Seem to recall last year a number of posters having problems with getting replacement parts, from Athearn Division office in Long Beach, California.
Presently, I do not know if this is a part time operation at this location and never exactly have understood, why Horizon has this location in operations, considering that they no longer manufacturing anything of Athearn/MDC Roundhouse/Other Lines in California and the United States of America for that matter.
On the other hand, must have something to do with the Port of Los Angeles and Port of Long Beach, as well as repairing all inbound shipments from overseas?
Any concrete input?
Athearn has been based in the Los Angeles area ever since Irv Athearn founded it in 1946. They have had factories in nearby Compton and Carson, and MDC's old factory was in Hawthorne, which is not too far away either. Even after the Horizon takeover in 2004, the company, which retained many of its employees during the merger stayed in the area so no one had to relocate. I have known people who have worked for Athearn, they do have a parts and servicing department there. They also do their main product design there, so it's not just some part-time operation.
Since I live locally, once when I ordered a part I asked them if I could just pick it up and they told me due to the security system in their building (Long Beach), they don't allow public walk-ins.
The Long Beach location's proximity to the major port area is largely coincidental; there are many industrial office parks near the port area and the current address is in one of them. Horizon Hobby has a major inventory warehouse located over 50 miles away in Ontario, CA, so the Long Beach offices are not directly related to the import and warehousing of product.
The parts issue might just be due to low parts stock that they are waiting to get replenished.
When I order parts for Athearn, (have ordered a lot in the past 2yrs.) they come from Horizon Hobby in Champaign Il. which they have a large warehouse there. They also deal in all kinds of RC equipment, etc. Horizon Hobby is a very large distributor, not just Train things.
Take Care!
Frank
What are you guys talking about? I mean that in a nice way.
I happened to be looking at the Athearn site just the other day and I didn't see very many parts at all.
Is Horizon independent of Athearn? I found a couple of Horizon's on google search but nothing that seemed to fit into this discussion.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
I don't know the details. But I converted a Veranda GTEL about 6 weeks ago and cracked a ladder. Sent an e-mail to specified address on Athearn.com, got a reply within 24 hours and the (free) part arrived in about 4 days. So some of the system is ok.
Paul
Modeling HO with a transition era UP bent
And about a year ago, I called, and asked if I could get the complete etched metal parts for a GP15, Genesis, even though I didn't have the loco, and had another shell I wanted to put it on. They did ask, if I have the Genesis loco, it should all be there. No problem when I told them what I was doing.
It all came, and I mean ALL of the details parts they put on a Genesis GP15, in about 3 days. I think it was around $15.
They have also answered many phone calls, with answers to any problem I have had.
I have no problem with Athearn.
Mike.
My You Tube
When You go to the Athearn Parts site.......when You are ready to put in Your order, You are directed to Horizon Hobby which fulfills Your order and is shipped from a Horizon warehouse. As far as I know Horizon Hobby takes care of all Athearn parts orders.
http://www.athearn.com/Search/Default.aspx?CatId=THCR
Scroll all the way down the page and on the left next to the Athearn Logo, You will see Horizon Hobby logo. I have been ordering a lot of Athearn parts for a friend of mine in the UK for the past couple of yrs.. When I first started ordering and even spoke to Athearn Parts, it was in CA. Obviously they now are in Champaign IL. because that's where all My Athearn parts come from and the Athearn receipts are from.
Thanks Frank
Run Eight Seem to recall last year a number of posters having problems with getting replacement parts, from Athearn Division office in Long Beach, California.
I've spoken to Alex and ordered parts (sidefrsmes, railings and detail parts, etc.) many times for old Blue Box locomotives and he has always been knowledgable, helpful and efficient. Not crazy about the shipping cost, but extremely happy with the responsiveness and assistance provided by Long Beach.
Len S
I am glad to hear people are not having problems with Athearn parts like I did.
.
I purchased an undecorated Air Slide hopper car last year from Model Train Stuff. It was missing about half the required add-on parts. I circled the needed parts on the diagram, scanned the image, and emailed it to Athearn.
At first I had no response. When I followed up the only answer I got was basically they did not believe the model could not have been missing that many parts.
I still have an unfinished airslide hopper car, and I am disappointed with how Athearn handled this issue.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Run Eight, this is your second thread in recent days vaguely complaining about Athearn. This post isn't even based on your own experiences, but something you "seem to recall last year [from] a number of posters." What's your problem?
--Steven Otte, Model Railroader senior associate editorsotte@kalmbach.com
All of the parts I've ever needed have been very quickly delivered.
Not sure what the issues are, but I've not seen them.
Ricky W.
HO scale Proto-freelancer.
My Railroad rules:
1: It's my railroad, my rules.
2: It's for having fun and enjoyment.
3: Any objections, consult above rules.
Yep. If the part is in stock, it shows up within a week or so. If they don't have it, I get a note telling me when to expect it.
BigDaddy What are you guys talking about? I mean that in a nice way. I happened to be looking at the Athearn site just the other day and I didn't see very many parts at all.
It might be that the core of the problem here is that the web site is not updated regularly to reflect the actual availability of parts, and not the availability of parts themselves. i.e. it probably helps more to just call or email them rather than rely on what the parts website indicates.