Bachmann Alco S4

[johnh35]

Anyone have a crystal ball? They were due late September and no word sense. I signed up for the B'man forum so that I could inquire there, but it has been a week and I have not received my password

[C855B]

No crystal ball necessary - saw one in the flesh today in the Bachmann booth at the StL WGH. Very, very impressive. Expect delivery in 3-4 weeks. I was told they were "probably on-shore", but their warehouses are shut down for inventory and will not be unloading incoming stock until it is done, which is another couple of weeks.

I don't think my iPhone pictures will be any good, but if there's something recognizable I'll post them here when I sync the phone in a few minutes.

I was wholly impressed by the attitude at Bachmann. They have some great guys running the US show who are serious railfans - long-winded discussions with a couple of them about playing hookey from train show duty to railfan Cajon and Tehachapi. Hint was dropped for "a new diesel this year", and that "N will be getting it before HO this time!" They were a little excited about it, actually... but no hints, just smiles.

[Contrast that to Athearn, who was trotting out their usual "N isn't worth our investing in new tooling". I'm really getting sick of hearing that excuse from them. I respectfully submit that if you have even the smallest interest in any of their shortly upcoming product offerings that you buy now, because you will never see anything in N from Athearn including re-releases after 2013. Atlas was a no-show at this WGH, BTW.]

[johnh35]

Glad to hear it. They have really picked up their game

[C855B]

This is the best of six really bad iPhone3 shots from this afternoon:



Front coupler was missing only due to a dive off the shelf. I saw it take another dive while we were talking. Shows are rough on display models.

[Puddington]

I just hope "people" give this model a fair shake before they "Bach-bash" the thing..... I have no idea if it's a home run, a disaster or somewhere in between but I am hoping (against hope) that the local gentry who hate Bachmann for some unknown reason give this a fair shake.

Bachmann ain't what it used to be .............

[lock4244]

I was wholly impressed by the attitude at Bachmann. They have some great guys running the US show who are serious railfans - long-winded discussions with a couple of them about playing hookey from train show duty to railfan Cajon and Tehachapi. Hint was dropped for "a new diesel this year", and that "N will be getting it before HO this time!" They were a little excited about it, actually... but no hints, just smiles.

Must be the long rumoured '-2' project 

[Contrast that to Athearn, who was trotting out their usual "N isn't worth our investing in new tooling". I'm really getting sick of hearing that excuse from them. I respectfully submit that if you have even the smallest interest in any of their shortly upcoming product offerings that you buy now, because you will never see anything in N from Athearn including re-releases after 2013. Atlas was a no-show at this WGH, BTW.]

Well don't let the Athearn guys tell Trainworx, FVM, or Bluford their secret 

[lock4244]

...because you will never see anything in N from Athearn including re-releases after 2013. Atlas was a no-show at this WGH, BTW.]

Is that fact, Mike? Or just well deserved sour grapes.

[C855B]

Is that fact, Mike? Or just well deserved sour grapes.

If this was the first time I'd heard this it would be well-deserved sour grapes. However, this smells different. This was a repeated response couched in "We ran our financial analyses and ran them again, and HO has over 3-times the return for a given investment. It is simply a business decision in these tough economic times." That is almost a direct quote, and a pretty damn close paraphrase of my prior two encounters with different Athearn (or Horizon) reps at different shows going back nearly two years. I can draw no conclusion other than this is now the official company line, that N doesn't have the return, and, no, we're not investing in new tooling.

So, your honor, I sincerely think that the 2013 catalog offering is going to be the last hurrah for Athearn N. I hope to be proven wrong. Check back in early 2014.

[packers#1]

I'm excited, the cell phone pic looks good, and bachmann ain't as bad; here's hoping I can afford one.

Perhaps the next diesel could be a C424/425; I asked about that once a few years ago, the guy said their diesels usually come out in HO first, so it's a possibility at least.

As for Athearn, I like their rolling stock, but they'll leave more models on the table for other manufacturers; I hope they will sell their tooling off if they don't rerun anything though

[pedro]

Do you have any (even bad) pics of it end-on? Curious as to how fat (or not) the hood is.

[C855B]

Not straight-on. Maybe you can get a feel for it from this shot. The iPhone3S depth-of-field truly sucks.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Mike, I think whatever you yeard from the Athearn guy is dead wrong. They have reannounced a lot of their overdue products with new due dates and prices. It looks like things are starting to hum along again.

They even have release dates for the Macks which were not officially re-released.

I think we should all ask them for an update at the Springfield show.

[C855B]

Mike, I think whatever you yeard from the Athearn guy is dead wrong. They have reannounced a lot of their overdue products with new due dates and prices. ...

I sure as Hell hope so, Daniel. I mean, this guy was incredibly down on N scale, "I just ran 8 years' worth of spreadsheets on product revenues and it wasn't even one-third, it was worse." Maybe this could have been the same clown I talked to a year ago at Indy, but I don't think so because I recall the guy in Indy being a bit older, maybe 40's, and the rep today was a 30-something. I tried to talk-up the quality that Athearn brought to N, that it was great stuff and I had a couple of K-bucks invested in their product, but he wasn't going to have any part of it. Very frustrating.

And bear in mind the conversation was in reference to new tooling. They can only get but so much mileage out of re-runs. Maybe they'll treat us to re-runs of the F/FP45 in 2014, but IMO they milked that one a little too hard on the last go-round. Anyway, they are firmly trying to put the message out to not expect anything new from them.

Slightly in their defense, they are apparently having a devil of a time recovering from the loss of their Chinese (? - offshore, anyway) manufacturer. Getting their HO pipeline refilled has been a pretty unpleasant undertaking and the stress was apparent.

[up1950s]

Too bad they didn't offer a unlettered UP cab with matching yellow , then I could back date it with Road of the Streamliners / Serves all the West decals . They could have covered 2 eras with a single run that way .

[GP38-2freak]

I'll give her a chance on my layout, may be that there are some incorrectness but I think it will be a hot seller..even for me as I also bought some of the newer Bachmann freight cars..give them a chance and when it looks to bad..I give it to my son who'll be a very thankful newbie...