Athearn New December 2019 (22/11/19) - New 53' Stoughton X-Post Containers

[James Costello]

Finally, Athearn has announced they're bringing their 53' Stoughton X-Post container to N:

http://www.athearn.com/newsletter/112219/10_N_53ft_Stoughton_Container_112219.pdf

(Complete with JB Hunt foobie    and probably others too - I'm looking at you Schneider).

Visually different from the existing Kato model, this is another much needed model the Intermodal Gods have bestowed upon us this year!

Definitely needed for EMP, STAX, HUB Group and APL fleets from the early 00s onwards.

Also announced this month, reruns of the 53' GSC Bulkhead and the ex-MDC tank
http://www.athearn.com/newsletter/112219/09_N_53ft_Bulkhead_Flat_112219.pdf
http://www.athearn.com/newsletter/112219/08_N_GATC_20K_Tank_112219.pdf

[learmoia]

GATX Early with COTS and ACI.. except the drawing doesnt have COTS Or ACI showing..  But the tank dates seem within range (1972-1992)

Hmm.. the tanks expires around the same time the tooling for the mold was made... ..

~Ian

[Englewood]

Mmmmm...... STAX containers...

[Missaberoad]

I'll definitely be looking out for some GSC flats in Soo, BN and UP... The ICG car is cool too...

Question for the hive, pretty sure I know the answer but is there any prototype for the TTX and BC Rail cars?

[Philip H]

The ICG Cars are also foobies - neither the ICG or the IC had any cars in that number sequence.  ICG Bulkhead flats should be 97XXXX, so its close.

[jpwisc]

Wow, the 20k tank cars... again. Without upgrading the detailing at all. Athearn... you can do better.

[MetroRedLine]

I noticed that Athearn products take about 1 year/14 months from announcement to release, whereas other companies can roll them out in 6-9 months. All are manufactured in China. Is it the whole Horizon corporate bureaucracy?

[learmoia]

I noticed that Athearn products take about 1 year/14 months from announcement to release, whereas other companies can roll them out in 6-9 months. All are manufactured in China. Is it the whole Horizon corporate bureaucracy?

Who is consistently gets stuff out in 6-9 months???????... Other than Micro-Trains.

The only example I know of is Scale Trains and maybe Exact Rail where they sometimes omit the pre-order process.

Wow, the 20k tank cars... again. Without upgrading the detailing at all. Athearn... you can do better.

Athearn: Sure we can.. but people keep buying them for $30/car.. so why bother..

~Ian

[Angus Shops]

I always find myself disappointed when I see product announcements illustrated with diagrams of proposed paint schemes rather than photos of the actual models. They really don't tell you anything about the proposed model other than the road name. Obviously, and especially for a completely new model, there may not be an 'actual model' to photograph, but for reruns at least they could use custom painted examples. Most manufactures are guilty, but I would prefer to have the manufacturers postpone their product announcements until they have at least some sort of 'preproduction test model' to show us (and possibly custom paint) so we could have some idea of what the actual model will really look like. As an added bonus us consumers would have a greater security in knowing that the model will actually be produced within a reasonable time line. I know that this would inconvenience some manufactures (coughintermountiancough) who seem to throw product announcements at the wall to see what sticks...
Geoff

[MetroRedLine]

Who is consistently gets stuff out in 6-9 months???????... Other than Micro-Trains.

The only example I know of is Scale Trains and maybe Exact Rail where they sometimes omit the pre-order process.
Athearn: Sure we can.. but people keep buying them for $30/car.. so why bother..

~Ian

@JaxTerminal's (Jacksonville Terminal Co.) products come out on a consistent 4-6 month release rollout. Granted, most of their products are "just" intermodal containers, but they are the most prototypical containers you can get in N (or any scale), and will be releasing rolling stock come Spring (an NSC 53' single-unit well car). One of their recently-released containers is a CAI container whose prototype got some notoriety (a massive cocaine bust (the largest ever in terms of dollar amount) in the port of Philadelphia in June of this year; they intentionally modeled one of their two CAI 40' hi-cubes with the same unit number as the prototype). Now, the design for the container was worked on around the time of the drug bust - June 2019 and the product was manufactured in China and already available to distributors at the end of October -- a 4-month timetable from design stage to product release! The aforementioned 53' well car was announced on November 10 and is anticipated to be available in Spring 2020. Dunno how they have that sort of production schedule, but I will continue to support a manufacturer like that!

[MetroRedLine]

I always find myself disappointed when I see product announcements illustrated with diagrams of proposed paint schemes rather than photos of the actual models. They really don't tell you anything about the proposed model other than the road name. Obviously, and especially for a completely new model, there may not be an 'actual model' to photograph, but for reruns at least they could use custom painted examples. Most manufactures are guilty, but I would prefer to have the manufacturers postpone their product announcements until they have at least some sort of 'preproduction test model' to show us (and possibly custom paint) so we could have some idea of what the actual model will really look like. As an added bonus us consumers would have a greater security in knowing that the model will actually be produced within a reasonable time line. I know that this would inconvenience some manufactures (coughintermountiancough) who seem to throw product announcements at the wall to see what sticks...
Geoff

Totally agree. The Athearn artwork for their intermodal containers is horrible -- meaning that on the web page and in regular PDF resolution, you just see nothing but silver vertical ribs and think it's an error. I only learned recently that you have to see it in PDF mode and zoom in to max size to see the actual color of the containers!

[learmoia]

Wellll...  it's not 4 months from design to product release.. it's from production start to release in the US..

What you dont see is the time to developed the print masks, production scheduling, mold the parts, ect...

The reason it seems so fast is that they didnt tell you the product was coming until 4 months before it hits the streats... (the process from start to finish is still 14 months... )

ESM is similar, they announce the product when it shows up..

One mystery is the 2nd run of Atlas Plows coming a month after the first run...

Dont get me wrong, I like this method better than Intermountain.

And BLI has done a total 180 in this area.. (10 years to 10 months   )

~Ian

[asarge]

I noticed that Athearn products take about 1 year/14 months from announcement to release, whereas other companies can roll them out in 6-9 months. All are manufactured in China. Is it the whole Horizon corporate bureaucracy?

That's a big part of it. It's a different company than it was a few years ago.  The hobby dynamics have changed a bit also in the last 5 years.

[MK]

Horizon Hobby was purchased/sold a few years ago to investors.  No longer a family operations like it used to be.  Customer service and what not are also not like what it used to be.  We feel it in the RC world too.  But their products are still top notch.

[Rivet Miscounter]

Athearn: Sure we can.. but people keep buying them for $30/car.. so why bother..

Do they?   I think Athearn is just ripping a page out of Bachmann's playbook...

Bachmann: "Hey, let's set our MSRP at about 3x street price.   Nobody else will try it, and we might find some suckers that pay MSRP."
Athearn: "Hold my beer."

 

I suspect that the Athearn sales of these cars has been limited until they hit the fire sale.  I certainly could be wrong about that though.

Back to the o.p., reason 10,912 I regret leaving N.  It's quite comical how much of my wish list items have now been released in N now in a short 3-4 year span.   I know those JB Hunts are foobies, but they have to be as close as anything thus far to represent the ubiquitous JBH containers from the mid 90's on, no?  ( @James Costello maybe you can clarify?  I've been out of the loop with N and seemingly forgotten most of what I once knew about Intermodal.)   The good news about being in Z is I can do platewall 48/53's out of cardstock/heavy paper and they really don't look too bad.