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I attended two model railroad shows approx a month ago-one in the Atlanta area and the other was a GATS show in Knoxville on the same weekend. I could have bought Athearn blue box kits at heavily discounted prices and there was plenty to go around - in fact I saw one particular 'dealer' take home a van full of unsold 'blue boxes' including freight, passenger and a bunch of diesels, after the Knoxville show, and he was selling at approx 40% off MSRP. A LHS explained to me that the whole Horizon deal is still somewhat vague (to him-he wasn't the owner, but is a seasoned veteren in the hobby). This may be old news to most of you, but he said that Walthers will not be stocking, and therefore not distributing Athearn anymore. Since most LHSs are set up with Walthers, and if they are primarily a train store only, they probably are not set up w/ Horizon-at least not yet. They won't have a source for future Athearn inventory, unless and until they sign on w/ Horizon. Horizon has an opportunity to do this right if they are fair to the stocking LHS, continue to offer kit versions of the 'blue boxes', and don't step on the prices like another distributor has. I know that 'other' distributor is part of the food chain, stocks a lot of stuff the LHS can't, blah, blah, blah. . .I just wonder how many would -be model railroaders gasp at the retail prices in that very thick catalog (that also has a lofty price tag on it, too), and say never mind, that looks like a rich person's hobby?) Could it be that the 'other' distributor may be telling the LHS the tale about the impending death of the 'blue boxes' so that the LHS stocks up for the last time from that 'other' distributor, enabling that distributor to clear their shelves before they may unable to, due to their loss of the Athearn line? I saw this happen time and time again during my career in semiconductor sales and marketing, "and parts is parts" I would hope that the 'blue box' kits remain the staple of the product line for they have always been a great value until recently. I know that many of them are compromised versions of prototypes, but they have worked for many of us for a long time. Lately they have faced considerable competition from other manufacturers who are offering viable and more accurate kits for similar pricing, esp. when compared to Athearn's ridiculous RTR prices in that 'other' distributor's catalog. Anyone who needs to buy a RTR 'blue box' item either doesn't have the time or basic skills for this hobby, and Horizon should consider dropping both the RTR versions and their prices on their kits. An exception would be to offer their train sets only as RTR. I also don't think they should loosely use the "Genesis" name on anything other than their top of the line offerings.
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