Does anybody know what happened to Bear Locomotive Co, who was making the Hobbytown of Boston line? I had heard that the owner had stopped production, and was perhaps trying to sell the line. I’d like to be proven wrong, however. If the kits are out of production, I’m sure they’ll be back, sooner or later.
Walthers has taken over several companies over the years, they bought the Train Miniatures line of HO freight car kits in the 1980’s and used them as the basis of the Walthers HO line. Those cars I believe are sold RTR as part of the Trainline line. Magnuson made structure kits in resin IIRC, I’m not sure if they were always a subsidiary of Walthers or if Walthers bought them. Anyway, several Magnuson kits (Walthers Water St. HQ building, White Tower/Castle restaurant) were re-done by Walthers as plastic kits.
BTW Tyco was a subsidiary or product line of Mantua for many years. Mantua started in 1926 and I think Tyco was around by c.1950 or so…I have a Kalmbach “how to” book from 1952 that shows an engine with “TYCO” on the tender. IIRC the Tyco name came from “Tyler Company” for John Tyler, owner of Mantua.
Put Bear Locomotive in the “folded” column; supplies of Hobbytown lokes are dwindling but the marque and dies are up for sale to a serious buyer, serious meaning one who realizes that this ain’t the route Warren Buffet would select as a road to luxury!!!
Someone - Fred W??? - stated that Bowser had acquired Arbour Models and one other; that “one other” I believe was TLC - The Locomotive Company. TLC got caught up in the Jimmy Carter recession of the late '70s-early '80s - their quality left something to be desired but they had potential; Arbour, on the other hand, was a quality disaster and their dies would require extensive reworking to become functional. They originally passed in the possession of an outfit in Prescott Valley, Arizona - Master Creations??? - the owner of whom informed me (just before I bolted HO Scale) in response to an inquiry about the reissue of the Allegheny that he hadn’t paid very much for the dies but there was no way that he would have the funds to redo them. How they came into the possession of Bowser I do not know!!!
You’re kidding, right? You look at the website of one distributor who doesn’t focus on selling direct to the public and use that as evidence that there is no price competition? If you looked instead at the web sites of the dozens and dozens of on-line and brick-and-mortar shops, you’d see brisk competition and street prices well below list price.
Since I’ve been in marketing for many years, I can say with complete confidence that consolidation does not necessarily indicate a market that is shrinking. Consolidation can happen to any market (in growth or decline) if there are benefits in productivity, efficiency, or market access. The worldwide market for automobiles continues to grow, yet those manufacturers have been consolidating almost since the first decade of the market’s existence. Likewise home appliances (an amazing number of different name plates are used by a few manufacturers in the US, for example). Oil companies continue to consolidate … does that mean that cars, refrigerators and gasoline are all on their way out?
One measure of the vitality of any market is the diversity of products it produces. By that measure, the model railroading market has never been better. But to see that diversity, one has to look beyond HO steam-era equipment and scratchbuilding. Just look at the growth in N scale, large scale, and highly specialized, prototype-specific locos and rolling stock, especially in HO. A mass-produced GP40X? RS-32/36? There are a couple of dozen highly specialized plastic or hybrid steamers based on different prototypes available at any one time, many w
A very good post. And I would have to say as one of those few(?) who model late 19th Century, things are looking up in our direction, too. The internet and its enablement of communities of interest to communicate rapidly and effectively has revitalized the basement and part time hobby suppliers. No longer does a model railroader with a day job who makes 2-10 dozen extra parts or cars or locomotive castings have to advertise in Model Railroader and wait months to sell his excess production. He produces the items, announces them in the appropriate Yahoo groups, and sells them direct and/or via eBay. This is happening in many niche areas of the hobby which may or may not have a large enough market to be served by plastic mass production. But you won’t ever find out about these items at the big on-line discounters or in the pages of Model Railroader.
In HOn3 for example, there are probably less than 20 hobby shops in the U.S. that carry a reasonable sampling of what is available in the scale/gauge. But those 20 (or fewer) shops do a great of scouting and working with the basement and part-time suppliers to carry and sell their lines. Is Trainworld going to do this? No, Trainworld’s mis
JAKS Industries had been producing the Magnuson resin kit line of structures. I just checked their site and Magnuson is no longer listed, but the Magnuson line of kits still appears in their catalog under Scale Structures LTD. SS LTD also has small some resin kits that used to be made by Woodland Scenics, like Meltnick’s Ice; as well as a line of cast metal detail parts, mostly for buildings. SS LTD also lists Nevada Car & Foundry, which looks like machine shop and mining equipment. JAKES also produce / distribute Alloy Forms vehicles.
No, I don’t agree. I’ve noticed over the years that ANY company when they sell their items direct, nearly always sell them at MSRP. That goes for Walthers (unless they are having a sale) and most other companies. So companies selling items themselves as a rule ask MSRP and its never a good idea to buy direct because of that.
That may be the case, same with the walthers catalog too.
Both sources are useful for digging up specific part numbers to provide to one or the other LHS with the order so they might not have to waste too much time digging up part numbers.
It is my understanding that Horizon bought Athearn lock stock and barrel. That also includes Roundhouse. Because Horizion competes with Walthers for YOUR train money the Walthers no longer carry Athearn.
Now to mix the pot a little bit, It is my understanding that Blue Box is no longer USA made, everything comes or will come out of China at some point in the future under the old Athearn Blue Box Kits. You can learn if a Blue Box is USA made or China Made on the box label itself. Ive done both and cannot tell the difference however all gets inspected and I keep LOTS of spare parts on hand.
Life Like Heritage and Proto (One and same?) was bought by Walthers. I think also the pricing has finally come down a little bit because they were stubborn with the 400 dollar steam engines with DCC and Sound that cannot pull very well upgrade. Little by little they are getting better. I have one of the new 2-10-2’s that is a joy to drive along with the older QSI Y3.
Broadway Limited is no longer QSI. They may carry SOME products with QSI but I think they would rather ditch QSI and crank out everything under thier so called blueline. However QSI are gaining use in factory engines from Walthers and others while others like MRC and Bachmann hang tight.
Riverossi, AHM and IHC will always be one and the same, the difference is the flanges for me. Pizza Cutter or non-pizza cutter.
I recall a myth that Athearn’s President used to sit down with Roundhouse’s President over breakfast and sort out which company will produce which kits. I have not ever been able to comfirm or defuse this story.
You’re kidding, right? You look at the website of one distributor who doesn’t focus on selling direct to the public and use that as evidence that there is no price competition? If you looked instead at the web sites of the dozens and dozens of on-line and brick-and-mortar shops, you’d see brisk competition and street prices well below list price.
Since I’ve been in marketing for many years, I can say with complete confidence that consolidation does not necessarily indicate a market that is shrinking. Consolidation can happen to any market (in growth or decline) if there are benefits in productivity, efficiency, or market access. The worldwide market for automobiles continues to grow, yet those manufacturers have been consolidating almost since the first decade of the market’s existence. Likewise home appliances (an amazing number of different name plates are used by a few manufacturers in the US, for example). Oil companies continue to consolidate … does that mean that cars, refrigerators and gasoline are all on their way out?
One measure of the vitality of any market is the diversity of products it produces. By that measure, the model railroading market has never been better. But to see that diversity, one has to look beyond HO steam-era equipment and scratchbuilding. Just look at the growth in N scale, large scale, and highly specialized, prototype-specific locos and rolling stock, especially in HO. A mass-produced GP40X? RS-32/36? There are a couple of dozen highly specialized plastic or hybrid steamers based on different prototypes available at
That is because many of these companies sell the bulk of their inventory to dealers. They sell at list because they don’t want to undercut their main customer, the dealers.
Dealers get very upset when they are undercut by their suppliers. It costs them sales, and basically their supplier is taking food off their table by doing that. So they don’t order from that supplier (because they don’t need as much because the supplier is reducing their sales by competing with them.)
It’s just good business. Undermining your customer base is a fast track to success…
True, but you should check their sites for sales. When/if they have them, the prices can be very good - I’ve seen 50% off. Of course it’s usually discontinued items that didn’t sell well and/or they are trying to reduce inventory - but I’ve gotten some good deals.
Yes Horizon bought Athearn, but since Horizon is a distributer / wholesaler too it decided to only offer Athearn products thru Horizon. At least going by what Walthers said publicly, they would have continued to carry Athearn but Horizon withdrew it from the Walthers catalogue.
Proto 2000 and Proto 1000 were lines created by Life-Like, to separate their newer scale stuff from their traditional toy-train line. Proto was never a separate company…kinda like Athearn Genesis is a line of products within the Athearn family.
This has been brought up several times in other posts, but Rivarossi (at least the passenger car line) isn’t the same as the current IHC line, although AHM and Rivarossi were the same or made by the same manufacturer overseas or whatever. The current IHC line is not as well detailed as the Rivarossi line is/was - actually I’d like to see whoever owns Rivarossi this week (Hornby?) re-do all the old Rivarossi passenger cars.
I certainly agree with everything, especially about the continuance of the Stewart quality.
Regarding Ulrich & Silver Streak, I believe they were owned by Walthers and Silver Streak is history. Ulrich MAY still be alive, but I believe they are primarily truck (highway type) producers.
Ulrich & SS made some excellent craftsman kits, especially for their time in the '50s - '70s. There are still some available on Ebay, and I highly recommend them.
http://rrtrains.com/ this copany gives discounts but if you pay the 50.00 yearly membership fee you get a 30% or more dicount on all items. DISCLAIMER am not in any way having anything to do with rr trains other then being a satisfied customer. athearn makes a great deal of great looking engines but to me the handrails are to fragile.had over fifty athearn rtr and genesis units at 1 time but dumped them do to the fact that most of them had broken handrais from me simply brushing them with my fingers.
Just for Falls Valley, the Athearn MDC breakfasts are no myth. I sat at several of them when working for an HO manufacturer. In fact, when MDC made the switch from diecast to plastic, they sold Athearn bodies on MDC underframes until they got their own line back up in plastic. It is always dangerous to think something is a myth unless you have personal knowledge.