I posted this subject before asking why there is no Campbell kits but I meant Athearn loco’s available in the new 2005 catalog?
Where have you been? It’s been more or less beaten to death that Athearn and Roundhouse - Model Die Casting - were purchased by Horizon Hobbies of Chicago. They will be distrbuting Athearn and Roundhouse products through their distributors, and did not want to promote the lines in a competitor’s (Walthers) catalog.
No one likes it but there isn’t anything we can do about it.
Bob Boudreau
I had no idea
I was dissappointed about it too, 8500HP.
On the plus side, the 2005 Walther’s Catalog is “Jammed Packed” with a lot of neat locos and cars. I was very hard core Athearn, but have found that competition, like Proto, has locos and cars that are just as good or superior in quality and the price range is competitive.
I’ve moved away from Athearn locomotives after seeing a friend’s Genesis locomotive and hearing it “growl” as loudly as my 25 year old Athearn SD-9 that draws 2+ amps! I must admit though that the new SD45T-2 looks very nice!
Peace out!
Does it really matter that Athearn is not in the Catalog? C’mon Dawg
I’ll say it matters!
I’ve always loved the Walthers catalog and website as somewhere I could find everything I want from every company I want. I’ve always been a diehard Athearn fan but when I’ve got to go halfway across town to find something that may or may not be exactly what I want, I’ll go for the P2K over Athearn, sorry.
That said, I wi***he Blue Box line would get back the variety it used to have too, but that’s a different story.
~METRO
is the 2005 issue changed enuff from 2004 to warrant me buying it?
I think it stinks they are no longer in Walthers catalog.
I will have no idea what Athearn and MDC will have as a whole anymore.
I have always used the Walthers catalog and I do not like change.
Mark
Metro,
Good point you bring up! I’ve gone to the Athearn website and so many locomotives have been marked Discontinued.
IMHO, it must be from all the competition. Look at the old Athearn RDC and then compare it to the P1K RDC. NO CONTEST! The P1ks are cheaper and superior! The Athearn SD45 was going for around $50+. For another $10-$15 you can get the P2K SD45 with incredible details, correct scale width and smooth running.
It appears Athearn is doing what it can to survive. The new SD45T-2 looks like a potential winner. Hopefully the trend will continue.
High Greens! [;)]
Hmmm? I have the Walthers catalog sitting on the table near where I am typing. Never heard of a Horizon Hobbies catalog… Not at my LHS, don’t have it bookmarked in my browser. Not in the Walthers Catalog…? Must not want my business very much. [}:)]
As has been pointed out already the Walthers Catalog has sooo much great stuff in it. IMHO they are putting themselves out of business by not being in the walthers Catalog. It is a must have for most serious hobbyists. As has also been pointed out the quality for the price is not up to some other companies standards. My Proto 2000 0-6-0s, and the Bachman 2-6-6-2 are smooth runners (absolutely awsome). My Athearn 2-8-2 (had to buy 2 to get one that worked) is so-so. And the MDC 2-6-0 is also not anywhere near as good a runner as the others. Soooo, I will stick with finding stuff in the Big Book!
The purchase of Athearn by Horizon Hobbies is a big dissapointment. Half the stuff pictured in the Athearn website is listed “no longer in production”.
The Walthers catalog has always been known to be a wish book because of the way they catalog and pic all the manufacturer’s products. Pulling Athearn and MDC was a big mistake. Horizon just won’t get the exposure. It’s like somebody bought a strong healthy company and threw wrenchs in its machines.
Horizon home page. In addition to the Athearn/MDC (which they own), they distribute other brands[:)]:
Athearn home page. Athearn/MDC[:D]:
Actually Walthers has bought out a number of brands, over the years, and become the exclusive distributor . Athearn and MDC are probably the best know to be boughr out recently and Horizon got them instread of Walthers.
We will have to wait and see what happens to the Atrearn/MDC lines under Horizon stewardship. Actually a number of old timers and I (50 yrears in the hobby) said “thank God it’s not Walthers”. We have observed, over the years, that many of the products from companies taken over by Walthers disapeared rather quickly.
I buy a Walthers catalog every few years and will continue to do so as even without Athearn. They are still have the most comprehensive catalog of model train products in the USA. I will also buy many of the fine products they produce under their name.
I have also bought products direct from Walthers and alwaws got good service from them.
In the past the distributors were invisible to the customer. You bought an item at the hobby shop or ordered through them, with no thought about where the got it.
There are and always have been many products not carried by Walthers. Fortunately with the Internet, many are mentioned on Train Boards like this one, it is possible to visit company sites, and to do searches to find out about many products not carried by Walthers as well as many that are.
I wonder if this means the items will never be produced, or are just not in production at this time. I would assume if items are dropped permanently they would have no reason to even include it in their listings.
Athearn stuff has always been made in scheduled batches. If a particular model sold out, it would not be again available until their production cycle came around again. Same old same old stuff that’s been going on forever.
Bob Boudreau
I think they are way south of Chicago, in Champaign.
It matters to me and I communicated my thoughts directly to Phil Walthers.
Suggest those of you who feel strongly about Athearn, Roundhouse and MDC no longer being in the "book, tell them and not just one another.
My decades and decades worth of Walters catalogs will become an every 3rd year purchase. These things have become very expensive and this change represents the next-to-last-straw for me.
I really enjoy browsing those pages …
There is not much Phil Walthers can do about it. Walthers did not drop the Athearn/MDC line, it was removed from them.
Personally, I have found the Walthers catalog to be less and less useful. The locomotive section is basically a history lesson in models that have long since sold out and are no longer available. I find the Walthers web site to be helpful in checking list pricing and then use the web to really find what I am looking for. But then again, my needs have really changed in the last year. When I was getting started the Walthers catalog was a valuable resource.
I’ll agree that if Horizon doesn’t want their products avalible to everyone (only one store in my entire city is listed as a Horizon retailer compaired to the 5 Walthers retailers) They must not want my business too much.
Now the thing that really puzzles me is in the economics of their decision: If I were a company in a field that is at least moderately compeditive (I wouldn’t really call model railroading a cut-throat industry) I would want my product to be sold through as many outlets as possible. How many thousand Athearn locomotives have been sold through Walthers over the years? Just doesn’t make sense unless Horizon were to try to challenge Walthers direct distributor role, which I think would be an amazing mistake.
~METRO
I liked to lay in bed at night eating a cup of cheese (Long Story) and look through the book. Although I never gave them much business it was interesting to see all the different products out there and to also see if there was a small nick-nack out there to add to your engines or diorama’s.
24 years ago when i switched to n scale i bought a walthers catalog at a local hobby shop. the owner said that walthers made more money selling the catalog that the products listed in it. several members of my club have mentioned that they will no longer purchase athern, mdc or horizon products for the reasons mentioned in the previous posts. i’ve heard that horizon is only distributing is products to selected LHS’s which will restrict availability and cause prices to go up.
OK one more time! The reason Horizon bought Athearn et al is they had almost no market with hobby shops that were railroad oriented. They did very well in RC etc but needed to expand their market. By tying up Athearn they force you to buy from them instead of the many other rr distributors out there ( and there are many). As a secondary note, they are hitting the basement bombers hard to help protect the market for their regular dealers who have to support a real hobby shop and not somebody with a computer.