Can you veteran model railroaders suggest how long I might be waiting for Micro Engineering turnouts, or a Walthers Proto steamer, or other items that appear to be back-ordered regularly? I assume it has much to do with transoceanic shipping, but maybe not. Whatever the cause, is there a pattern? For example, does the hobby get, say, two big infusions of ME turnouts per year? Is there a three-month wait between a model’s appearance in the Walthers catalogue and its availability at dealers, or six months, or twelve?
It’s only a hobby, but it’s also nice to have some idea about when I can be laying track, or installing switch stands, or whatever. I thought that perhaps experienced forum participants could say something like, “Oh, track items hit the shelves every Whitsunday like clockwork.”
I’m far from being as experienced as lots of the other fine fellows on this board, but I do believe that factories being moved may be a cause for not having track. trust me I’m right there with you Code 55 N scale atlas track is what I’m waiting on other than locomotives.
When I returned to the hobby several years ago, I got into the pre-order/stock on its way, waiting game. It was more like “Waiting for Godot”. No more waiting for anything for me. If I didn’t switch brands on certain items, my MRR would never have gotten as far as it has. ( which still isn’t that far a long )
Impossible to say. Find another supplier if you can and I agree, don’t play the pre-order game! Buy what’s avalaible and let those who want to play such gages, “ROTT”!
I have waited up to a year for some products to become available. You will just have to wait until the company makes a run on the product and distributes it. For years you could get anything at any time but as the years have passed a lot of companies get stuck with a lot of surplus that they can’t sell so they make limited runs on a certain product so that they have nothing left over to sit on a shelf. It really blows but it’s the way they do things these days.
Here is an example of how it sort of works. They will offer a product that they haven’t built yet. Then they see how many people are willing to purchase the product and how many want the product. Once the numbers are in and everyone is on a waiting list, they’ll finally build just enough of the product to meet the demand. I waited a year for an Athearn SP GP-9 Black widow w/ sound before it finally became available. By the way, the Geep is a horrible locomotive. Athearn installed new style wheel pick-ups and the locomotive always looses the sound. I wish athearn would have left the wheel pick-up alone. The old ones worked just fine. Chuck
good example of that is atlas’ N scale atlas Dash8-32 BWH’s which were supposed to be released last month, they won’t be out until June-July, which makes me wonder if Intermountain will release those F3’s because I need a pair of two tone green NP locos for my passenger train.
Patience is a virtue. If you’re comfortable with waiting, then do that. You can often find out of stock items on ebay or by checking stores that have ordered or stocked it in the past (a search feature on Walthers’s website that has helped me a couple of times.)
For the items you mentioned specifically, the Proto steamer is likely a long wait, as reruns of the Proto items have been slowed by the economy and problems in China. BTW, if you’re looking for one produced in the last run imported, it’ll likely be under a different road number or perhaps not offered at all in favor of another roadname in the next batch.
ME does items in batches, but you should see something that is backordered show up in fairly reasonable time, as in months not years like Proto items.
There’s really no way to generalize about an item, it all depends on who makes it and how quickly the supply chain responds.
It’s the nature of the hobby now, I’m afraid. Some things will never be restocked, or they will be slightly different (road name or number, for example) or will come with a hefty increase in price. This is just part of the “limited run” concept that gives us new products at the expense of availability of older ones. Also, the churn of Chinese manufacturers, which knocked out Atlas track for a while, is an unpredictable source of frustration for everyone.
My coping method is www.trainworld.com. When I discover something I want, but find it backordered or with the dreaded “Unknown” restocking date at Walthers, I look to Trainworld. They often will have an item that’s disappeared from Walthers. www.modeltrainstuff.com is another big dealer where you may find out-of-stock-at-Walthers items, and both stores typically have great prices.
This “waiting game” was happening long before model railroad production shifted to China. The most classic case in “modern” model railroad is the famous (or infamous) GSB SD40-2 in H-O scale. The rumor mill and upset customers is why Irv Athearn was famous for not advbertising a product until he had it ready to sell to the customers. He had the advantage of using his own factory, however. Now the manufacturers must beat the drums before a product is available as 1) the factories are in China and 2) the Chinese manufacturers want their money up front. So Athearn (or who ever) already has a LOT of money tied up in the upcoming run of locomotives, so they advertise early and often to get the product sold in a short time, then they will have funds for the next project. Atlas had a run of bad luck, a change of factories followed by a hurricane hitting their home town. Neither supplier is trying to mess with us, they want to be able to produce and sell as much as we will buy - simple market-driven capatlism (which, despite certain political leanings, is not a bad thing).
Micro Engineering products are manufactured near St. Louis. If you drop them an e-mail they could probably check their stock for you pretty quickly. They don’t need to put a call through to China.
Delays can be broken down into several categories:
In production items that are temporarily out of stock: These are typically things like track, certain rolling stock, tools, paint etc…. These items are produced in mass quantities with the idea that they will be in stock at all times - Typically when one of these items goes out of stock at the company, it can be found on retailer’s shelves with a bit of a search or it will be available again from the company after a short wait. Modern batch production of recent years has made shortages in this category more common.
Limited run Items that are sold out: Most rolling stock these days, especially locomotives, certain kits (FSM) etc. Some of these items will be re-run. Bachmann is pretty good about this, but many of these items won’t be produced again. Best bet here is the secondary market such as Ebay or HOI. If you wait long enough, almost everything shows up on Ebay…
Items that are announced but not in Production: Brass, high end plastic locomotives and other rolling stock often are in this category. Most of these items will have a long wait, usually years, and some will never make it to market. It is a good idea to look at the track record of the company to see the likelihood of the items being produced. Examples: Blackstone: makes what they say they will - Some brass importers, less reliable.
Basic items like track, roadbed, etc. are usually manufactured on a regular basis. They are usually available or will be shortly. Out of stock usually occurs around Christmas or when shifting the manufacturing.
Other items such as freight cars and basic locomotives like AAR 1937 boxcars and F7’s are run in batches. A particular roadname might not be rerun for several years. but the models will appear more frequently with different names on them.
Other items may not be limited run, but there may be many years between runs - wagon top boxcars.
Some items don’t sell well and don’t get repeated.
Some items disappear when the line gets sold - Roundhouse HOn3 locomotive kits and Boxcab diesels.
One of the things to have is a plan and set aside money for those must have items so you can buy them if and when they become available. For example, if you model the Florida East Coast. Not too much shows up for it so you need to grab it when it does. In the meantime use stand-ins so your railroad keeps going.
Most of us who have been in the hobby for a while can tell you about the ones they should have bought back when…
