Micro Engineering is for sale…

[wazzou]

 

I don’t know anything beyond this notification posted to the Proto Layouts IO Group.
I hope they’re able to continue to operate until such time a buyer is found because I’ve got some C40 track and rail I need to buy.

[Chris333]

Hope someone takes over because Atlas track ain't it son.

[wazzou]

I could see someone like FastTracks maybe being a candidate, particularly since their business kind of relies on continued production.

Apparently, the add I posted was from Pg. 23 of the December Model Railroader.  ???

[x600]

  I've got the 00,000.00 if anyone else has the 5, maybe we can get it rolling. 
I just hope the new owner can keep the track in stock, so when you need a few turnouts, you don't have to
spend days searching the web.


 Greg O.

[Chris333]

Oh yeah I didn't think of them.

[reinhardtjh]

From the Dec 2021 Model Railroader:

[reinhardtjh]

I was 30 minutes slow...  Sorry. I looked in Crew Lounge and I thought I looked in "N & Z Scale" but I guess I missed it.

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=52969.msg718649#new

[basementcalling]

Hope someone takes over because Atlas track ain't it son.

Careful, or Atlas will buy it and make it Master Line and overcharge for it.

[Chris333]

I wasn't even thinking of the Atlas super flex vs. ME stiff flex. I was thinking of how the looser rail (of the 2) in Atlas flex can fall right over and out of the ties. One rail is solid and the other will wiggle all over with your finger pressure.

Wasn't thinking of turnouts either.

[ednadolski]

Careful, or Atlas will buy it and make it Master Line and overcharge for it.

It would suck big time if Atlas rail becomes the only kind available.

[John]

It would suck big time if Atlas rail becomes the only kind available.

If they continued to make track here in the US -- then I wouldn't mind ..

[mike_lawyer]

I wish someone would make North American prototype flex to compete with Atlas.  I do like Atlas flex over Micro-Engineering for ease of use.

[thomasjmdavis]

The big problem for those of us who frequent the N&Z forum is that the future of the company is probably much more dependent (as usual in model railroading) by how essential ME products are to HO modelers.  Do they have ready substitutes of equal quality and performance?  If not, somebody call Rod Stewart or Michael Gross.  Or Warren Buffet.

That said, while I don't have $500,000 available (or whatever a realistic offer would be once the company's sales are factored in) unless I win the lottery, I do have an MBA, retired without much on my schedule, and will work for code 55 track and turnouts.

Now that I think about it, maybe, if we just say "Company to manufacture railroad track in the United States" and leave out the "scale model" part, we could get a government grant from the Infrastructure legislation that Congress passed in the middle of the night on Friday.

[Dave V]

Micro Engineering is big in the narrow gauge community.  I'm hoping one of the new conglomerates like San Juan Models or Leadville Designs can get the capital together to purchase it.

[ncbqguy]

Whoever does buy the company has to do some micro engineering on the turnouts, N Scale in particular.   The existing product is old school and the marketplace has advanced, at least in HO.   
It is a great opportunity for somebody to establish a state of the art track business in the United States.
Charlie Vlk