R/C Flatcars Cancelled???

[ljudice]

Always the last to hear this stuff...

Supposedly the R/C flatcars are cancelled....  Is this HO only or N as well?

[Mark5]

Red Caboose? What flat car?

[ljudice]

3 versions of 73' cars - bulkhead, short bulkhead and flat-flat...

Just like the Atlas Trainman cars announced in HO - about a week after the R/C cars were announced.

(See the Atlas HO forum - TRAINMAN FLATCARS for photos)

[GaryHinshaw]

Hmm, first I've heard of this (so you're not the last one...)  I was under the impression that a big reason for the RC/IM partnership was to allow RC more time to develop new products.  I had a brief email exchange with them last week about auto-racks and mentioned that I hoped they were still developing the flats.  I got a response about the racks ("talk to IM"), but no comment on the flats.  I didn't read anything into that.

[ljudice]

Perhaps they will go ahead with them in N, since there is no guarantee Atlas will bring them to N anyway...

[asarge]

Where did you hear this Lou? I heard something different. I'm not sure it's reliable but it fits.

[ljudice]

On the Atlas HO forum - in the thread on the Atlas cars - comment like "really happy about these now that it is confirmed R/C is cancelling their cars"

[ljudice]

Some more info...

The discussion about this is over at the Yahoo MFCL (Modern Freight Car List).  Supposedly the HO version is cancelled due to the Atlas announcement. Not know about the n-scale car. Most of the people on MFCL don't seem to know N-scale has progressed beyond the Arnold and Trix days, it seems.

Anyway there is a bigger issue - the Atlas car is a post 1997 model, while the RC prototype was from the 1980's. So there is much anger that the better prototype is being shelved here.

[asarge]

I thought the Atlas car had roots in an earlier model. Either way, I'm not sure I would trust the information about cancellation, especially if it comes off the Yahoo MFCL without knowing who sent it. I don;t think it's so much cancelled as shelved for later use. The problem is that in these economic times, the higher priced of two very similar models may not sell enough to cover tooling cost and I belive that has plagued RC on several projects. Don't count out the N scale version yet though. R/C's popular Coil Car started out as an HO project, the was very successful in N before it was released in HO.

[ljudice]

I hope you're right - the R/C flat sounded like a great model!

RC has done other things like the beer cars and the autoracks in N - and not HO.

[keystonecrossings]

Effective May 1st, InterMountain is doing the marketing and distribution (and I guess production) of all Red Caboose products.

Could be that after mutual discussion they decided not to move forward with this offering.