trains!! :shade: After all ... they have to SOMETHING to do during all those Coffee Breaks!:w20z6q:
It's called competition. :teeth: If you want to keep your market share, get off your wheel base and make something... Athearn is finally getting it's sea legs after falling overboard at first. Atlas has been flooding the supply channel to fend them off for the last two years. Walthers even seems to have awoken from it's decades old slumber. Kato has to move or get swamped. Crank it guys!
Yes, Walthers had also been cranking it up, as has Athearn. I wonder if there is some specific precursor to increased productoin in the MR business? Or, have they just recently noticed sales bumping up a bit from the 2000 stock slump and 2001 9/11 funk. It would be folly to put out product just because others are, if the stuff ain't selling for anyone. Could WGH be having an effect? BTW, when in my LHS yesterday (see my other thread) another customer walked in. Mid 50's. Said he wanted to buy a train that would have run in Montana....didn't care about scale and wanted a display but thought he would be getting started into layouts soon. Whoever posted the retirement theory of increased model railroading activity might be on to something. I know some folks at Pulte, Toll Bros, and other senior community builders. I think I will recommend a Model Train room as the hot new community activity!
I agree. As the millions of Baby Boomers start retiring, I'll bet that many of them will rediscover their childhood love of model railroads. Acually, "rediscover" might be the wrong word - the love has been there, dormant, waiting for available time. That's what happened to me, although technically as a War Baby, I've got a bit of a head start.
More announcements today. BLW lists new road #s for SD70 MAC's, SD80's, SD90's, and SD40's. Poppin' em out like Pez. Ben
Well i might have to get the AC4400CW BNSF its to bad that the new ones are not sporting the new swoosh. Now that the MRC decoders are a bust I have some spending room. More AC power on the CWRR. Steve
SD70M in EMD Demo, Kato? I wish Kato would beat Athearn in doing the SD70M in the EMD Demo scheme (EMD 7000-7002), which should go over well with CSX fans as I think that's where they wound up after their demo tour. Athearn has the EMD lease version, so I suspect the Demo version is in the works. While these are technically out of my era, I photographed these demos on the UP in St. Louis and would buy them to run with my UP SD60M for a late-90's coal drag. I couldn't blame Kato if they even released them as a special edition. Sending the demo scheme suggestion right now (not the special edition idea).
I'm a fan of Kato but the only thing I'm really impressed with recently is the announcement of new tooling. The diesel announcements are just exisiting tooling (mostly) with new road numbers on the same old Kato's choice of roadnames. Lots of nice Kato tooling continues to lie dormant (how do you spell Sd40-2?). I think the announcements are a good sign, perhaps Kato is moving to focus a bit more on their north american fans!
Speaking of Kato SD40-2, I'm hoping they use their old tooling and offer a mid-production version without ditch lights in the "better" (original) mechanism, or at least rerun the early version w/chicken wire grilles. Kato is concentrating on modern roadnames and is missing out on some potentially good releases. SD40-2 in Mopac, Frisco, Soo, MKT, RI, just to name a few that might be good choices.
What's my excuse? I'm 33, so not even a Boomer, but I feel like I have been a railfan longer than that. My wife is quite pleased with the railfanning and model railroading. I think she knows that a lot of men my age have much more potentially injurious or destructive pastimes.
I've got a tool for removing ditch lights, its called an exacto knife. It's easier to take em off if you don't want em than to put em on if you do. I'll go along with you on the mechanism though.
