Probably not …
Mark.
Not at all, we have some excellent moderators here and I can’t see where there will be any serious issue or problem. I can remember a number of years ago where there were some rather pointed and rude comments on this forum, but those days seem to be gone.
We have a lot of veterans here that always seem to find the right words to correct an inappropriate response and if that doesn’t work then our moderators kick it up a notch.
Wayne
Baloney,
That is a symptom of the modeling community at large and not a problem of Atlas forums in particular.
I have been a member of Atlas since it’s earliest days in 1994 and personally I think this is a symptom of the poor economic conditions of the hobby and possibly Atlas too. If Atlas cannot continue to maintain it’s forums, which was IMO an ambassador of good will and good PR to the model RR community, then they must hurting financially. The forums have always made me feel much better about Atlas and their products and kept me more informed of them. Now they will be dropping off my Radar - and no, I don’t give a hoot following them on facebook and twitter.
This is an end of an 18 year run and a bitter shame. I hope Atlas recovers enough financially in a few years to revive the forums. To me that will be a sign of them becoming more healthy again.
I find it sad how arogant some people are on this topic. For starters, quite a few hobbiests have been on mulitple forums for years, including here, Atlas and others. I too have been a member here for a few years and Atlas since the beginning in 1994. Yes, there have been some negative people at Atlas, but IMO, that is a sypmtom of the hobby, not any one place. Atlas never had a staff of volunteer moderators to help clean things up, and thats probably why this forums apears to be a little more positive - not because it is somehow just a holy place. I like this forum too and will rely more heavily on it now that Atlas is too feeble to maintain their forums anymore.
Some comment on how this will give them more time in their basements. Well, some of us don’t have space for a Model Railroad so we rely on forums for periods of time to enjoy the hobby until the day we are as fortunate as y’all to have a layout to work on again.
Anyway, I will miss Atlas, it has been a part of my life for 18 years.
All I can say is [#welcome] to any of those joining us here that are new to our site or returning after being away at that “other” site…
[C):-)]
I agree, it was a rhetorical question. We should count ourselves lucky to get many of them, and hope that Atlas regains some composure soon. It can’t be a good sign for the hobby if Atlas is having to cut off it’s forum outreach.
Crandell
As long as they are on Facebook, I don’t complaint about it… The contact between customer and Manufacturer is much better there. I have no real interest in manufacturers forums if they are more or less functioning as isolated from the mfg… One advantage with FB is that I get the important updates in front of me on a very nice visual way.
I been on the Atlas forum since 2002-I join here first then Atlas- and that is a yes/no/maybe type of question.
You see there are lots of knowledgeable modelers on that forum that never took part in the bashing,trashing and bickering…Those would make excellent members…
I would hate to see the few bad apples migrate here.
I too believe that Atlas maybe having money problems!
They had announced that they are having track supply problems currently and in 2010 they had problems supplying turnouts for most of the year.
Our Club has 6 of the MP15 Sound engines still on back order for almost 2 years now - We did receive the Non-Sound units we had ordered.
This thing with having to pre-order engines and cars is, I Believe, not going as well as THEY had hoped and the longer the delays become makes many less ready to PRE-Order anything else as they (like my Club) are unhappy about having to wait for over 2 years for a simple MP15 switcher.
Now with them saying they are trying to save money - sure indicates the current business climate is not as good as most are trying to make it sound!
I am involved with a Hobby Shop and I can see the problem slowly turning away NEW Modelers as the LACK of availability of Engines and Cars in specific roads - being SOLD-OUT.
While the business model of only building to Pre-Orders is ONLY taking into consideration current Modelers!
What about any NEW Modelers (as those now finding time to begin or get back into Model Railroading).
They just may want some of the engines that are now ALL SOLD-OUT - never to be run aga
[quote user=“cmrproducts”]
riogrande5761:
Baloney,
That is a symptom of the modeling community at large and not a problem of Atlas forums in particular.
I have been a member of Atlas since it’s earliest days in 1994 and personally I think this is a symptom of the poor economic conditions of the hobby and possibly Atlas too.
If Atlas cannot continue to maintain it’s forums, which was IMO an ambassador of good will and good PR to the model RR community, then they must hurting financially. (snip)
I too believe that Atlas maybe having money problems!
They had announced that they are having track supply problems currently and in 2010 they had problems supplying turnouts for most of the year.
Our Club has 6 of the MP15 Sound engines still on back order for almost 2 years now - We did receive the Non-Sound units we had ordered.
This thing with having to pre-order engines and cars is, I Believe, not going as well as THEY had hoped and the longer the delays become makes many less ready to PRE-Order anything else as they (like my Club) are unhappy about having to wait for over 2 years for a simple MP15 switcher.
Now with them saying they are trying to save money - sure indicates the current business climate is not as good as most are trying to make it sound!
I am involved with a Hobby Shop and I can see the problem slowly turning away NEW Modelers as the LACK of availability of Engines and Cars in specific roads - being SOLD-OUT.
While the business model of only building to Pre-Orders is ONLY taking into consideration current Modelers!
What about any NEW Modelers (as those now finding
This may be the whole problem. I went to my LHS last week to buy some Atlas flex-track. I was told I was in luck, because the day before he’d gotten one box from his supplier, but he was told that’s the last he’d see until October. Atlas is shifting track manufacturing from one Chinese factory to another, but in the process they will lose many months of production. I’d imagine that track is a significant part of their revenue stream, so they will have cash-flow problems this year.
It may be that they’ve made the choice to shut down the forum rather than lay off employees. If that’s the case, I’d agree with the decision.
BRAKIE
What Atlas says is true - they are also going to have CASH flow problems - Period!
You have to have PRODUCT to sell - if you don’t NO CASH
They spent a lot of bucks in the Branchline cars and it will take a while to get China up to speed on those (a year or more) to get more stuff out there.
More CASH Flow problems while this is happening.
The EXPENSES keep on coming in (Elect, Wages, Taxes, etc.) no matter if you are not spending any money paying for stuff to arrive from China (been there) !
And where do we cut back - where ever we can.
We begin to NOT release NEW Cars & Engines as fast we we could etc.
Now the Cash flow is getting worse as NO ONE is buying anything as there is NOTHING to sell - REMEMBER - we ONLY build to ORDERS!
So we have to cut back a little more - More Cash Flow problems and it continues till we are no longer able to keep the doors OPEN!
Again I can speak from experience on this!
This current method os economics is not going to keep the doors open!
You can’t make MONEY on NO STOCK/SOLD OUT!
BOB H - Clarion, PA
Good riddance to the Atlas Forum!
While I will concede it once was a source of useful information, over the past couple years at least the HO forum has degenerated into a place for whining and moaning. Those high posting individuals are too ignorant to realize how much they don’t know, have lobbied for ever more highly detailed models that now they don’t want to pay for (what a shock! like we couldn’t see that coming), and have likely done more to hurt this hobby and drive others away than anyone else has ever done. Don’t even try to provide them factual information and real manufacturing cost estimates–they won’t accept them at all but instead argue “Kadee builds it here so why can’t everyone else”. Finally, several of the high posting members don’t even have a layout–so why should anyone listen to their product evaluations anyway?
John
I regularily read 3 forums daily, sometimes two or three times. Atlas, MR and Train orders. all three serve their purpose and present different views and ideas. I hate to see Atlas go, remembering a time years ago when I kept bugging Atlas for a certain Santa Fe diesel, and eventually they produced it. At that time, I received one of the first ones “off the line” from Atlas as a gift. Lately I have spent less reading time on Atlas because of a few individuals on that forum who were obviously raised in a barn, not a home. However, I can find the same ones on this forum and on Train Orders, so what the heck.
Somehow Altas’s announcement, along with XactRail attempting to rewrite the hobby to their specs does bother me and cause concern for the future of the hobby. On the other hand, have been in HO since late 50’s and was in Lionel before that so I can “skip” the China syndrome and have plenty of equipment to operate and then let my wife sell it off when I die.
Bob
[quote user=“cmrproducts”]
riogrande5761:
Baloney,
That is a symptom of the modeling community at large and not a problem of Atlas forums in particular.
I have been a member of Atlas since it’s earliest days in 1994 and personally I think this is a symptom of the poor economic conditions of the hobby and possibly Atlas too.
If Atlas cannot continue to maintain it’s forums, which was IMO an ambassador of good will and good PR to the model RR community, then they must hurting financially. (snip)
I too believe that Atlas maybe having money problems!
They had announced that they are having track supply problems currently and in 2010 they had problems supplying turnouts for most of the year.
Our Club has 6 of the MP15 Sound engines still on back order for almost 2 years now - We did receive the Non-Sound units we had ordered.
This thing with having to pre-order engines and cars is, I Believe, not going as well as THEY had hoped and the longer the delays become makes many less ready to PRE-Order anything else as they (like my Club) are unhappy about having to wait for over 2 years for a simple MP15 switcher.
Now with them saying they are trying to save money - sure indicates the current business climate is not as good as most are trying to make it sound!
I am involved with a Hobby Shop and I can see the problem slowly turning away NEW Modelers as the LACK of availability of Engines and Cars in specific roads - being SOLD-OUT.
While the business model of only building to Pre-Orders is ONLY taking into consideration current Modelers!
What about any NEW Modelers (as those now finding
Atlas may have used the financial end as the plausible excuse.
If I were attempting to moderate those forums, I would have grown tired of them–at least the HO one–long ago. Considering some posts were even pretty much asking Atlas to shut down the forum, it seems they decided this is a “convenient” time.
Money-wise Atlas will be just fine. Atlas has faced challenges before and has remained one of the best companies. They are shifting at least some of their production to Bowser’s builder in China, who has stated they have plenty of capacity to build trains for both Bowser and Atlas. From what I’ve been told the builder just bought plenty of additional pad printing machines to handle the Atlas business.
John
I’ve been on that forum a few times, but, I’ve got to the point where Icould not even log in to the site…nothing would work…so what the heck…
On the other cash flow issue stuff…well…IIRC a few Prophets Of Doom who used to post here did suggest that such a thing could occur…you want high detailed trains…but are unwilling to either A) pay for such a privilege or B) can’t buy a less detailed piece and build it up yourself…oh well…what can you say…[:-^]
Barry,
High detail, low detail, high priced, moderately priced, it makes no difference - you have to actually have something to sell BEFORE you try to sell it.
People with no experiance in this hobby are not very likely to “trust” that the product will show up, and therefore will be less likely to invest in the other aspects of a modeling project if that “key” piece is not a realtively sure thing.
And all this high detail RTR has shifted modeling styles and driven out companies like Champ decal, so you statement about detailing it yourself is now much harder than it was 15 years ago.
Personally, I’ll take it either way, I build what I need to and buy what I don’t feel like building, but again, that’s ALL getting harder with this preorder non sense. I have 40 years experiance, a wide knowledge base of what has been produced in those 40 years for searching the secondary markets, and 40 years of refined modeling skills - AGAIN, wha
That’s just it.
The new guy is going to end up either needing a complete workshop for all his scratchbuilding needs, such as that is anymore. 
Having to go and make one’s own decals…which in itself is a job…
…and who knows what all else…
…or s/he is going to have to have one whale of a set of deep pockets to get any of the RTR high/low whatever detail locomotives and rolling stock left.
Conversely, given the way things can go either way…we could see it become more of a ‘cottage’ industry with little tiny businesses actually selling stock through direct marketing or who knows what…
You can’t make MONEY on NO STOCK/SOLD OUT!
BOB H -
Bob,I fully agree a company certainly can’t sell if its not in stock.
Looking at the Atlas Trainman line that was suppose to be in stock at all times yet,a lot of the Train Man line has sold out and was never been release as a restock item-the low bulkhead flat cars comes to mind as does the regular bulkhead…
Atlas did manage to release the former Branch Line Berwick boxcar recently…
I’m still waiting on the release of their N Scale coil car that’s been long in coming.
I fully convince there is more to the shutdown then low cash problems.