Has anyone noticed how the availability of Athearn loco’s is so spotty? It seems like the locomotives I have been wanting to acquire are not available, particularly the SD40T-2 DRGW and SP and UP motors and also certain models of the AC4400, Ive found one website that has a few SP SD45T-2, thats it!!! When I look at the Athearn website it says that most of the locomotives are currently out of stock. Does this mean that they are currently manufacturing more or do I need to try and special order them from my local hobby store?
I’m not sure you understand how this works. When the Athearn site says “out of stock”, they may or may not be making more soon - BUT - that only means they do not have them sitting in THEIR warehouse. There are hobby shops and mail order houses all over this country that have bought them and have them sitting on the shelves - you just need to find out who has the one you want.
Try the big guys first - Train World, Caboose Hobbies, Toy Train Heaven, Model Train Stuff (MB Klein), First Hobby, etc. - or try your local shops. And “google and bing are your friend”.
While Athearn does take preorders from their dealers, they usually make way more of everything than just the preorders, but once dealers see that an item is selling, they often buy as many as they can aford to. Big outlets like those listed above buy large quantities and often have things in stock for a long time after the manufacturer has sold out.
That said, if you are looking for something made three, or four, or more years ago, it may be hard to find. That’s not to say there are none out there, it just may be harder to find.
Sheldon
Yea, if you look around enough you’re bound to find what you’re looking for sooner or later
Horizon owns Athearn and is the wholesaler. Your LHS and the bigger online retailers all have to buy from Horizon. So you might try their website first as whenever I go to a LHS to order something the first thing they do is check Horizon’s stock to let me know if it’s immediately available or will have to be put on backorder(which could mean their in a container on their way from China with not long to wait), The big online retailers sometimes have great stock or just drop ship from Horizon, depending on their business model.
I’ve had reasonable luck going through the back of the MR magazine calling some of the less well known shops in areas outside of the RR I model.
Indeed and a lot of shops shows limited or odd road names road names available…Of course there are several ways to locate what you are looking for,HOyardsale.com, e-Bay,on line shopping,local train shows and the local use market…
Why doesn’t Walthers sell any Athearn? Something I noticed on their website.
Walthers used to until Horizon took over Athearn. Since Horizon is a main competitor of Walthers, it wouldnt make sense to sell one of your brands through your competitor…that’s why we dont see any Horizon brands in Walthers and any Walthers brands in Horizon
That is also the reason why Walthers snatched up Life-Like in an almost “panic move” before Horizon got them.
Mark