Production Cancellation Announcements

[CBQ Fan]

I noticed the other day that Athearn announced some cancellations for some N & HO due to lack of preorders.  I also just noticed Rapido is making conditional announcements on the Budd commuter cars.  I think that the majority of companies do a good job if communicating when a project is in jeopardy of being cancelled, and again when it is cancelled.  I think it does more damage to threaten cancellation with the announcement than it does to drive up orders. More evidence that Rapido struggles with marketing research.

[nscaler711]

Do you have a List?
Ill be extremely irritated if its any of the FP45s/ F45s for the Santa Fe...

[thomasjmdavis]

They aren't doing a very good job of communicating any of this to me (at least, not Athearn, I gave up on the Rapido newsletter a while back).

The announcements I got in the email today from Athearn make no mention of cancellations.  WHERE did you 'notice' these cancellations?

My only real concern is the Rapido ATSF mech refrig cars, which they already canceled then 'relaunched' once.  And since had their deadline moved back.  Are those on the 'threatened' list?

[CBQ Fan]

Do you have a List?
Ill be extremely irritated if its any of the FP45s/ F45s for the Santa Fe...

I saw it on their Instagram feed, Fruehauf trailers in N and some HO intermodal stuff.

[Mark5]

I sure hope this is wrong, I've been waiting a loooong time for these:  https://www.athearn.com/product/n-40-fruehauf-trailer-illinois-central-icz-201048/ATH-1123.html (no indication of impending doom)

Mark

[bman]

I sure hope this is wrong, I've been waiting a loooong time for these:  https://www.athearn.com/product/n-40-fruehauf-trailer-illinois-central-icz-201048/ATH-1123.html (no indication of impending doom)

Mark

I'm waiting on one as well as as well as the CR ones from that announcement. I see nothing indicating then being cancelled at this time. Let's hope it stays that way.

[cfritschle]

Maybe the 45-ft Fruehauf trailers have been canceled.  They were announced on November 25, 2022, and I am not finding a "pre-order" option for them on Athearn's website under N scale vehicles and containers.   

I believe that the Athearn models were going to represent 96-inch wide prototype trailers, while the Micro-Trains' 45-ft Fruehauf trailers represent prototype trailers that were 102 inches wide.

Edit:  However, a Google search found pre-order pages for three on the N scale trailers.
https://www.athearn.com/product/n-45-fruehauf-z-van-trailer-cxxz-250430/ATH13836.html
https://www.athearn.com/product/n-45-fruehauf-z-van-trailer-cfkz-631019/ATH13839.html
https://www.athearn.com/product/n-45-fruehauf-z-van-trailer-bnz-250155/ATH13833.html

 

[James Costello]

I just looked this up on Instagram and it's the 40' Fruehauf trailers, announced in Aug 23.

The undelivered run of 45' Fruehauf trailers and F89F flats that are now running +18 months from announcement are still on the Athearn website, however no shipping date / expected date is given (unlike many of the other products).

[CBQ Fan]

Here is a screen grab.

[bman]

Ugh. Still showing on their website gave me a little hope. Oh well. I've plenty of trailers. Too many to be honest. Thanks for sharing that I don't do Instagram.

[samusi01]

This makes me wonder if the same thing happened to their NSC 6400 gondolas, which were supposed to show up months ago.

[jagged ben]

Was that the announcement that included 40ft Conrail Tralivan trailers?  Damn.

[flight2000]

Here's the stock numbers included in their cancellation notice.  I pulled this off their Facebook page.

Athearn 40’ Fruehauf trailers
• ATH-1178 N ATH 40' Fruehauf Trailer, Conrail CRZ #200432
• ATH-1071 N ATH 40' Fruehauf Trailer, Conrail CRZ #201013
• ATH-1090 N ATH 40' Fruehauf Trailer, Illinois Central ICZ #201035
• ATH-1123 N ATH 40' Fruehauf Trailer, Illinois Central ICZ #201048
• ATH-1078 N ATH 40' Fruehauf Trailer, Cotton Belt SWTZ #20-9120
• ATH-1028 N ATH 40' Fruehauf Trailer, Cotton Belt SWTZ #20-9126
• ATH-1108 N ATH 40' Fruehauf Trailer, XTRA XTRZ #231301
• ATH-1064 N ATH 40' Fruehauf Trailer, XTRA XTRZ #231377
• ATH-1184 N ATH 40' Fruehauf Trailer, Reimer Express Lines #4465
• ATH-1183 N ATH 40' Fruehauf Trailer, Reimer Express Lines #4478
• ATH-1096 N ATH 40' Fruehauf Trailer, Lynden Transport #400123
• ATH-1131 N ATH 40' Fruehauf Trailer, Lynden Transport #400166

HO ATH 53' Chassis
• ATH-1069 HO ATH 53' Chassis, Seacastle TSXZ #181641/181652 (2)
• ATH-1087 HO ATH 53' Chassis, Norfolk Southern NSPZ #132766/132900 (2)
• ATH-1129 HO ATH 53' Chassis, Pacer Stacktrain PAHZ #807635/808008 (2)
• ATH-1143 HO ATH 53' Chassis, BNSF LSFZ #535200/535389 (2)
• ATH-1215 HO ATH 53' Chassis, JB Hunt JBHZ #127777/127905 (2)
• ATH-1222 HO ATH 53' Chassis, Union Pacific UPHZ #141665/141733 (2)

HO ATH 53' Jindo Containers
• ATH-1003 HO ATH 53' Jindo Containers, Stax STXU #939033/939054/939077 (3)
• ATH-1058 HO ATH 53' Jindo Containers, Crowley CMCU #901485 3/901490 0/901522 6 (3)
• ATH-1086 HO ATH 53' Jindo Containers, Sea Star STRU #833341 8/833349 0/833390 7 (3)
• ATH-1174 HO ATH 53' Jindo Containers, Run Rail RUNU #221014 1/221146 4/221609 2 (3)
• ATH-1176 HO ATH 53' Jindo Containers, Alaska Marine ALMU #530118/530125/530133 (3)
• ATH-1210 HO ATH 53' Jindo Containers, Matson MLHU #281019/281048/281092 (3)

[wm3798]

[rant] Call me a curmudgeon, but I think this is symptomatic of collectors waiting for the manufacturers to build their models for them.  The more esoteric and specialized stuff that people feel like they need are just not needed by enough people to justify the expense of tooling and producing oddball stuff that lacks broad appeal.
I recognize that the days of mass produced models are over, but if you want a dead perfect model of a GP? exactly as it looked for your chosen road on the afternoon of October 3, 1962 (the day it was outshopped with a new horn and the third engine room door hung upside down) or a 1978 Fruehauf trailer equipped with four tail lights and a roll up door instead of two and a hinged door, maybe you should invest in a 3D printer, rather than the endless bandwidth it requires to beef that the manufacturers aren't toeing the line for you.
I've given up expecting anyone to actually apply knife to styrene to build something anymore, and 3D printers can be had for the cost of a good locomotive.  So what's with all the bellyaching? [/rant]

Lee

[C855B]

...or a 1978 Fruehauf trailer equipped with four tail lights and a roll up door instead of two and a hinged door, maybe you should invest in a 3D printer, ...

My exact thought, especially when it comes to trailers. Yeah, it might take some CAD effort to get the details as you wish them to be, but what are trailers other than oblong boxes? Besides, populating flats with RTR trailers gets expensive.

Finishing is what vexes many of us. I have a handful of 3D-printed loco shells (Shapeways) totally screwed-up in the paint shop*. However, and still, the day needs to come for a RR-modeling-dedicated exchange site with an e-commerce engine for downloading STL files to print on your own. Trailers and simple structures, yeah, print another if the masking tape slipped.

* - And they wouldn't have been screwed-up if the designer split the shell at the walkway just like the big boys do. 3D designs need to take into consideration what it will take to paint.