Athearn's CF-7's: discontinued?

[Anonymous]

Can anyone tell me if Athearn has already quit production of it's HO scale CF-7 locomotives? just seems like 2003 they were being advertised and now on Walthers' website they are listed as being sold out and phased out of production. i would have bought one or two of the topeka style square cabbed versions for my fictional michigan shortline, the leelanau county railway.but with recovering from near fatal stage two colon cancer last summer i did not have the income to buy any. also do the handrails come off easily so they can be painted in favorite colors? with everything being either very limited run or only available in much more expensive ready to run i can see why model railroading is not gaining much new people each year.

[garr]

lou1963,

I don't know a definite answer, but Athearn is probably producing the rtr CF-7's in stages or rotating production runs of different models,i.e. SD40-2, then F7, then SD50, then etc. This is the same production schedule they used for the blue boxed items. This has always caused temporary unavailability of certain items at any given time.

You may be able to find one by calling some of the mail order hobby shops or calling at random a few of the hobby shops listed in the back of Model Railroader. This has worked for me on a number of occasions.

Jay

[Anonymous]

Lou. I don't think you have to worry. The only reason these are dropping from the Walthers sight is because of the Horizon purchase of Athearn. Horizon is a very large distributor of hobby goods (mostly RC stuff) and will now be the sole distributor for it's newly acquired Athearn product line. Thus, Walthers (also a large distributor and competitor) won't be carrying any more Athearn products, and all Athearn products will be discontinued as far as Walthers is concerned. It doesn't mean Athearn will stop making them, it only means Walthers won't be carrying them and won't be re-ordering them. Your dealer can still get them from Horizon, but not Walthers (or any other distributor.) The only exceptions are the Super Chief Genesis F unit's that Walthers had already contracted Athearn to make for them before the Horizon deal and also the products that they had already ordered from Athearn before April 1 of this year (I think?) Hope this helps. Take care.


Greg

[Don Gibson]

WALTHERS (a Distributor) and some Mail Order Dealer/ Distributors have been selling only what was ordered before Athearn's sale. They in turn could continue, but under a new "Dealer' contract agreement.

Walthers being a Distributor, has obviously declined - as have some others.

[Anonymous]

Try ebay,

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=19130&item=5906521503&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

[Anonymous]

I tried "CF7" without the dash and the search came back with more results. They are priced anywhere between $49.99 and $59.99.