Athearn is bought out!!!!!

I am sorry but this makes no sense to me. Are you joking?

Funny you should mention Wal-Mart... the Athearn website has a list of Wal-Mart stores that still had John Deere trainsets just days before Christmas! How much shelf space do you think that Wally-World will devote to "serious" model railroading? No, I don't see this as much good news at all... but we will have to wait & se.

Perhaps true about the foreign outsourcing. Pricing?

Peter,

Read your analysis and I think you are right on target.

I suggest that anyone wanting blue box Athearn stock up now. Hit it on ebay.

Phil Bostian

I agree with what Peter has stated but have a question. Assuming modelers will want about the same number of cars/engines if Athearn sales go down in the future won't sales of others (Branchline, Bowser, Accurail, P2K, Walthers, etc.) go up?

On what planet? Certainly not here.

Dave in march horizon will be the sole distributor. Higher prices coming.

Peter, I saw an ad in the January 2004 Railroad Model Craftsman, on the bottom half of page 36 placed by CM Shops that they are discontinuing their Rail Runner Custom Car Line. It also says as the current inventory is sold out, there will be no more. It includes the stock #s and road names of what I assume is their remaining stock. I was wondering when I read the ad, why they were discontinuing the line. I wonder if this could be the result of knowledge of the pending sale of Athearn. I have been reading this newsgroup, since about the time Big John arrived on the scene. I was always amazed that I could find about things in the model railroad industry, long before I saw a word of it, on websites or in magazines. When I got the same email notice from Athearn that the original poster sent to rmr, that Athearn had been or was being sold. I was surprised that even mention of a rumor of Athearn being sold was not mention on this newsgroup. There has been all the discussion about Rivarossi and whether or not they are still in business. Anyway, you mentioned about BevBel and CM Shops, so I just thought I'd mention about the ad I saw and that no one has mentioned it since I saw the ad. Mike

Not here either, at least not price wise and Athearn blue box kits haven't changed for the better.

As for locos, I haven't purchased a single Athearn diesel since Atlas introduced their RS-3 and that was what, approaching 20 years ago?

-- Cheers Roger T.

Home of the Great Eastern Railway

A key element in Supply vs. Demand though is price. Most of us eat hamburger as opposed to steak not because of its teate, but because of its price. The same will hold true here. If the Athearn prices go up, then fewer people will ask for their products... especially if their price begins to get comparable to some of the other more detalied products on the market. If the prices were the same, I'd probably opt for the Accurail model over Athearn because of detail. But since Athearn is about 60% of the price, I'm willing to accept the lesser deetail for the lesser price.

dlm

All things being the same, he might be technically correct. The loose thread here is that I doubt if Wal-Mart becomes the next corner hobby shop. When I was young, discount stores were the main source of my plastic model kits. But today, that has dried up as well. Most of them only carry a fraction of what they used to, and it tends to be many models of one item instead of the wider variety of years ago.

We have long debated the pros and cons of the corner hobby shop here on r.m.r. Now we might just be seeing the beginning of what some of us have said all along. I think you will hold your breath for a very, very long time before you see a pack of Kadee #5's at your local Wally-World or Sam's Club... now if Sam's could gt them to pack them in bulk packs of one hundred pairs, then things might be different! : )

dlm

Kind of a side note to this thread ...

At one time these custom after-market paint jobs (Bev-Bel, CM Shops, Kar-line, Cooper & Oshtemo, etc.) made sense. They were ALL you could get in MANY cases. They used what was available for bodies.

In later years the whole thing seems to have gotten off kilter IMHO. Why put an expensive custom paint job on a poor shell ... one that is FAR below current standards? Yet most of these companies persist to present in using Athearn and MDC boxcar shells. POOR by any current standard, and often horribly inaccurate for the prototype in question. Why put a $10 (for want of argument) paint job on a $1 shell.

As I see it, there would be a far better market for these paint schemes if they were put on a better 'undec' car, especially one close to the matching prototype. Cost shouldn't be far different, as the blank car is just a fraction of the total. Yes, it would be more expensive, somewhat, but you'd have a reasonably accurate car for your money.

Dan Mitchell ==========

Mike Sullivan wrote:

One thing that turned me towards Accurail is the fact that they do "data only" cars. I like that a lot. ;-)

One thing I like about Athearn Blue Box engines (which have been disappearing, as you noe), is the dummy locos they make. I don't feel so bad trying this or that, with details or paint, if it is on a shell for a dummy that I didn't pay as much for. Plus, you could fatten up your fleet more cheaply with the dummies being available.

EBTBOB wrote: : Good Morning All, : : I just read this post and all the replies. I don't know what to make of : all of this....but one thing I do know. In the past five years or so I have : bought next to nothing from Athearn. One pair of Genesis diesels, one : pre-built covered hopper and some tractor trailers. : I have gone to Bowser and Accurail for my primary source of freight : cars. I did this because Athearn, one, has not changed anything about their : primary line in the way of detailing their cars, etc. Yes the newer Genesis : cars are nicely detailed but think about all the bitching that went on here and : in other forums about things like how hard it is to put different couplers on : their cars. Speaking of couplers....Athearn still forces that lousey plastic, : McHenry coupler on you in their kits and their lower end prebuilts. : The Athearn steam program was average at best with big problems with the : 2-8-2 and the way it tracked. : And worry about the blue box disappearing.....that has been gradually : happening for a couple of years now. In the store I work in.....I cannot : remember the last time a customer wanted an Athearn kit and our ability to get : anything in a blue box has been difficult at best. : As far as their prebuilt cars...price was usually a couple of dollars : more than say an IBF car or an Atlas car. Even some of the Intermountain and : Red Caboose cars are cheaper than the Genesis line of freight cars. : And parts.....try to get Athearn parts now. At one time that was an : Athearn strong point. The ability to get parts for engines and cars. Not : anymore and not for at least two years now. When a customer asks us to order : a part we say we will try but don't hold your breath. : Ok....enough rambling.....Athearn is sold. Let the chips fall where they : may. The Athearn line is not the draw it once was as an entire line. : : Bob Rule, Jr. : Hatboro, Pa.

My guess is Horizon made a smart business move to increase company profits. They will now pay much less than warehouse distributor prices for the Athearn product. In addition, they will profit from the Athearn purchases made by all the other distribution companies. I doubt they will try to remain exclusive. They are not large enough for that and a move like that would be financial suicide. After all, Athearn did not give them the company, and whatever price Horizon paid was based on current real estate, inventory, manufacturing equipment and recent annual sales figures. Only a fool would buy such a company and then refuse to do business with 90% of it's existing customers. Horizon is just watching the moves of other companies such as Walthers, with their proprietory lines, and they are taking the necessary steps to insure their own well being in the future. Having a corner stone product like Athearn in hand, will certainly help. Don't worry guys. It's just coporate America at work. The big threat will come when only a handfull of corporations own all the little companies. But that is still a long way off in model railroading yet. Doug

That's interesting, Mike! I hadn't seen the ad. (Let my RMC subscription lapse last year.)

Dan Mitchell mentions that these "custom" cars are becoming obsolete as it is, so maybe it might have happened anyway. But the Athearn sale could have hastened it.

Peter King in NY

In theory, yes. It's possible MDC may be helped by this, taking up the small amount of slack in simple kits. Life-Like could also use the opportunity to boost its P1K line IF they move to smaller, but more frequent, runs.

Peter King in NY

Hi, Phil!

I should also point out that much of what I predict for Athearn is what happened to Bowser when they pulled out of distributors. It's a guess on my part, but an educated one. (I'd like to think!)

Peter King in NY

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Doug, what I wrote is, admittedly, a worst-case scenario. For all I know, you may have a better crystal ball than I do! I will be delighted if you turn out to be right, and I'm wrong. But only time will tell.

Peter King in NY