Atlas acquires Microtrains

[Chris333]

nope....

Guess we all wait for the Netflix documentary?

[Bendtracker1]

Yes because atlas really did outstanding things with BLMA. The proof is in how the have handled things in the past and it hasn’t been stellar.

^^^^THIS^^^^

[Rossford Yard]

Oh joyous day, wonderful news, I'm so excited! /s

Great so it's going to be like Life Like and BLMA all over again. We still haven't seen 90% of the detail parts BLMA used to have
F in chat boys.

No big manufacturer is going to keep providing <$1 detail pieces; they need to focus on higher margin products—just a fact.

It will work out, It always seems to have.  For all the gloom and doom at everything that happens, we continue to get more and better product year after year.  If nothing else, it is a market opportunity for some enterprising 3D printing company, land details are probably only economically feasible now if they are 3D printed.

MHO

[John]

Of course, we could all learn to code CAD    and then print the models ..

Fortunately, I have everything I will ever need in this lifetime so this really doesn't affect me too much.  I wish Atlas well with this endeavor, and if there is a void, someone will step in to fill it ..

I thank MTL employees for superb customer service over the years, some really good innovation ..

[wm3798]

I'm like Ed.  BLMA was a niche producer, and not a major player outside that niche.  That was Craig's deal, not Atlas.  So they have the designs and whatever tooling there might be, but this isn't even apples and oranges.  It's more like Apples and raisins... or sesame seeds.  BLMA started producing some rolling stock, but it was cutting edge, high dollar stuff.  While highly desirable for demanding modelers who had become lazy to bend a grab iron or too attention deficit to learn how to run a Dremel, it wasn't mass market oriented.

As Atlas' capabilities expanded and resources for quality production improved, I would say the rolling stock market remained dominated by Atlas and Micro trains for reasonably priced, readily available freight cars.  Players like BLMA, Bluford and ESM certainly gave both cause to up their game in terms of detail and quality, but still, they were the two elephants in the room. 

The whole production location thing is a bit of a puzzler, given the current climate...  My first thought was also that Atlas was looking for a toe hold to return at least some production to the US.  But Ed made a good point...  I remember those fires, and they very much caused an economic ... dare I say it... climate change in that region.  The fact that they're clearing out the building tells me they aren't interested in whatever manufacturing lines that were still intact.  I did know in my gut they weren't going to move the line to New Jersey, given that is one of the more expensive states in which to do any kind of business, much less labor intensive, fine-motor skills driven manufacturing.

As for Micro Trains trucks and couplers, they have been the gold standard for over 50 years.  The depth and breadth of their offerings is unparalleled across every imaginable era of modeling.  Atlas would be foolish to sink that ship.  Their own Accumate design is widely regarded as terrible, both in appearance and performance.  I dare say there is probably a growing ratio of Accumates piling up in coffee cans and cigar boxes under the layout right next to Rapidos.

While we don't have a dog directly in this hunt, you could say that as customers... long time customers... we are the prey they are hunting.  For generations we have depended on MT for interesting, well crafted offerings, and Atlas for a dependable supply of reasonably good quality things we need from track nails to sound equipped engines.  MT's rolling stock falls somewhere at the higher end of that range, and if blended properly into the Atlas production scheme, should be a center of attention for Paul et all there in Hillside.

That said, despite it's "global production network", Atlas only has so many hands on deck to deal with with multiple product lines and multiple scales.  Each run of each product requires some level of focus, and I believe that's the main reason the Lifelike tooling lays dormant.  If you consider the number of individual models that are now in the Atlas tooling library, it's silly to think that they would be manufacturing any one of them with any regularity or even in a timely manner by the time all the road specific nonsense (that would be better accomplished by gearing BLMA back up)... but I digress...

If there's a failure, it's going to be because they have neglected to import a bit of the culture of their conquests, along with the tooling.  BLMA was sharp, fun, edgy and creative.  Atlas bought the stuff, but left the ideas behind it on a dusty shelf in California.  (That's what makes me think Craig approached Atlas because he wanted to move on, not because they wanted his business).  Now in this case, @JoeD , who drove much of the creativity in MT's product development, will be selling shoes or bussing tables at Waffle House instead of being offered the chance to contribute to the success of the transition.  I don't know if they offered him the opportunity, but it doesn't sound like it.  Guys who know what they're doing and have been doing it a long time tend to be expensive, and thus expendable in situations like this.  And if they did, well, a move to Jersey from the PNW would be a big pill to swallow, so I get it.

In the end, it's a business deal, and hopefully there's been some planning to make the transition as smooth as possible.  The Lionel brand soldiers on after decades of bad decisions, bad products, bad markets and so on.  Micro Trains has a following, good products, and a long history.  Somehow or another, I think it will survive as a dependable supplier of quality work.  It's Atlas' game to lose, now.

Lee

[ednadolski]

AFAIK, MTL had recently (?) shut down their Z-scale efforts.  However Atlas has lately been increasing their Z-scale offerings, so I wonder if this might mean that Atlas would be bringing back some of the MTL Z-scale products.   Time will tell.

Ed

[Mark5]

Of course, we could all learn to code CAD    and then print the models ..

I'm fine with learning CAD, but I don't need another toxic fume situation to manage in my house. 

[samusi01]

Of course, we could all learn to code CAD    and then print the models ..

Been there, done that, haven't yet made myself a t-shirt...

[thomasjmdavis]

I wish all the best to everyone at Micro-trains.  They've done some great work over the past 5+ decades.  If you look on eBay, probably 3/4 of the N scale freight cars listed there are MTL- so, it will be hard to imagine the N scale hobby without them.

I wonder if they'd be interested in selling me a box of spare parts for their passenger cars.  Or, for that matter, ALL the spare parts for their passenger cars- before Atlas sells them to the people they sell all their own parts to, who then double the retail price and sell them on eBay.

@JoeD - I want to say a special thank you to you personally, and to the customer service department at MTL, for all the assistance over the years with my parts requests.  Especially the time you put into collecting all those FT parts for me, enabling me to rebuilt that ABBA set I picked up used.

I'm just shy of 72 year old.  By the time MTL tooling gets 'integrated' into Atlas' world wide supply chain, I will be many years older.  I'm not going to worry about the impact on my freight car fleet- I think the last MTL cars I bought were the 65' ATSF gons.  I have many more cars- freight and passenger- than I will ever need.  But, I will miss bugging Joe and others at MTL about the combine.  I'll have to email Atlas to find out which employee is going to be taking on complaints about there being no combine.  And, no, I will NOT be satisfied with a 60' CNW prototype.

My first MTL cars were ATSF map boxcars in the mid 1970s (I think I paid $20 for a set of 5) that have run on 5 layouts.  Definitely got my money's worth.  Seeing those cars at a hobby shop was what made me change from HO modeling to N scale. 

I wish all the best to everyone at Micro-trains. 

[robert3985]

This surprised me a little.  But, that's not that hard to do. 

As for what's gonna happen with the Atlas/MTL Line, I don't have much of an opinion other than if Atlas continues to do what it's done in the past, the Atlas/MTL Line might be greatly reduced.  However, MTL is a totally different dog than BLMA was/is, and their product line should be much more valuable to Atlas than BLMA's product line was/is.  So, maybe there won't be a reduction if Atlas is smart.

Personally, I haven't been buying much from MTL in the last 15 or so years.  I used to buy their reefers, but I've got all I want/need for the trains I run and plan to run...I've bought several of their UP CA cabooses mainly to kitbash into CA1's, or superdetail up and repaint into decent representations of UP CA's and SP's C30 series.

Before the turn of the Century, I bought hundreds of Kadee and then MTL N-scale Magne Matic couplers to convert all of my Rapido equipped cars with them.  Then, when they introduced their first low-profile wheelsets, I bought hundreds of them also, along with trucks equipped with them to convert all of my cars to low-profiles instead of machining them on my lathe.

Then, I started converting everything to their Nn3/Z scale couplers and snipping off the magnetic dongles.

Next, I bought quite a few True Scale couplers, which I wasn't entirely happy with...but modified with a 3D printed coupler box, they worked okay.

However, I'm converting all of my cars to metal low-profile semi-prototypical width wheelsets now, and converting everything to N-Possible couplers.

I'll buy, periodically, an MTL car, but I acquire most of them through trades nowadays, and I only acquire cars with production dates prior to 1957, so that limits me.

I'm most happy with other brands of cars with separate and finer etched details, than I am with my Kadee/MTL cars, so I run a lot of Intermountain kits that I've assembled over the years...and I still have several hundred to put together, which will get MTL trucks (if they're still available) and body-mounted N-Possibles when I get around to scheduling assembly time.

Although I recognize the impact Kadee/MTL has had with the N-scale portion of the hobby, I am not particularly surprised that they would eventually be acquired by a larger enterprise with more assets, and since Atlas DOES make some very nice N-scale products (most newer products being much better detailed than MTL), I'm fairly positive about what will happen with the Atlas/MTL Line in the future...although I claim absolutely zero expertise in prognosticating what will ACTUALLY happen.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[OldEastRR]

Yes, before freaking out, we should all settle down and see what actually happens. All these dire predictions are just guesses.

Hmmm.. I think they said the same thing after the 2024 elections. How did that work out?

[signalmaintainer]

I wish all the best to everyone at Micro-trains.  They've done some great work over the past 5+ decades.  If you look on eBay, probably 3/4 of the N scale freight cars listed there are MTL- so, it will be hard to imagine the N scale hobby without them.

Right on!

[signalmaintainer]

For the optimists: This isn't a glass half-full situation. For pessimists, this isn't a glass half-empty situation. Rather, there's a glass. There's water in it. And right now that water doesn't taste very good.

[learmoia]

The acquisition doesn't surprise me....

If anyone was going to buy it, Atlas is probably the best option.
Scale Trains is still trying to figure out the MTH Purchase.
Horizon/Athearn are having their own issues..
Intermountain can't get their own products out the door..

Given the current political climate, It's very surprising Atlas chose to take an active US manufacturing facility immediately layoff almost all the employees and ship production overseas..

If they were in the position where they HAD to move it.. I guess it makes sense to move it overseas vs trying to restart somewhere else in the US. 

But given the seeming lack of notice to the employees.. I doubt that was the case..

Not a good look and may make national internet news..

Granted.. the tariff thing will sort itself out in the next 2-3 years, but the higher prices are here to stay..

So that leaves Accurail and Kadee?, as the only US producer?

~Ian

Edit: I just look at the Atlas Facebook page... Woah boy!... 

[Chris333]

What about the whole monthly thing?