Why Discontinued Genesis Challenger

IMO, Athearn (or raher Horizon Hobbies, its current owner) decided not to continue manufacturing the Challenger because a couple of other versions of the Challenger got a rep as being better than Athearn's. I have no idea whether they deserve that rep or not, but it effectively killed Athearn's chances.

That would almost explain it, but what other company has the challenger? There was one time you had Rivarossi and Lionel doing the Challenger but now if not Athearn who? Outside of Brass I do not know what other company that is going this model. I would agree about Athearn not continuing to produce it because it got a bad rap of not being as good as the Lionel (in detail only).

If you want a kit Bowser still makes a Challenger.

Yeah if you want a TON of work to do and all the time involved.

For me that is the most fun part of model railroading building it. Good old Albert is still right it is all 'relative'.

to continue manufacturing the Challenger< Actually the Athearn Challenger was a good model but they made a wrong choice in the decoder/sound system. The correct decision would have been to change the sound decoder but Horizon chose to eliminate the engine. Lionel also discontinued theirs and dumped them price wise. IMHO a really stupid move on Horizons part but time will tell.

in article GKdOd.3332$ snipped-for-privacy@news20.bellglobal.com, Wolf Kirchmeir at snipped-for-privacy@sympatico.ca wrote on 2/8/05 5:33 PM:

Are they completely discontinued, or just awaiting new production? Other than the clinchfield and dgrw, the others say temporarily out of stock or not yet available.

Could it be that the original ones with their $359 price (rather than the announced price of over $500) are being discontinued to be replaced with newer, higher priced units? Maybe with a better DCC and sound system (like the ones BLI uses from QSI).

All that said, the sound system is OK enough and the DCC works well in my system. I'm not a rivet counter, so maybe there are some details which could be done better. But to me, NONE of the HO sound systems are better than mediocre: you can only do so much with a 1 inch speaker. When I go from my HO layout to my LGB garden stuff, there is just no comparison, and the LGBs only have 3" speakers.

After a while in the HO layout room, I just turn all the sound off. Visitors like it, but for me, it just gets annoying and distracting after a while. With the LGB and the outdoor distances and no reflecting walls, the sound is an enhancement.

Just my 2cents.

Ed

You may want to turn the sound level down a bit. I setup my sound systems so that you need to be very close to a loco to hear anything and thus, when the loco is further away, I don't even hear it. The best of both worlds in my mind.

-- Why isn't there an Ozone Hole at the NORTH Pole?

I generally do turn it down: off. Visitors need to hear it louder too be impressed (sort of like "more bass" at cheesy stereo emporia, but I digress).

Oh, and there is ozone depletion at the north pole, but it is dispersed more rapidly there due to the lack of an ocean completely surrounding the polar region which caused very different high altitude circulation patterns. Also, the land mass at the south pole is quite tall (10000 feet or so). So it is very different, but the ozone depletion does occur.

Is it a "problem?" Different debate, but Creighton's latest book in an interesting fictional read concerning the topic.

Ed

in article snipped-for-privacy@news-1.nethere.net, Bob May at snipped-for-privacy@nethere.com wrote on 2/10/05 12:25 PM:

Oh, and one other interesting arctic ozone tidbit: the thinning of ozone in the arctic is minor, except this year, wear the thinning is more dramatic due to (ready, drum roll please)...

Extra cold temperatures. Maybe global warming will prevent an arctic ozone hole ;-}

One of the reasons that Antarctica gets an annual ozone hole is that it is much more consistently cold there in the winter time, where the arctic winter temperatures are more variable (greater surrounding land mass, etc.). So when it gets really cold in the arctic winter (like this winter), more ozone is depleted.

It just shows that it is complicated and we don't completely understand the ramifications of human influence on the global climate. Of course, even before people, the climate over large areas was variable over time. 10,000 years a go, the Sahara was a lush grass land and became a desert well before human influence could have changed anything.

Ed

in article BE31098B.81B0% snipped-for-privacy@unearthlylink.net, Edward A. Oates at snipped-for-privacy@unearthlylink.net wrote on 2/10/05 12:52 PM:

You're on the right track. Chemical reactions vary according to the temp of the chemicals involved in the various reactions. Interesting that people are commenting on the world getting warmer yet the polar regions seem to be getting colder. You also have to remember that the Antartic winter also happens at the same time that the Earth is the furthest from the Sun! That you also realize that the temps on the Earth have gone up and down without the work of humanity is good. The Earth was warmer during the time of Christ and then cooled a bit and then warmed up in medieval times, cooling again at the beginning of the Industrial age to our present day. Humanity had nothing to do with those climate changes and, in the end, really are having little real effect in today's temp changes. Remember what the cry was through the '60s and '70s? Tells you how alarmist that the nuts are.

-- Why isn't there an Ozone Hole at the NORTH Pole?

From what I understand, sales were poor due to Lionel announcing and then releasing their HO Challenger at the same time. The market for a Challenger is small enough, without 2 being offered at the same time. Horizon/Athearn made the decision to do their original production run to fill existing pre orders, but not produce any more. Lionel, after all the hoopla, simply dropped out of the HO picture, again. This makes the 3rd time for them.

As for problems, we sold 3 at the shop, haven't heard of any problems with them. The 1 Lionel we got in had problems with missing running gear screws straight out of the box.

FWIW, the DCC/Sound unit used in the Athearn model was done by QSI.

Jim

skeet06 wrote:

FWIW, the sound unit in the Athearn model was done my MRC, according to Athearn's documentation:

"Genesis Challenger 4-6-6-4" published by Athearn, Inc., page 6: DCC Features, "Dual-Function decoded is made by Model Rectifier Corporation for Athearn, Inc.."

Ed

in article snipped-for-privacy@carolina.rr.com, Jim Flynn at snipped-for-privacy@carolina.rr.com wrote on 2/12/05 1:59 AM: