Another site is talking about Horizon Hobbies being sold and also about some seemingly dumb changes at Caboose (Hobbies) in Denver.
Anything to report about this from MR?
oldline1
Nothing with google searches. Maybe Caboose is reopening, they’ve been closed and can’t even go to the store to ship mail order because of the current situation. And nothing on the Horizon Wikipedia page - that stuff usually gets updated faster than anything.
–Randy
Look on the MRH site for the info.
oldline1
Search there on either topic didn’t find anything recent - strange.
Edit: Found the item in the news section. Too political to post here. And someone from Athearn is going to now work for Caboose as GM, that seems the extend of the Horizon portion.
–Randy
Is Horizon Hobbies reputable?
Horizon owns Athearn, Roundhouse, and nearly every RC manufacturer, and has for years. Yes, they are reputable. Bigger hobby distributor than Walthers, but mainly because they handle all those RC cars and planes.
–Randy
Hello All,
If you ever have to order parts for any Athearn product they are the ones that fulfill those orders.
Recently I ordered the wrong replacement part.
Their return process is straightforward. The only “glitch” was due to COVIID-19 their returns department was temporarily closed.
I was contacted several times from a customer service rep to keep me updated on my return.
As soon as they were able to they process my return.
From my experience, they are definitely reputable.
Hope this helps.
Chris Palomarez from Athearn is now with Caboose, that fueled SPECULATION that something his happening at Horizon.
Chris.mincemoyer [#welcome] to the forum. Your posts get hung up in moderation. That one hit just at the right time to slide right in.
My first search of the site turned up a 6 year old post by none other than Chris P, from 6 years ago addressing employee turnover at the time. He suggested not making too much of internet speculation. Then I found the relevant thread and I agree with Randy, it took a turn that we can’t discuss here.
Ruble (Caboose) is a sponsor of Ken Patterson and if I recall correctly, he owned a shortline that he ran as an employee owned operation, although he was the owner. He is applying the same philosophy to Caboose.
Palomarez hangs out with Patterson, so we can speculate there was some networking. One guy changing jobs, shouldn’t foretell much of anything. If I had a chance to live and work in Illinois or Colorado, which would I choose? Let me think about that 3 or 4 nano seconds.[:D]
On the MTH thread, that got locked, I wrote I was surprised how big a company MTH was, just in terms of real estate holdings. Athearn just has to be bigger and it will either continue with Horizon, or be sold. It’s too big just to close the door, turn off the lights and lock the door.
After the death of Uncle Irv Mrs. Athearn was talking about shutting Athearn’s doors. Thankfully Athearn became under the control of Bob Macias and later as chairman Mike Geddes.
I don’t follow the people in the companies, but recent years Athearn has made the right decisions about their products, IMO. I can’t see where this job switch by an executive could portend something bad for Athearn.
Page number?
Third item on the first page of the News section - NOT in the forums or blogs.
–Randy
Indeed. According to what Athearn said the sales of BB kits was down 80% so, they had to enter the RTR market. As you may recall the early RTR models was nothig more then assembled BB kits. Today those RTR BB cars are in the Roundhouse line.
At one time Athearn was simply Athearn… Today we have Athearn RTR,Athearn/Roundhouse and Athearn/Genesis.
They swapped around what they used the ROundhouse name for a few times before the way it is today - originally it was the old ROundhouse items, of which there was a wide variety, from old timer to modern. Then there was Roundhouse beign the brand for allt he old timer stuff, with RTR and Genesis in the Athearn line. Now it’s more or less a third trim level, low man on the totem pole, with RTR next and Gensis top of the line.
Some former RTR locos like the RS3 are now Roundhouse (considering the original tooling was Roundhouse, I guess this is to be expected), but some of the old Roundhouse passenger cars are under the RTR series.
–Randy
The July 2020 3rd item in the online edition is about a CMRI mega node? Im confused. I feel like something is missing?
Not in the issue, on the web site. They have a web site like here, with the current issue, industry news, and forums.
–Randy
There was a thread too; it got locked.
I did look at it before, and I don’t think you’re missing much.
MRH main website. Top right click news/events. It is the third item down titled “Big changes at Caboose and Athearn”.