Atlas Sanda Kan Email

[ljudice]

Anyone else baffled at Atlas' email that came today - with the story about Sanda Kan, Kader, etc...

Seems to break their usual mum policy regarding who is making what for them...

Also sounds suspiciously like they are softening some sort of major blow or news that is about to break.

Any one else vaguely curious about this weirdness?

[Mark5]

I didn't get the email.  ???

I did read the story on the Atlas website the other day though.

Mark

[One of One-Sixty]

Care to share for those that did not get the email, or ventures over to the A Board?

[Hyperion]

It's a bit long to post, but it's just a biography of the CEO of Sanda-Kan really.  A rather in-depth one at that.

It does seem a bit... odd.  It's just a random biography.  It would make sense as a sort of congratulations if he was getting into the Hall of Fame (already done) or had died (which isn't mentioned in the email if so).  It's just a long biography that concludes with how glowing of a future it's going to be as part of Kader.

[Mark5]

Care to share for those that did not get the email, or ventures over to the A Board?

http://www.atlasrr.com/News/mrting.htm

[chessie system fan]

Seems to break their usual mum policy regarding who is making what for them...

I thought it was common knowledge that Sanda Kan made their stuff?  I at least have known it for a while.

[pfs]

I did not read the bio etc, but based on this thread is there a buyout/merger pending?

Why else would they give a nice glowing history of 'their vendor' ?

That seems strange.

[wm3798]

I just realized that I might have met Mr. Ting, or perhaps one of his engineers.  Back in the mid 1980's when Life Like was developing the designs for the BL-2, I was on the board at the WMRHS.  At one of our meetings, a rep from Life Like brought along the Chinese manufacturer he was working with along with some test shots of the engine.  They based all the research for the model on the WM BL-2 housed at the B&O Museum in Baltimore.  I recall there were numerous visits to get archival information from our collection, and to climb all over the 81 with a tape measure.

It was a long time ago, so the memory is a little hazy, but I could swear the Chinese man was introduced as the president of the manufacturing side, which would have been Mr. Ting.

The Life Like BL-2 in N scale, anyway, was the first sign that Life Like could build a decent locomotive model.

... The buyout is complete.  Sanda Kan is now a subsidiary of Kader, which also owns Bachmann.



Lee

[pfs]

...

... The buyout is complete.  Sanda Kan is now a subsidiary of Kader, which also owns Bachmann.

Lee

Understood, but Atlas is talking this up.

Is Kader absorbing Atlas as well?

Why would Atlas discuss a vendor in this manner is does not make scene to me, there is no need to address this to the end user/customer as such.

[atsf_arizona]

Hi, all,

I read this email and URL now too.

http://www.atlasrr.com/News/mrting.htm

While I have no insider info at all..... I took this as just
a good humanistic recognition, on Atlas' part, of recognizing
a very important figure in our hobby.

I didn't read anything beyond that into the article.  My heartiest
thanks to Mr. WaiShing Ting for his role in helping us all enjoy our hobby.

[ljudice]

I'm slightly surprised at the writeup itself....

But I was really amazed that they sent it out in email (the same way they send their monthly announcements and "hurry up and order" emails.)

I guess it could be nothing and they just really liked the writeup so much they decided to send it to all of their customers.

I suspect that other than the small group of fanatics (like us), most Atlas customers don't know and certainly don't care about Sanda Kan. I would almost be afraid if I were Atlas to even mention them.
(For example when I worked at HP, it was hardly something we liked to talk about, but we bought lots of components from IBM and most of our servers were designed by outside firms - you just didn't tell anyone about this!)

Lou

[ljudice]

John - when I saw the link on the site and read the writeup - I thought the same thing - EXCEPT for the mention of Kader, which owns a competitor.

But the email - that seems kind of weird, I mean it's sort of like "hey that company Kader - they're kinda great"

Why would Atlas say that?

[JDouglasFisher]

I think people are reading way more into this than its worth

(and to think I'm called a conspiracy theorist)

Worse case scenario, Quality of Atlas products goes down the crapper at the same time Bachmann quality goes up?

At the end of the day, do you really care who makes the model, as long as its accurate and runs well?

Seriously, outside of an industry nod to a great leader, theres really no news here.

J.

[ljudice]

I donno, I could swear I saw some black helicopters headed towards Hillside today.... 

[nscalesteve]

it's probably just a way to tell us why those C40-8W are that expensive and that crap...
...take a Bachmann C40-8W shell and compare it with the Atlas one