every time i check their website all they are making are the genisis stuff it seems anymore everything else is sold out and when they do produce them they always produce stuff in the NS UP BN BNSF SP ATSF it seems thats all they produce anymore i have a athearn GP 38 in iowa interstate if you find one on ebay it goes for premium dollars Just my thoughts is all
Keith,
it´s not only Athearn, it´s all of the mainstream manufacturers. This is one of the pitfalls of limited batch-runs in manufacturing. Either you order early, or you might not get it.
Long gone are the times, when you could get whatever item was listed at any time.
Yeah,that’s the name of the game now…Buy now or lament later.
Thankfully there’s e-Bay,HO yardsale,the local use market,train shows and some on line shops…One needs to look around on the Internet and attend train shows in order to fill the missing gaps…
As recently as 2003, when I entered the HO scale side of the hobby, I could pretty much buy any loco I wanted, Athearn or otherwise. But, by 2007, it was all over. It is hard to find anything you want anymore.
As far as Athearn goes, recall that it is now owned by Horizon Hobbies and every loco it produces is quickly distributed to retailers. So, if you look on the Athearn web site, everything is always out of stock.
Specific road names and engine types, if they are available at all, are buried on the shelves of LHS and on line retailers.
Interestingly, if you look long enough and hard enough, you can still find new locos for sale that were first packaged back in 2003. You just have to look long and hard, real long and hard.
Rich
When I entered the hobby back in 1963, any “authorized” dealer stocked the entire range of products as listed in the manufacturer´s catalog. When an item was not available at his place, he could either swap it with other dealers or get it from the manufacturer within days.
Buying a loco was an experience of its own. You entered the store, voiced your request, and the shop attendant went into the storage to get it. He opened the box, let you take a close look, took it out of the box and made a test run. Price was never an issue - prices were listed in the catalog and that was the amount you had to pay - at any place. No bargains, no dealings, no wheelings, no “I will pre-order it for you”!
The models announced at the Nuremberg Toy Fair were always available in time for the Christmas season.
In those days, model railroading was the # 1 hobby.
Tempi passati!
Back then you didn’t need to be a authorized dealer…All you needed was a small business license and your state tax ID and you could go to any hobby distributor or order direct from Walthers.
One of the best hobby shops I was ever in back then was in the basement of a hardware store.
I would like to mention the hardware store near Ft.Knox that had a complete line of model railroad items.
True. If you favor a road other than the major ones, you’re lucky to see it once from the manufacturer. It’s hard to get an undecorated or unpainted model as well.
I have found that you need to have a list of items / road names you really want and buy them whenever they show up. Patience will help as it could take years. Also be prepared to have to strip and repaint / reletter for the smaller roads. Consider kitbashing and scratch building as well.
Good luck
Paul
Well it’s a sign of the times. Inventory costs money, especially at the end of the year when all manners of government, local state and feds tax the **** out of it. The technology for rotating inventory in and out is there why not use it. Buyers like us just need to refine our abilities to purchase. It’s great, now you have “the thrill of the hunt”. I prefer this than seeing Athearn, et all, going out of business all together.
Happy New Year
Wayne
This is one reason why I have almost completely stopped modeling anything standard gauge. I am getting back into On30 and On3 narrow gauge because 1) I absolutely love it and 2) a lot of what I like are made by individuals here in the US. I much prefer dealing with people that actually make the stuff and I can support an American business.
As far as Bachmann On30 stuff goes, I have a few things, but I only buy what I can’t get elsewhere or build myself.
Come to think of it, I haven’t purchased a new locomotive since this new method of marketing was begun, 2003-4 or so. I have bought one Blue Box Athearn GP 40-2 locomotive that I built for my grandson off of Ebay and that is it. I look at the adds, and sticker shock kills any thoughts of a purchase! Thankfully my roster is pretty well filled out.
I have bought many Accurail freight cars and am thankful Accurail still produce kits and doesn’t market in this new way.
I’ve got so much stuff on preorder now that I’ve lost track, lol. The only way to be sure your going to get a model you want is to preorder it. Sucks but you can’t do anything about it.
You too, huh?[(-D]
Just gotta keep on plugging away at it.[;)]
This never was a “poor man’s” hobby…
The day of generic freight cars is rapidly coming to a close since modelers are preferring more accurate cars.
How long Accurail and Atlas ex Yardmaster kits will last depends on the demand.
Dah!
You may say that now but,Accurail kits could sink into the sunset if sales drop off…Atlas ex Yardmaster who knows? We already seen the Branchline kits become RTR…
It just as cheap to manufacture RTR as it is kits according to those in the know…
keithh9824,
Hobby manufacturers are not in the warehousing business. They are in the manufacturing (or if you prefer, the import) business. They create product and ship it out as fast as possible, They don’t make much money stockpiling locos for three years or more (Iowa Interstate GP38’s were announced in June 2009) on the odd chance that someone might buy one. It’s unrealistic to expect them or any manufacturer to do so.
As for why only Genesis items were hitting the shelves, it’s been well documented online that Athearn’s RTR Chinese factory closed very suddenly. So suddenly, in fact, that the Chinese “owner” of the factory is, AFAIK, still on the run from the Chinese police, if you catch my meaning. Only just recently has Athearn found another supplier/factory in China for their RTR product line. Expect more RTR products soon.
Lastly…and I only bring it up because it makes your post hard to read…but please use periods and capitalize the first letter of each sentence. I don’t say this to be the grammer police as I get no pleasure from correcting typos and junk like that (I make enough mistakes for everyone). But if there are no sentences, it’s just not easy to understand what someone is trying to say. Thanks.
richhotrain,
Our hobby has always had “batch” production. The difference was back in the "Olden Days"™ there was very little product, and therefore batches were run more frequently. But even then, when I got into the hobby in 1990, one could not find any Athearn Trainmasters, RDC’s or 200ton cranes. They were simply not available and hadn’t been run in years. In the mid-1990’s, they were available once more.
IRONROOSTER,
Back before limited runs, there were no other roads run by manufacturers other than the major ones. There were also few if any “oddball” locos.
(see below)
Branchline kits are available from Atlas now, I don’t think the Branchline Yardmaster kits are available anymore.
I have personally communicated with Accurail and they have said they are going to stay with kits. However, things change over time; so, if the present RTR craze continues, it is hard to say what will happen.
Having been involved in manufacturing all my adult life, I can assure you it is not as cheap to manufacture RTR, as it is kits! Anyone telling you such, doesn’t know what they are talking about. Someone is being paid to assemble the kit into a ready to run car and that someone ain’t doing it for nothing!
That’s good news since I’m thinking about changing eras and using Accurail cars.
I like RTR but,I dunno something just doesn’t seem right when all you need to do is switch out couplers and paint the wheel face but,seeing I built hundreds of kits over the years maybe I lost my kit building interest or grew tired of tweaking Athearn BB kits in order get couplers at the correct height.
I also hope Atlas Trainman (ex-yardmaster) kits lasts.
Larry,
Atlas also produces the Branchline Blueprint series of freight car kits. Are you saying that the Branchline Yardmaster series is now the Atlas Trainman line? I’ve have not heard that rumor, before.