Well, another January has passed and it would not be complete without the annual Big Railroad Hobby Show in sunny Springfield, MA. Yes it may be sunny, but also 20 degrees, so a bit warmer than usual. With 5 buildings, I started walking at opening bell and didn’t finish until close at 5PM. And that was not nearly enough time. So here is all the news fit for an electron:
Athearn: I talked to Shane, who was recently promoted from Horizon’s liaison to Athearn to part of their staff. Fist the good news: everything that has been announced is starting back into production and we should see that stuff arrive at dealers over the next 6 months. They also assured me there will be new runs of current models announced for the next two years ATHEARN IS NOT ABANDONING N SCALE!
Now the bad news: Athearn is not making a lot of money off the scale either. With the loss of one of their factories last year (not from Kader apparently), they went without shippable product for many, MANY months. This has put a strain on the company, not financially, but with distributers and dealers etc. I guess people forget a name very quick when there is no product on the shelf. To build capital and continue their work, Athearn has decided to put the bulk of their resources into new engine tooling for the HO market. That means fewer newly tooled HO cars, and development on N scale and their vehicle divisions will be postponed until the economy turns around. So that’s the story: no new tooling for a few years, but we will see plenty of re-runs with their current products.
Atlas: I spoke with Cory for a bit. We talked about hurricanes, flooding and my basement. The new S2 is nice, and heavy! I can’t wait to see it operate. Cory stated the current mechanism could not be used for an SW1000/1500, but they are looking at completing the entire S1-S4 line. Save me a Bay Colony S2, Cory.
Atlas S2 sample.
Bachmann: I spoke with Ray, and all around great guy. They had a running sample of their S4. It runs very smooth. The detail is very crisp, much sharper than even the GP7 and RS3. THE HOOD IS SCALE WIDTH! Yes the hood is the right width. It can’t be repeated enough. Man what a sweet little engine!
CMR: Custom Model Railroads has some nice city buildings. How nice? They shame anything walthers or DPM has put out and their size really frames an urban landscape. Some of their towers were three feet high. Its exactly what N scale needs: proportionally sized buildings for urban areas. The diorama featuring their buildings looks lie Gotham at night... in all the goods ways.
Con-Cor: Eh, they had more display case on display than trains. It was a little sad.
"The Union on burlap"
Deluxe: They had most of their new releases showing. They also had an area set aside for the N Scale Vehicle Association. I hope to expand this next year with a full case and diorama. Deluxe does still have the reach stacker they would like to get into production. I hope to see it soon.
ESM: I spoke with Bryan for a bit. In addition to their G36 (yes Bryan I will take two ha ha), they had pilot models for a P&LE coil car and a G36 gondola. Nice stuff. Their next boxcar looks like it will be an X65, which uses the same underframe as the X58. I can’t wait to get my hands on that caboose.
Lakawana caboose.
G32 pre production sample.
G36 prototype.
P&LE coil car prototype.
X65 prototype.
Exactrail: Retooling has progressed through the line. We should start to see more releases of current body styles. The centerbeam ran into a few production problems and has been delayed a bit. It should be out soon.
and...
For you waffle owners:
PULLMAN ROOFS ARE IN! I have 9 sitting on my desk at home. They will come undecorated for now, though they may just paint them silver. Color matching is not an option as they would need to go to China, then back for QC delaying them for months and months.
Fox Valley Models: Can Stock boxes, SD70ACE, Southern gons and that PRR hopper were the big news. Matt said the reason who he went with the ACE was because of the heritage schemes sell well. There is another engine he is working on. We talk about it a lot here. Ed and I will be very happy. I may have already said too much. There should be new tooling (in adition to this) very late 2013 or early 2014.
The Southern hoppers are pretty much fully tooled. Additional horizonal stiffeners will be included with the car as seperate parts.
Like the other projects, the new units are very far along in design.
Kato: I talked to the rep about the new Amtrak cars and asked if they were looking into additional commuter cars… nothing. Then I mentioned those slap sided Horizon cars on Amtrak often seen at Chicago Union Station. He perked up. Then I told him the very same cars run on MBTA, Metro-North, NJT, SEPTA, Con-Dot and AMT (Quebec), he gave me his business card, office hours and asked me to put a detailed email together. God help me if Kato makes the Comet II.
Intermountain: I coulden't find them. I really needed to walk the better living center more efficiently, but kept running into people I know. I wish I met up with them, they always have something new for Springfield.
Micro-Trains: The log car is their big news. They are also introducing a current collection kit for some select truck models. This is an axle cone style pickup system like Kato and Bachmann use on their caboose and tenders. NICE!
Prairie Shadows: New 70 ton bulkhead flat for you BC fans. New 52.5’ gondola good for CN and CP. The gon features interior details and looks really nice. The bulkhead features fine tooling and etched parts. Oh, there was some talk about vehicles.... like a 53' reefer. The owner is hesitant at this point becasue he thinks many modelers will slap a BLMA Thermo-King on a DI Duraplate and call it a day. Let them know we want beaded 53' refer trailers! He mentioned seperate wheels and rubber tires. Man, Canadians have all the nice things.
New bulkhead flat and gon
Train-Cat: I talked to Bob for a while about a variety of things. The new aggregate loader is big, bad and very detailed. His new yard tower light pole will find a place in my Worcester yard.
Walthers: Some engines there, but pretty much a ghost town.
Observations: One thing that really grew this year was scenery material. It was everywhere. Scenic Express and Woodland Scenic were both there and there were dozens of vendors selling scenery materials. Also, track was really big. Everyone was buying it. Two thoughts come to mind. 1: local shops are closing forcing people to buy basics at the show now or 2: LOTS of people are now building layouts. Either way, it was very encouraging to see.
N Scale Vehicle Association showed up:
Oh and "T" scale was there. expect to see an F7 by the end of the year.
Hot Deals: GHQ Excavator for $20. These are very hard to find. I bought one of the two available. Magnuson MofW trucks and GHQ Ford dump truck for $3. The guy was selling off his N scale vehicles and moving to On30. He was selling off boxes of CinC trucks for $3-4 each. Just before the show I stopped by again and talked him into opening his vehicle “junk box”. I got SEVEN atlas ford LNT 9000 tractors, Lineside Kenworth (very rare), Lineside Mack Cement truck and a Ziploc bag of truck cabs, chassis GHQ and Wiking vehicles for $20.
This Year’s show was busy, fairly crowded and very popular. This is not just a train show but a model train shopping mall, layout tour and manufacturer’s trade show all under 5 roofs.
