New run Athearn Bay Window Caboose anounced

[DKS]

A good time to start thinking about layout building and less about rolling stock accumulation!!! 

- Lou

+1

[Philip H]

+1

+2

[MichaelWinicki]

Economy and China are still valid reason's and continue to have an effect on the hobby. Looking at Athearn specifically I'm not surprised nor do I expect anything new from these guys in the forseeable future...if ever. Looking at the bigger picture, the business climate they and the larger manufacturer's operate in is challenging to say the least. The price increases on some of Athearn's HO products will lead to some lower sales on them and they will have a harder time introducing enough "value added" enhancements to justify the price increases on even their highest quality products. This will not bode well for the N scale product line as they will have less $$$ to spend on tooling new N scale models. This will apply to more than just Athearn.

I get that.  I really do.

The problem is that this sort of unaggressive approach will (if it hasn't already) lead to decreased sales figures.  No matter which company it is, you cut back on the number of new releases and you're cutting (sometimes drastically) the amount of money coming through the door.

It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Companies look at their N-scale sales figures, see that they've decreased (because they've cut back on new introductions)... And then cut back some more based on their sales figures.

Eventually they give up on N-scale period because "No one is buying."

[bbussey]

There are plenty of companies picking up the perceived (yet inaccurate) "slack" of N scale releases by the larger traditional manufacturers.  There never have been such riches in the scale as there are in current times.  Be thankful.

[Bendtracker1]

There are plenty of companies picking up the perceived (yet inaccurate) "slack" of N scale releases by the larger traditional manufacturers.  There never have been such riches in the scale as there are in current times.  Be thankful.

+1

[FrankCampagna]

A good time to start thinking about layout building and less about rolling stock accumulation!!! 

- Lou

I don't know. Kind of a radical suggestion. Might just catch on some day  .

Frank

[MichaelWinicki]

There are plenty of companies picking up the perceived (yet inaccurate) "slack" of N scale releases by the larger traditional manufacturers.  There never have been such riches in the scale as there are in current times.  Be thankful.

That's a good point.

Some companies have said "Bah" to the economy excuse...

You look at the Model Railroader mags produced from '79 to '82... The time of the last big recession.  My gosh that was a golden age for model railroading. 

[Denver Road Doug]

the perceived (yet inaccurate) "slack" of N scale releases by the larger traditional manufacturers.

Your entire post is pretty much that attitude I had some months back.   But this excerpt...well, I guess I have to say...show me.   You say the perceived slack is inaccurate, yet...what have we really seen come down the pike in the past two years?   One year, I get.....two and it's more than a simple impact of the "perfect storm" of China and economy. 

So I guess....have I missed releases from the larger mfgs?  I'll concede that maybe I have, or that the majority doesn't fit my era/locale.   I would guess we could count on our fingers the amount of true new tooling from the big boys over the past two years, no?  Previously, it would be hard to do that for Atlas alone.

For the record, I am thankful.   And I have about 90-95% of everything I will ever need anyway, and I am mostly updating rollling stock to better quality at this point.   Until recently I hadn't purchased a locomotive in about 4 years.  I now have two on order.  And I'm definitely focused on the layout at this point.   But, doesn't mean I'm not concerned about the state of things.  Atlas has been our champion and I just worry that n-scale fell just short of taking over marketshare in the hobby, based on the momentum gains of the past decade.   The way we get more of the things we want--which now amounts to less mainstream stuff for the most part--is to acheive critical mass such that manufacturers can take risks in N just like in HO. (or at least more in line with HO)   I love the hobby of n-scale model railroading and, it concerns me.

[ljudice]

I think Bryan is right - the shortfall has been from one or two of the biggies - overall quite a lot of new stuff (ESM, FVM, BLMA, etc...). And remember that Athearn brought out the LPG cars and the caboose within the past 2 years I believe ??

And coming shortly are the Triple 53 from BLMA and the R70-20 Modernize Refrigerator cars from IMRC, Bryan's new boxcar, the BLMA flatcar, etc....

And of course one biggie has been putting things out left and right - Kato. 

- Lou

[Denver Road Doug]

I don't really consider ESM, FVM, and BLMA to be "biggies".   FVM and BLMA are certainly very close to that category I'd say.   Yes Kato and MTL are churning out N, but that is the majority focus for both.  Look at the larger HO+N organizations....Atlas, Athearn, Intermountain, Walthers....all trickling out product, compared to "pre-storm".

But, yes it really boils down to: "What is going on with Atlas n-scale?"

[wcfn100]

But, yes it really boils down to: "What is going on with Atlas n-scale?"

Yeah, they're a far cry from the 2 new locomotives and 2-3 new cars they say they produce per year in each scale . 


Jason

[wazzou]

I think it could be said that Atlas and Athearn have almost completely retrenched.  Nobody mentions Model Power.  I haven't seen them announce anything in some time either.
ExactRail has seemingly moved on from N Scale for the most part.
Athearn has just done here what both ConCor and Micro-trains, primarily, have done for years...try to maximize revenue on all tooling.

I'm quite thankful to ESM, FVM and BLMA for recognizing that producing quality, often niche products and listening to the consumer will generally yield strong sales despite a downturn.

[asarge]

The newer guys have been our saving grace this year. FVM, BLMA and EXR have all produce new models this year, Trainworx is due up in a month... I suspect their will be two or three new things announced at Trainfest this year. MTL and Kato have also produced new stuff and this month IMR has the new R70-2 Reefers out. Overall it is a good time to be in N, if every comnpany came out with one new product a year, it would be awesomne in N scale.

But that doesn't  change the economic reality and the larger the company, the higher the overhead and the higher the overhead, the less $$$ there is for production. Even the smaller/newer guys are vulnerable to a sudden drop off in sales.

My earlier post was not meant to mean the sky is falling, but merely state a lack of expectation of alot of new stuff from some of the "old guard" in model railroading. Athearn, like Walthers is very HO centric and if there are less productiuon dollars available, well we know where it's gone. It's not necessarily a bad or terrible thing. It just is.

[James Costello]

It is not like the lack of new tooling means the sky is falling either.

Athearn could keep releasing new paint schemes on their ACF 2 bays and LPG tank cars and keep me more than happy.

I guess the frustration for some is that a run of stand-in schemes gets a go before some of the yet unreleased proto schemes.

Doesn't worry me too much, as I seem to still find plenty to spend my hobby dollars on, thanks to the awesome products the niche market is filling. Even without that, there are still plenty of projects in the cupboard that there still aren't enough hours in the day to start.

[GaryHinshaw]

Not to stray off topic, but I picked up this unit the other week:

http://www.railcarphotos.com/PhotoDetails.php?PhotoID=44354

(the proto is still in local service out of Bakersfield) and I wanted to add the spotlights over the bay window.  Any suggestions for how to model this in N (working or not)?

Thanks,
Gary