Any News on Fox Valley Models N scale wheelset availability?

[bbussey]

Well, "as demand warrants" is not a very firm commitment. FVM had a good selection of axle lengths available from the get go.

It makes little sense to make a product that, at this moment, will not sell.  Yes, introducing a new wheel product costs considerably less than a new piece of rolling stock, but there still needs to be a reasonable time period to get the return on investment.  Otherwise, there won't be any new product in the future.

And as a reminder, FVM started by offering 12-packs of fine-tread 33" wheels and 36" wheels in .540" and .554" axles lengths.  The other products followed as the wheels became popular.

[Missaberoad]

@bbussey I appreciate the effort to keep staples such as wheels and trucks in stock! Keep up the good work, and excited to see what comes next.

My biggest request would be a .554 axle length for older Atlas trucks.

A dream would be a wheelset with a 0.48" tread width (n scale equivalent of HO code 88 semiscale wheels) Hoping someday someone fills that niche.

[SkipGear]

I would most certainly hate to see FVM go to Scale Trains. I wish the best for Matt and his family and hope that he comes through this on top. I want to see Fox Valley products back in stock and on store shelves but if Scale Trains buys them, that will never happen. Their pricing structure is completely built around direct to customer sales. Remember the last company to try that...Exactrail...how did that work out? Matt realized that the hobby shop was vital to the continuation of the hobby. We dealt direct with Fox Valley and he was very accommodating, helpful, and gave us enough margin that we could make some money and still compete with the mail order places.

One of our distributors tried to carry Scale trains, it's hard to justify putting a $25.00 freight car on the shelf when you have to pay $24 + shipping to get it in the shop. I'm sure dealing direct with Scale Trains would yield a little better margin but I can't believe it would be that much better.  Remember it all comes down to that fact that we still have to make a profit to stay in business and with that sort of pricing structure it can't be done.

[Bill H]

It makes little sense to make a product that, at this moment, will not sell.  Yes, introducing a new wheel product costs considerably less than a new piece of rolling stock, but there still needs to be a reasonable time period to get the return on investment.  Otherwise, there won't be any new product in the future.

And as a reminder, FVM started by offering 12-packs of fine-tread 33" wheels and 36" wheels in .540" and .554" axles lengths.  The other products followed as the wheels became popular.

Bryan:
I have bought dozens of the 12 packs from my pusher MBK lately. Very pleased. Sure wish you would do 100 or 50 packs in the future.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Frank Amato]

My biggest request would be a .554 axle length for older Atlas trucks.

+1 to this!  The current Atlas (not BLMA) 100 ton trucks take the .554 axle length, according to my calipers.

  Frank

[bbussey]

Bryan:
I have bought dozens of the 12 packs from my pusher MBK lately. Very pleased. Sure wish you would do 100 or 50 packs in the future.

Kind regards,
Bill

Bill, eventually it will happen.  We released the 33" wheels 18 months ago and demand is just starting to climb.  Sales of the 36" wheels in these first 3 months have been stronger than the 33" wheels were a year ago comparably, so that's a good sign.  The trucks sales however are very sluggish.  The 33"/.554" is the next wheel on the schedule, which may debut with the HO scale XIH or sooner if climbing wheels demand forces us to produce a restock run later this year.  The 28"/.540" wheels will be made for the next GSC well car run.  A new truck frame never produced in N is on the board, but time will tell when it gets produced.  Technically I won't need it product-wise until the next N scale XIH run, which is a ways off.  Additional truck frames are in the works as well, but when they appear depends on factors still in flux.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Tangent sell BLMA like  36” wheels in N scale, i have them on all my cars that require 36” after my BLMa ran out.

https://www.tangentscalemodels.com/product-category/n-scale/n-wheelsets/

I'm using those on my MTL passenger cars and I really like them.

[pmpexpress]

Bryan:
I have bought dozens of the 12 packs from my pusher MBK lately. Very pleased. Sure wish you would do 100 or 50 packs in the future.

Kind regards,
Bill

+1

[MetroRedLine]

[nkalanaga]

I also would like to get BLMA wheels in 100-packs.  If Fox Valley was any indication, it would be a little cheaper than 12-packs, plus if I'm going to convert anything, it would be an entire type/class of car, and 3 cars/pack would be a lot of wasted packaging!

[CBQ Fan]

I also would like to get BLMA wheels in 100-packs.  If Fox Valley was any indication, it would be a little cheaper than 12-packs, plus if I'm going to convert anything, it would be an entire type/class of car, and 3 cars/pack would be a lot of wasted packaging!

Yes, I looked at ESM wheels at MBK and at $12 a pack of 12 I would prefer to buy massive bulk for all of my MT heavyweights.

[Bill H]

Yes, I looked at ESM wheels at MBK and at $12 a pack of 6 I would prefer to buy massive bulk for all of my MT heavyweights.

Brian:
Respectfully, I think you might have made a typo, they are 12 packs not 6 packs. Just received a bunch of them, and they are very nice wheelsets.

Kind regards,
Bill

[garethashenden]

@bbussey
A dream would be a wheelset with a 0.48" tread width (n scale equivalent of HO code 88 semiscale wheels) Hoping someday someone fills that niche.

You're missing a zero, you want wheels with a 0.048" tread with. Not wheels with a half inch tread with. There's a nice diagram on the back of the package of ESM wheels I have that give the tread with as 0.040". That's probably what you want, unless its too fine.

[CBQ Fan]

Brian:
Respectfully, I think you might have made a typo, they are 12 packs not 6 packs. Just received a bunch of them, and they are very nice wheelsets.

Kind regards,
Bill

Corrected thx.

[BCR751]

I think I'll wait for ESM to come out with a 100-wheel bulk package.  The International Priority shipping cost of $25USD makes it hard to justify anything else.

Doug