Atlas acquires Microtrains

[bman]

Most of those loads can be replaced by 3D printed items -- some already exist ..

Isn't the Microtrains Arrowedge 3d printed? It's listed as a multimedia kit in their description.

[John]

Isn't the Microtrains Arrowedge 3d printed? It's listed as a multimedia kit in their description.

Probably -- I know they had a stable of printers

[Olivani]

European manufacturers (like Fleischmann and others) have their models produced in Eastern European countries like Romania for few years now. But I wonder if the parts and materials still come from China?

I bought a lot of Fleischmann models over the past 12 months and they all show Vietnam as their place of origin on their boxes. Eastern Europe has become too expensive, even for European price standards.


Some Models I just received yesterday:

[bbussey]

This is a joke, right?

We do build high speed trains, a Boeing 747 and an Airbus A380 as well as rockets that can fly into space.

And those small part CANNOT be etched? How is that even possible?

Regarding the main topic, I think that this is very sad news. If production is being transferred outside of the USA (please tell me how this can be good at all?), the tariffs will make MTL products too expensive. Sigh.

The Walthers passenger cars vanished, I really do hope those MTL heavyweights don't vanish, too. All in all, I am quite pessimistic.

Alas, I hope I am wrong.

   Javier

It's a combination of etching and packaging the items so that they would remain affordable.  You can't find anyone in the States that will de-sprue and package and keep the cost reasonable.  That is the issue.  Atlas is turnkey, they don't have the ability to take raw etchings and package them into tiny baggies and attach cardboard header cards.  They lost that ability in the last century when the ceased manufacturing and assembly line operations in Hillside.

The passenger cars are not going to disappear.  One of the issues I hear is that MTL's diecasting machinery was on borrowed time.  I don't know how many people have noticed, but the floors of the 40' and 50' boxcars are plastic now.  They've been weaning off diecast for months.  So MTL was slowly moving toward the standards that everyone else is following, out of necessity.
 

[NSEGeorge]

That diecasting machine was the oldest operating example of the company that made it's products. Amazing that is has lasted that long, but it was certainly a bottleneck in their overall production panning.

[wm3798]

Lee, while it is off-topic here, I'm tired of hearing that Rustoleum axled Testors and Floquil paints.  If you check labels of your old Floquil and Polly-S paint bottles you will see the RPM logos on them.  This was long before all the hobby paint debacles happened.

RPM is that large conglomerate you mentioned, and Rustoleum is just one of the subsidiaries owned by them (along with Floquil and likely Testors). To me it means that if anybody killed those hobby paints is RPM.

Or is there some roof that Rustoleum (all under RPM's umbrella) was given control of the hobby paints and Rustoleum itself did the dirty deed?

@peteski , Regardless of whether it was Rustoleum or its corporate master, the bottom line is the same.  The shareholders weren't getting their nut, so the product line was ended.  The RPM that owned the hobby brands in the past was probably more interested in product lines and quality, but the RPM that runs it all now would appear to be less so.  It's a dynamic repeated over and over in the commercial world, going all the way back to Scrooge and Marley's hostile takeover of dear old Fezziwig.  Change a couple of operations and sales oriented board members for another bean counter or a hedge fund bro, and sooner or later, nothing matters but the next quarterly earnings report.

That's why I take heart in the acquisition of MT by Atlas.  At least for now, it's a family run business that knows its way around the industry, as well as having a reasonably good track record, despite the numerous bleatings here.

Let's look at the bright side...  Atlas could now release an entirely new fleet of rolling stock featuring MT trucks and couplers, BLMA wheelsets and etched details, to pull behind their own fleet of reasonably priced high quality locomotives, which might also benefit from better couplers and details.  The horizon is not all dark and gloomy here.

Lee

[bbussey]

Bryan-  this is looking really good. I am using similar methods for the NSE weathered cars. And frankly, so was MTL. Yes there are many ways to skin this very particular cat.

We are in a funny backwater of industry, where 100 pieces of an item is a lot. There is no other industry that tolerates such things, so this kind of creative solution is truly important. When we shipped our first tool at deLuxe to Sanda Kan, our run of 500 pieces got bumped for a month because a slot car manufacturer needed 25000 pieces of a 917 Porsche body. Our hobby just doesn't have the weight to support the expectations of hobbyists.

The fact is this technology will get better and better. The equivalent resolution right now is 1440 dpi. It will go up as the hardware improves. Tampo (Pad) printing has a much higher equivalent resolution if it is pushed to the limit in the platemaking and art preparation. I expect that inkjet and UV printing will get there, and fast.

The nice thing is that MTL was there, Atlas is there, and the combined efforts will push the boundaries and quickly.

I'm getting there.  Still learning.  It's definitely the quality of the artwork that made the MTL models top-notch.  The equipment we have seen can print over any relief.  The Reddit poster seems to believe his skills are unique and irreplaceable, but they aren't.  Mastering Photoshop is the key.  Once superior artwork is created, the equipment has shown the artwork can be printed on anything.  One trick that MTL employed in Photoshop was to pull the weathering and large graphics from the photographic source, adjust the perspective so that the view is straight-on, then add any smaller printing manually if it wasn't legible in the source photo or the final perspective.  Then you can copy weathered segments to another layer, change the opacity and overlay on top of the manual lettering to blend it in with the remainder of the photographic artwork if desired.  Yes, they learned some cool tricks to enhance their artwork.  But it's neither impossible nor difficult to learn.

[thomasjmdavis]

The Walthers passenger cars vanished, I really do hope those MTL heavyweights don't vanish, too. All in all, I am quite pessimistic.

   Javier

The Walthers cars did not vanish- although granted Walthers did not do repeat runs, that tooling was purchased by Railsmith (ie Lowell Smith), and the line has been expanded to several times the original 3 body styles offered by Walthers.

I certainly hope that Atlas keeps the MTL passenger cars in production.  I think the question might be, will they do it the same way MTL has - rotating through the selection of body styles, while also offering runner packs and occasionally complete trains. Or will they do as they have with their 60' cars- focused on a few road names, most of which never had cars resembling the 60' cars.

Now, who at Atlas do we bug about combines?

[bbussey]

I certainly hope that Atlas keeps the MTL passenger cars in production.  I think the question might be, will they do it the same way MTL has - rotating through the selection of body styles, while also offering runner packs and occasionally complete trains. Or will they do as they have with their 60' cars- focused on a few road names, most of which never had cars resembling the 60' cars.

Now, who at Atlas do we bug about combines?

I think that's an unfair assessment.  Atlas released the 60' cars in roads that had prototypes closest to the models.  And, unlike MTL, the released multi-car sets in multiple roads simultaneously.  You cannot ask for more than that.  If they employ the same strategy with the MTL heavyweights, people will be ecstatic at not having to wait a year (or more) for a complete set.  As an example, MTL never finished the New Haven pre-New Image set.  They also never issued the full New Haven New Image set, even though the six cars they did issue blew out in record time.

[Olivani]

Yes, some of the latest weathered box cars I've received had something rattling in them. When I opened them up I saw one of these weights has come off during transport. Easy fix, they just can be put back in place.

[dem34]

I think on-demand 3D printing is going to be the over-the-horizon future, but for now, this could be good.

Its getting there. The real thing is how much people are willing to go with that. Buying it as a product. I can send anyone an accurate model of an F41 flatcar for $5 a pop. But they'd have to add trucks, couplers, a tire weight,paint it and stick the decals on. Even as something as simple as a flat using bulk materials it adds up quick realistically. If I sourced some bulk Bettondorf trucks from China, got some bulk N-Possibles, Painted it and decaled it. Even with speed running it, materials would then go to $15 and then it starts to reach the places people might be afraid to spend more than the needed $25-$30 to break even when they can spend $10 more on something from China that would still be more detailed.

Rant through, my company makes a killing undercutting the dudes doing laserkits for O scale bridges that we can print in PETG for our clients that look like bridges and not children's puzzles.

[nickelplate759]

This is a joke, right?

We do build high speed trains, a Boeing 747 and an Airbus A380 as well as rockets that can fly into space.

And those small part CANNOT be etched? How is that even possible?

Regarding the main topic, I think that this is very sad news. If production is being transferred outside of the USA (please tell me how this can be good at all?), the tariffs will make MTL products too expensive. Sigh.

The Walthers passenger cars vanished, I really do hope those MTL heavyweights don't vanish, too. All in all, I am quite pessimistic.

Alas, I hope I am wrong.

   Javier

A nit - the Walthers N-scale passenger cars didn't vanish.  They went to Lowell Smith, not Atlas, and Lowell is definitely keeping them in production and has even added several cars to the line, most recently a heavyweight 14-section Pullman sleeper.    That said, his release model is very different from Walthers.

[Ngineer]

My local dealer has sent me an e-mail stating that production will end by December 31st, 2025. He cancelled all my pre-orders.

I wonder if those future Conrail family tree models (we are at number 3) will never see the light of day.

   Javier

[chessie system fan]

I'm not going to forgive Atlas until they do an Atlas/MT heavily faded and weathered pink Santa Fe Superfleet engine. 

[bbussey]

My local dealer has sent me an e-mail stating that production will end by December 31st, 2025. He cancelled all my pre-orders.

I wonder if those future Conrail family tree models (we are at number 3) will never see the light of day.

   Javier

Well, this month’s weathered Conrail two-pack may have been some foreshadowing of things to come as they may have been slotted originally for the Family Tree Series.

Let’s wait and see what December brings. There will be an MTL Micro-News, I confirmed that with Eric. They also are working to complete all projects in progress. The only stage that has shut down is the injection molding. And a December 31 shutdown suggests a big month, given that work of the current month usually is the following month’s announcements. So the finale issue might be a big fat one with more releases than the current norm.