Athearn and N Scale

[CBQ Fan]

I can definately see what you are saying there!  There is clearly a market where people want to spend money.  There is clearly a way to fullfil that need and make money.  As several new companies have shown where there is money to be made there will be someone who tries to fill that void and take our money.  So if not Athearn than most likely someone else!

[kalbert]

This thread again? Hasn't it been established that some manufacturers aren't as interested in N scale as others? I'm sure the "sales reps" at these shows love to be drilled by guys who know more about their business than they do. I bet their favorite part of the day is when some know it all approaches them with a stern tongue and demands to know why they don't make more products that meet his specific wants.

I know what I'm going to do about this. I'm going to attack the guys at the Lionel booth about why they don't have any N scale products. I bet they don't have any products in the pipeline either. That's just dumb business sense to completely ignore an entire segment of the hobby just because you don't have the capacity to enter it. Rather than offer my support for another manufacturer eager to produce new sought after items in N scale and inquire with them about any plans they have to produce a particular new product I'm interested in I'm going to keep picking away at Lionel to build super detailed RTR N scale items that fit my specific wants.

[DKS]

This thread again?

Yep, here we go again.

[C855B]

Yep, here we go again.

And here we go again about here we go again.

[Scottl]

What would be special is to lock it before it gets to 8 pages 

[Hyperion]

What would be special is to lock it before it gets to 8 pages 

Ah, gotta give 'em a place to let it out.

I like Athearn's products a lot.  But if they're not gonna make anymore, so be it.  At least they seem to be fairly upfront about it.  That means others can step up.  I'd rather that than do a half-assed effort that deters others from entering the market because they're not sure what they're gonna do.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

[Rossford Yard]

Just an observation and an opinion.  Why are people so fixated with what the manufacturers are producing or not?  I'm not directing this at either of the previous posters, but it is a general theme that pervades TRW and comes up seemingly daily.  Threads with someone actually building a layout or modelling are often followed by a few responses (with notable exceptions), but if someone raises the issue of Athearn, Walthers, Kato, or horror, MTL!, it is eight pages of posts with, in some cases, the expression of barely contained contempt for these companies.  Some get so imbued with nastiness, they end up flaming out and locked up.  I just don't get it.

Rant over, back to our regular programming.

I've always felt the same way.  I remember, back to being a kid of maybe 12, of hoping for the day when an XXX would be made by someone, but never felt angry at anyone or company for NOT making it!  Figured, when the time came, it would come.  I recall switching to N scale, knowing the wait would increase, since HO was (foolishly, I thought then) inundated with everything they could possibly have.

With respect to Mike and others, I don't see us fixating on product because it is absolutely required for a dream layout, as there are workarounds, like stand ins, foobies, etc.  We've all done it for years, but now it seems like our complaints accelerate the closer we get.

I guess its human nature to be more frustrated either after more time, or after more stuff comes out that isn't to YOUR liking.

As to Athearn, and why they would make the Challenger, etc. if getting out of N Scale, I suppose there is not really one "N Scale market."  The market could be down overall but for any specific and iconic model, still be robust.  I can see those Steamers fitting this mold.  And, as mentioned, with the tooling done, another run, if it sells, is probably 90% profit for them.  For all we know, they ran 1000 shells extra, given its pennies to do so when stamping out molds, and have most of what they need sitting around.

As to the Ethanol tankers, even if Athearn goes out of N scale, I presume they would sell that mold to another mfg, much like they bought the roundhouse stuff.  We won't be without Ethanol tankers for long.

So, if you look at reality, why the complaints?  Still seems like some of us just get our panties wadded up when someone else doesn't love N scale as much as we do, and its generally offensive to them.  In short, we are scalists!

But, to call for Athearn or others to lose money for our benefit is crazy.  For anyone new to the hobby, they can factor in the amount of stuff they can buy before starting.  I know many of us are sort of beyond committed, but then, the situation is no worse than it was when we came into N scale, so complaining that it hasn't gotten better seems a bit useless, at least to me.

Just my thoughts.

[Vince Gortner]

I've been goofing around with On30 stuff for a few months just for a change of scenery.  It's really made me consider what I like so much about N scale, and I still love N scale, I still read this forum all the time, and I'll be back.....  but I think I'm going to enjoy some other things for a while until ....   wait for it....    an SD40-2 happens!   How can we not have an SD40-2?   

How can we not have an SD40-2?    Everybody else has SD40-2's! 

[Kisatchie]

How can we not have an SD40-2?   

The SD40-2 is my favorite loco of all time. Since we don't have an N scale model (Kato's nonexistent one doesn't count), I solved the problem by modeling 1971.


Hmm... What problems
could be solved by
modeling the year
1750...?

[delamaize]

Freaking this

[robert3985]

I look at Athearn two way if they are not going to do or making any money with N Scale:

1) Why would you do a rerun of the Challenger or Big Boy if you are not making any money.  I would see these as high cost and big risk items.  How many of these does the average N Scaler need.  If I had a market segment that was drying up this would be an odd choice to try and force the issue.

Sorry dude, but Big Boys and Challengers have always been good sellers.  They are iconic, and the Athearn models are pretty damn nice.  They are not produced for the "average" N Scaler, but for the above average N Scaler who has room to run 'em or who likes to collect and display.

I already have three Athearn Challengers, four Athearn Big Boys, and I've pre-paid for two more Challengers (all 3700 class) and two more Big Boys, but I model both the terrain and operations of the U.P. between Ogden and Wahsatch from 1951 through 1956, when every non-helpered freight was pulled by a Big Boy and every helper was a 3700 class oil-fired Challenger on the rear of the rest of the east-bound freights pulled by Geeps, F's, Alco FA/B's, and Baby and Veranda Turbines.

I actually had more Big Boys than I have now, but when winning bids on eBay reached over 1,000 bucks for 'em,  I sold a couple of mine, for approximately three to four times as much as I paid for 'em.  Those profits are going into mo' Big Boys and Challengers.

Truthfully, I will probably buy more than I've already pre-paid for as I do not believe that at any time they will be selling for less than I pay for them, and most likely, they'll appreciate to the same point as my others when they become scarce again.  An excellent investment.

As for other modelers I know, my son has pre-paid for his 3700 Class Challenger (due in March) and between three other N-scale buddies, there are five more Challengers and four more Big Boys being bought.

In addition to my pre-paid Challengers coming in March, I am trading some of collection of 80+ IMR reefer kits for one MRC equipped Athearn Challenger, which will bring my active fleet of Challengers to 5, along with my active fleet of Big Boys to 6 after the two I've pre-paid for come in.

As to why Athearn is running Big Boys and Challengers again, I really don't care...as long as they are available for me to purchase.

Thirdly, none of us "need" any model train, but we sure as hell "want" them, which has nothing to do with logic, but everything to do with a love of the hobby and how we choose to participate in it.

[Ike the BN Freak]

The SD40-2 is my favorite loco of all time. Since we don't have an N scale model (Kato's nonexistent one doesn't count)

Its not that its nonexistent...its Kato doesn't seem to want to make more runs of them.  I have a decent fleet of them, I know others who do also, its just Kato needs to release them more often.  Its been over 5 years since we last had a SD40-2 from them.  Maybe Intermountain will, but with their record of locos, who knows how they will look.

But part of me has a feeling they shot themselves in the foot with the SD40-2, when they did the mid production, they did 2 BN numbers, 1 number apart from each other, even though BN has a 800+ unit fleet.  And the 2 locos they did, were some of the first SD40-2s retired by BN.  And the CN/IC units, which were ex-BN units, have a short time span they are available for.

The next run was BNSF and ATSF, both popular roads, but I feel Kato released too many of the units, so they took longer to sell out than Kato figured they would.  I remember seeing them on the Walther's sale catalog/pages for a year or two after they were released.  So if this is the case, Kato probably feels that the SD40-2 is not as popular as everyone makes them out to be.

So the mid production units took much longer to sell out, unlike the early/snoot units.  And when surfing ebay, you'll notice the early/snoot units sell for more than the mid production units.

[daniel_leavitt2000]

The Challengers and Big Boys were built in the same factory as the Genisis line. This is a different factory than their regular line. I think they threw in a few extra runs to tide over N scaleers while they try and sort out the tooling mess in China.

[Rossford Yard]

I recall Kato making a big deal out of being more proto accurate when they released the BNSF 40-2's.  If that is still their policy, then they would need slight tooling redo's for every road out there. 

If they backtracked to a standard SD40-2 used by many roads, they could sell a bunch, or they could accept minor proto differences, too.

But, they aren't comfortable doing a lot in lesser known roads, like SOO LINE or others, for whatever reason, so they probably won't do that either.  This is probably a bigger example of "corporate culture" holding back releases than Athearn or Walthers!