I am getting sick and tired of MTH’s business practices. I am an impatient person anyway, but they make it worse.
In spring/summer of 08 they announced they would be making the SD70ACe in HO scale with delviery for Spring 09. What happens, 1 year later they’ve only released 3 of the UP heritage units. The daylight passenger set from them was supposed to be released in spring of 09 as well. 1 year later, nothing! This is the most unorganized, gaggle of a company I have ever seen. Their website has links to nowhere and thier shipping schedule is blank on their website. Athearn is releasing thier SD70ACe’s this fall. If they don’t have their ducks in a row by then, they have fierce competition on their hands. Does anybody know what is with the huge delays with this company? If they say something is out I might as well tack on 1 - 1/2 years to the date they say and expect it then! Ugh!
My LHS is not going to offer there HO engines for the very reason you listed. He does carry there O gauge, but that is just about a must these days. As a dealer his support is just as bad as what a on line customer gets.
May be we can start a Class Action aginst them? [:D]
Maybe Mike Wolf has run out of money making locos with a control system no one in HO wants?
Or maybe the guy who spoke Chinnese quit?
What is a SD70ACe anyway? It’s still 1954 on my model railroad - and we don’t buy failures like triplex’s.
Seriously though, I don’t like MTH, but often these deliveries are out of their control - the Chinnese make the stuff when they are good and ready - and don’t ship it until your check clears.
China has been running into some economic turbulance of its own recently. A number of Chinese manufacturers have gone under in recent weeks as well----
So what’s the big deal? About 40 years ago, Athearn announced they were doing the ALCO PA/PB. As I recall, it was about 2 1/2 years before they hit the market. And then they got the windshield area wrong.
Why waste energy getting your knickers in a twist? If Athearn beats them to it, buy the Athearn. OTOH, just 'cause Athearn says their version will be available in the fall doesn’t necessarily make it so.
Release dates are notoriously unreliable and about as reliable as predictions of the end of the world. We’re still waiting for that one.
There’s a big difference between MSFT and the above named losers. MSFT actually makes a profit.
The confusion MSFT causes is deliberate company policy to keep people off guard. After all, if they’re that stupid, they can’t be evil, can they? [swg]
If you have a facebook account. MTH posted two weeks ago photos of some of the daylight cars. The daylight cars look fantastic and well worth the wait. The daylight cars should be available in April. below is a link to the pictures of MTH facebook account.
Perhaps maybe you’ve never heard of Broadway Limited Imports?
They are notoriously worse with the production schedules than MTH.
Within the last year MTH actually delivered 4-12-2’s barely a couple months after the public announcement (and they addressed some public concerns and criticisms before finalizing the models), and Union Pacific/DRGW/Clinchfield 4-6-6-4’s only a month or so later than their advertised delivery date.
BLI just keeps changing delivery dates until they then change their mind and cancel the project entirely. Just review their list of canceled projects–though at least they are open enough to show that list on their website.
Unfortunately, the planned project schedule is just that–a plan–and any plan is subject to change. My living is consulting engineering, and our delivery schedule of final construction and right-of-way plans changes weekly. That’s just life when multiple clients and states are involved–stuff happens–often not within my firm’s control. Why should delivery of fine model trains be any different than real world engineering design work–which is actually easier to quantify, estimate, and complete? (I’ve worked in the model train industry–and wholeheartedly believe professional engineering design to be easier work.)
Also–there is nothing new under the sun–Precision Scale routinely carried product announcements of brass models for as long as five years in the hopes they would generate enough reservations to produce some HO brass models. Many eventually got done, and some did not. BLI has already carried some announcements for 3 years or more while moving the date back several times. That’s just life.
Designing and producing reasonable scale models to satisfy the masses of model railroaders at a reasonable price point is a huge engineering challenge for anyone to attempt (often involving significant compromises)–and should take time to do properly.
I’ve always had a sneaking suspicion that slipped delivery dates are designed up front to satisfy those whose hobby within a hobby is complaining about slipped delivery dates (among other things).
I don’t know if the challenger is really a good example. Isn’t it based off of the old lionel
[quote user=“UP 4-12-2”]
BLI just keeps changing delivery dates until they then change their mind and cancel the project entirely. Just review their list of canceled projects–though at least they are open enough to show that list on their website.
Unfortunately, the planned project schedule is just that–a plan–and any plan is subject to change. My living is consulting engineering, and our delivery schedule of final construction and right-of-way plans changes weekly. That’s just life when multiple clients and states are involved–stuff happens–often not within my firm’s control. Why should delivery of fine model trains be any different than real world engineering design work–which is actually easier to quantify, estimate, and complete? (I’ve worked in the model train industry–and wholeheartedly believe professional engineering design to be easier work.)
Also–there is nothing new under the sun–Precision Scale routinely carried product announcements of brass models for as long as five years in the hopes they would generate enough reservations to produce some HO brass models. Many eventually got done, and some did not. BLI has already carried some announcements for 3 years or more while moving the date back several times. That’s just life.
Designing and producing reasonable scale models to satisfy the masses of model railro
Lack of resources (engineers to design said engine models)
And more likely
Customer demand. If there isn’t enough demand or backorder then they kill the project. When there is enough demand it’s always marketed as a “limited run” which forces people to buy a limited run model A ahead of model B.
#2 is sad state of affairs for us MRR’s.
I maaaay be interested in their MTH’s Berk’s. Walther’s out of production P2K Berk is too lightweight, and Bachmann is severly lacking in detail. I’ll have to see what the feedback is from the jury on DCC compatibility, accuracy and running qualities. The MTH models always demand a serious premium.
I don’t think it is so much the engineering/research and development resources or the customer demand as it is cash flow because other posts on other forums have intimated that BLI’s schedule issues may be due to chronic cashflow issues.
The MTH Challenger was apparently modified somewhat from the Lionel version. Besides the mechanism and electronics changes to MTH’s system, I do not know what other changes were made. However, it still had to go through the same product delivery pipeline as anything else.
Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s most computer hardware and software manufacturers were doing the “Real Soon Now” dance. I remember waiting about a year for Cubase to come up with a new version of the Virtual Recording Studio. [:-^]
Sometimes it comes across like that. Everytime they manage to come out with product it goes into a sales cycle in a couple of months. A lot of companies seem to be doing stuff like this in the retail sector nowadays[sigh]