Atlas Model Railroad Co. Agrees to Purchase BLMA Models Inc.

[VonRyan]

[sirenwerks]

My "concern" is that Atlas continue to develop products like Craig did.  I have no fear Atlas will make full use of existing products, with new releases seen regularly.  I'm just miffed that the merger takes someone (Craig), who had a grassroots eye for what N scalers wanted, significantly out of the loop.  His separateness created competition, which seems to have been spurring a lot of new releases in N, which I was enjoying.  If new product development falls into Atlas's regular R&D department, and that department isn't altered/grown to accommodate the merger, we likely won't see the amount of new products stepping out as we did when BLMA was a separate entity.

[bbussey]

They don't work even on sound trackwork. Seen it first-hand plenty of times.

You are in an extreme minority.  They work fine.

I am quite worried, despite most being enthusiastic.
The #80 drill bit comes to my mind. Honestly, I don't know where else to get it.

There are numerous online sources to purchase micro-drill bits, including #80.  I didn't even know BLMA sold #80 bits.

Really, everyone should wait to see how the dust settles before getting apoplectic.  It's already been stated by Atlas in this thread that all of the BLMA product lines will be continued, including the detail parts.  This is why manufacturers are discouraged from posting any information, because of the knee-jerk reactions that ensue.

[Catt]

Bryan,

some folks tend to only read the highlights in a posting. I not only read where Paul said they were keeping the entire,but tossing around ideas for more parts.

About those wheel sets,I've had more problems with the ATLAS ones but that was on a roughly 35 year old car.

[towl1996]

I not only read where Paul said they were keeping the entire,but tossing around ideas for more parts.

Do you have a link to that? I missed him saying that, was that in the press release?

However, it would be nice if someone from Atlas would come by and address some of these concerns. Not necessarily any future projects, but if they plan on continuing to offer the existing BLMA detail parts and trucks/wheels. And what is the future of the Atlas spare parts line. Thanks

[reinhardtjh]

These are the quotes from the two posts @Atlas Paul made:

The details and accessories are a perfect complement Atlas’ existing product line.

The purchase will also include the detail parts.  We have already been bouncing around some ideas for them.

[Sokramiketes]

They don't work even on sound trackwork. Seen it first-hand plenty of times.

You are in an extreme minority.  They work fine.

I think some clarification is in order.  It's been documented that the very first run of wheels didn't use the N scale profile developed, but rather was a scaled down HO wheel profile.  This was a factory error, and these had issues despite track work.  I believe this was well before the first release of ESMC cars with BLMA trucks.  To compound matters on the early cars, bolsters were often too tight and truck articulation didn't maneuver quite well enough.  Many folks reported that swapping the trucks fixed the running issues, but it may have been more due to the work pulling the bolster pin and freeing up the trucks than the actual change, but regardless, the excessively narrow wheels exacerbated the issue.


The corrected wheel sets allowed more room for error, and have been fine in most cases. 

[Rossford Yard]

Not sure if my BLMA cars are new or old wheelsets - mostly the first batch of big reefers in my fleet, and they run great on C55, but fall in the gaps of the code 80 turnouts on my staging level.  Probably the tracks fault, but brings up the question of just what Atlas will do?  make Accumates and trucks "Trainman" type material and use the better BLMA in their Master Line, maybe?  Take wheel orders from BLMA's former factory, and their own, and only pay for the wheels that come in first and on time for shipping?  (Sort of a joke, but who knows, would be nice to turn tables on the Chinese at some of their tactics!)

In general, moving to the higher quality wheels (if fixed as noted in a post above) seems to make sense if they are more heavily promoting their scale C55 in the future.  After all, it might lead to many, many wheel replacements from old to new......and it makes some sense to just consolidate to one line. Also, Atlas has always moved to higher quality, Trainman excepted (and it is so close in quality to Master Line I wouldn't call it bad quality) so I think they will protect Craig's legacy well.

As to detail parts, as noted, if Atlas doesn't do them, someone else in the small mfg. category will likely jump in.  I have BLMA details and like them, but let's face facts, they never overwhelmed the shelf space at the LHS as most folks don't get to the layout detailing phase, so they were never made in great quantities anyway.  To be worried Atlas will reduce production is a bit off, since it seemed to be pretty limited production to start with.

[Ngineer]

"So people who have low numbers can see it, and in a moment of self awareness, think about adjusting their behavior."

Do some of us get down-voted because we express our concerns? 

[mtnbimmer]

Bulkpacks for those awesome trucks... still need many, many trucks.

  This!!

[wcfn100]

These are the quotes from the two posts @Atlas Paul made:

But those quotes can be read different ways.

Saying something is 'complementary' and they they're 'bouncing ideas' just reads to me it's something they don't currently do and they aren't exactly sure yet how it's going to fit in.  And there's nothing wrong with that, they'll figure something out.  But being concerned at this point shouldn't label someone a doomsayer.


Jason

[up1950s]

So will OEM BLMA grabs be worth more in an unopened bag than increase the value of the cars they can be put on ?

[milw156]

I've heard Atlas has already rebuffed CP's last three offers.

😂😂😂

[nkalanaga]

Yes, my first BLMA cars wouldn't cross my big bridge.  Derailed every time, on straight, level track, with guardrails no less.  Everything else worked fine, and had for years.  It turned out that the handlaid, with spikes,  track was out of gauge - just barely too wide, in a couple of very short sections.  Everything else had wider treads, and could take it, but the NMRA gauge showed that it was the track.  One wheelset would drop into the wide spot, get pinched, and the car would derail.  Adjusted the spikes, fixing the gauge, and the BLMA wheels worked as well as everything else.

They were picky, but after finding the problem, I made a point of running them over every piece of handlaid track I had, just to find the wide spots.

[wcfn100]

Crap, so who bought the 30+ pairs of #9045 trucks at MBK in the last day? 


Jason