Athearn is bought out!!!!!

Both of your scenarios are valid.

But I can't imagine anything much more risky than trying to change an entire product line's distribution chain. Are they capable of taking on the entire distribution along with their present business?

Worst case scenario for them would be to not be able to keep up with the retail shop demand - not just for Athearn but for all their lines, and watching shops give up on them. That can lead to a death spiral.

If Horizon is smart, then they should lean more towards Doug's and simply let the Athearn distribution continue on as is.

Mike Tennent "IronPenguin" Operating Traffic Lights Crossbucks Special Effects Lighting

I should clarify, when I said "direct only", I meant that dealers must purchase Bowser cars from Bowser. They are not sold through other distributors. (Exception: Walthers sells them wholesale at a minimal courtesy discount. OK for buying two or three for a special customer request. For a lot, it's more practical to get them from Bowser.)

The RMC ad rates are actually pretty reasonable, but their circulation is significantly less than MR. You'll notice a few companies only in RMC, others have a much larger ad in RMC than MR.

Obviously they sell enough to survive, and even expand modestly. But they could be a lot more successful if distribution were wider, and they were listed in the Walthers catalog.

Peter King in NY

Phil,

IIRC, Bowser is also a large distributor. The Bowser, Penn Line, Cary stuff is only available through Bowser. And I beleive the Toy Train Heaven(those multi-page ads in RMC) is also part of the English/Bowser operation.

Jim Bernier

Phil Bostian wrote:

Guess what, I agree with you.

Thanks. I don't think Athearn will be gone, but, maybe, more expensive overall. Where is your store in Florida?

I wouldn't assume that Horizon won't sell to Walthers. ConCor sells its own products via its own distributorship, and also via Walthers etc.

The press release says that Horizon will be the exclusive distributor. Oh, they'll sell to Walthers alright, or, more accurately, Terminal Hobby Shop.

They'll essentially do the same thing that Micro Engineering did. The distributor price will be eliminated. (Most manufacturers have 3 price levels; retail, wholesale and distributor.) Walthers, or any other wholesaler who ALSO has a storefront retail operation will be able to buy at the same price as any other retailer. They may then opt to sell to their wholesale customers at a small discount.

The same situation exists with DPM, Digitrax, newer Kadee, Bowser, and a few others. Walthers will sell ANYTHING they sell through THS at a wholesale price, but not necessarily at "standard" dealer discount.

Peter King in NY

According to the production schedule at Athearn's web site, they were making dummy locomotives as recently as September of last year.

In other words Athearn will be sold at what is called "a short discount", 30%. Many items from Walthers have this structure now and some items have had it for years and years!

Back in the 70's and 80's they WERE listed in the Walthers catalog, and chose to "drop out" (I suspect Phil's business philosophy had something to do with it.)

Don

-- snipped-for-privacy@prodigy.net

That may be true. Fortunatly (maybe) all I ever need from Athearn anymore is gears for the inevitable failure of a P2K unit. I kinda feel sorry for the young'ns in the hobby who will have to make due with Bachman and other "entry level" stuff that runs ok,,,,,,,for a little while.

Smile............it will drive them crazy trying to figure out just what you're up to!

Oh, and what about my Athearn 4-6-2 with the split gear on the main driver?

And what about my Athearn 2-8-2 that dropped the drawbar pin?

And what about my Athearn 2-8-2 that has devoloped pick up problems?

My model railway hasn't been run much of the past 6 or so months, yet in that time I've had the above problems with Athearn steam yet no problems with any of my Atlas/Kato, P2K and P1K or Spectrum steam and diesel locos.

-- Cheers Roger T.

Home of the Great Eastern Railway

I really think Athearn has very recently increased many of it prices on blue box kits. I know just a couple of months ago I ordered a chemical single dome tank car kit. Walthers still had it I think for

And what about my Athearn 2-8-2 that dropped the drawbar pin? And what about my Athearn 2-8-2 that has developed pick up problems?<

If you look at the BLI designs you will see they are somewhat conventional. That meaning you can take the engine apart without much trouble and work on it. The Athearn and others have basically made engines that if they have a problem they are not user serviceable. Its design engineering and not any particular company! Notice I said nothing about getting parts from BLI!

It would be nice if the number were that high, but I wouldn't count on it. (Based on what they do with Kadee, Bowser, ME, et. al.)

Peter King in NY

That was when they pulled out of other distributors, just before they launched their plastic kit line.

Peter King in NY

Good point, Mike. Especially with a line as big as Athearn's. The other manufacturers who have pulled out of distributors had a fairly modest product line when they did it.

If they pull out, it will be very hard to reestablish. I would guess many distributors have at least $500K Athearn on hand. Not so hard to introduce your line to a distributor when $5K will stock them up. Imagine buying 12 of everything Athearn makes, all at once!

Peter King in NY

Pac Man wrote: (most prior conversation cut out)

I don't think they ever totally stopped making them, but I also think they have realized the error of their way. I noticed they have announced dummy Genesis F's for the SuperChief set. This is good. The other day I pulled out of the yard with an ABBA set of Stewart F3s. I thought how stupid to have that much power when just two of the units could probably have pulled everything in the yard. The next day I went to the hobby store and bought a set (AB) of Genesis units and tried to get the third unit as a dummy. Oh well, I never thought one of my projects would be to "de-power" locomotives. I may just buy extra Super Chief dummies to put under my other shells. Move the power chassis to the Super Chief shells and re-sell them.

I presume you are talking about the "blue box" Athearn kits. To me it depends on the specific car one it talking about, but on just about any car compare the foot stirrups. I just randomly pulled the first Athearn I could get my hands on. It is thick and kludged looking, in fact I'm going to get a file and trim it down a bit. I also grabbed the first Accurail I saw. Its foot stirrups are much finer. Also since I just happened to get two box cars, comparing the door tracks. The Athearns are enormous (I presume to allow the door to really slide open).

(BTW I grabbed Athearn CB&Q #35786 40' steel box and Accurail SL-SF #153197 40' double door box) I think there are much greater differences in the wooden outside braced cars.

But really for me the difference is the paint. I think Athearn has worn out their painting equipment. The lettering is dull, fuzzy, and looks washed out, but not in a prototypical weathering way either. The Accurail has crisp sharp lettering and is numbered on the ends as well. Athearn has also taken a few liberties with some of their colors and lettering schemes.