Where is walthers Athearn line?!

[Anonymous]

I just looked at Walthers online cataolgue and everything under athearn is eisther sold out or is to be discontinued. Whats up?
Also I am looking to complete my collection of SD70M UP flag units. I have 4528 and I am looking for 4527, and 4526. For those of you who are looking for 4528 Hal's hobbie house in El Paso has one left.

[fmilhaupt]

Athearn was sold to Horizon Hobby Distributors in March. Horizon is a competitor of Walthers and is now the exclusive source for Athearn.

The only Athearn products you're likely to see through Walthers are the Santa Fe Genesis F units for Walthers' Super Chief series. Athearn was contracted to produce these specially for Walthers before Athearn was sold to Horizon, and will honor that contract.

Horizon recently purchased MDC/Roundhouse, so expect MDC's stuff to disappear from Walthers' web site and catalog, too.

[cacole]

It's obvious that you haven't been reading Model Railroader or visiting this site recently, or you would know that Athearn and Model Die Casting (Roundhouse) have been purchased by Horizon Hobbies of Champaign, Illinois, and that Horizon is now the exclusive distributor of those products. Walthers, and probably all of the on-line dealers, will no longer be able to sell Athearn or Roundhouse products. Horizon Hobbies themselves have announced that only "selected hobby shops;" i.e., those that have an account with Horizon, will be allowed to sell Athearn and MDC.

[Anonymous]

Nope, I haven't been in the loop for a while. I have been wearing a green camo suit for some time and have not had accsess to a computer but I knew ya'll would bring me up to speed. I thank ya kindly!

[Anonymous]

We thank you for your service Mr. Snakeriver. Your local hobby shop may be able to let you know if they have a Horizion account. My dealer went ahead and cleaned out the Roundhouse kits from his warehouses before they all got taken just like what we did with Athearn. I managed to purchase 4 kits that are useful to the railroad from the 150 or so kits that arrived.

If Roundhouse kits will continue to be made, upgraded or converted to R-T-R is anyone's guess. It is my hope that like Athearn; R/H will continue to be produced. I rely on these kits for rolling stock as I cannot always afford ready to run.

Lee

[cacole]

I want to also thank you, snakeriver, for your service. I am retired from the U.S. Army, having served for 26 years from 1960 to 1986, and then worked as a civilian instructor at the Army Intelligence Center here for 16 years. The three small hobby shops here in SE Arizona that were within a reasonable driving distance have been told that they can no longer sell Athearn products because they don't have enough product turnover to satisfy Horizon Hobbies. That leaves me with no choice but to drive 250 miles to Phoenix, or purchase other brands, such as Atlas, Bachmann, P2K, or Accurail.

I've also noticed that several of the on-line dealers that I have relied on in the past no longer carry Athearn products.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for your contributions in protecting this country's National security and our important overseas interests. Wish you and your fellow warriors didn't have to encounter all the unpatriotic nonsence coming out of the media, certain left-sided Washington DC hopefuls, idiotic liberal 'hollier than thou' Hollywood cowards, and that discusting bum, Michael Moore. They may all have lots of money, but were significantly short-changed in the gray matter and/or 'humanitarian spirit' department.

Hopefully more and more people will take the opportunity to express our appreciation to you guys and gals when you return stateside. Welcome home.
BILL

[Anonymous]

Hey no name calling, even if they are not on the board. Everyone appreciates what are troops are doing, some just don't appreciate what our administration is doing. (thinking to myslef "I hope I just didn't start a political debate. It's one thing these forums don't need.")

Welcome home and i'm glad to hear another MRR is back from service able to enjoy watching trains roll by once again.
Andrew

[Anonymous]

I'm okay, you're okay, we just have different opinions, and my comments were not intended to initiate any political debates.

[Anonymous]

Well this is my opinion about Hozizon Hobbies, what they are doing Sucks. All of the smaller customers that distibuted Athearn and Roundhouse products will no longer and all of them added together will no dought equal at least 100 of the volume sellers so horizon is really sabotaging themselves.

And as for my fellow servicemembers good job!!!![tup][tup] I'm a reservist who didn't get to go but I'm glad to be in and would gladly go and do my part.

[Don Gibson]

QUOTE: Originally posted by cacole
The three small hobby shops here in SE Arizona ...have been told that they can no longer sell Athearn products because they don't have enough product turnover to satisfy Horizon Hobbies. That leaves me with no choice but to drive 250 miles to Phoenix, or purchase other brands, such as Atlas, Bachmann, P2K, or Accurail.

I've also noticed that several of the on-line dealers that I have relied on in the past no longer carry Athearn products.

DO YOU drive 250 miles to Pheonix for anything else?

Retailers want discounts. Suppliers want shelf space. The trade off is discounts based on quantity. The retail world is competative. Athearn / Horizon is cleaning up the dealer-distributors, leveling the playing field for those selling their products, to the benefit of the small retailer. If they cannot reciprocate / fill in for this loss - or are unwilling to - they lose the franchise.

Athearn products have gotten much better and should retain their 'demand' status.
They'll continue to be sold by houses that 'want' them. Your local shop apparently didn't .

[Anonymous]

does anyone in michigan know of any hobby shops in the state that will be authorized dealers of athearn/mdc products? as i understand it, my favorite hobby shop in saginaw named Brasseur Electric Trains will no longer be selling athearn and mdc kits or ready to run cars and locos and not an authorized dealer. if that is the guess i will buy freight cars and locos from walthers, accurail, bowser, model power and bachmann. that is unless they are gobbled up by horizon hobbies also

[Don Gibson]

IF all else fails ... contact Athearn.

There is also http://www.nrhsa.org/

[fmilhaupt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by lou1963

does anyone in michigan know of any hobby shops in the state that will be authorized dealers of athearn/mdc products?

What I think you'll find is that most of the "full-line" storefront hobby shops in Michigan were already Horizon customers (to support their non-model railroad sections), and will continue to carry Athearn and MDC. Among the ones I'm most familiar with, Rider's, Joe's Hobby, P&D Hobby, and Great Lakes are all likely to fit into this category.

My experience in the past is that most shops that I consider patronizing buy from multiple distributors. Usually, this has included Horizon. My personal pusher-of-choice, Michigan Model Train Center (in Pinckney) has been quite aggressive about shopping around to various distributors to fill its shelves and my orders- I haven't missed out yet on any limited-run item I've pre-ordered there.

There are a few shops I don't patronize any more because I've asked for items and been told something along the lines of "We can't get what you want from {a single distributor, often Walthers}, so as far as we're concerned, we can't get it at all." Generally speaking, if a shop limits itself to a single distributor for its model RR stuff, then it's doesn't provide the level of service and variety of goods that I want.

[fec153]

Welcome home ,snakeriver. THANKS FOR YOUR SERVICE.
Happy modeling.
Phil

[willy6]

i have not been following the Athearn/Horizon story, i did know about the buyout.What exactly is Horizon? Does it sell to the public?Is it like Walthers? What is it? I could not find a web site for it.

[jsanchez]

Has anyone heard anything new about Athearn being sued by the Union Pacific, I'm hoping Horizon will have to sell Athearn and MDC in order to pay the huge legal fees they will soon be incuring?

[jsoderq]

Horizon does have a site-horizon.hobbyshopnow.com. They are a large distributor of mostly radio control. They bought Athearn and MDC to force hobby shops to buy from them. Evidently they maxed out the rc market. They reputedly are not real friendly to small retailers plus if they can limit the outlets they can exert greater control over the market (read list prices) They do sell direct and have very good service. I don't know howw accurate the online inventory is. Walthers is about 100%
UP is suing several manufacturers to force them to pay royalties on UP produbts. It is still in court as I understand it the trademarks must be continuously protected, something UP has not gone, especially with the fallen flags CSX is requiring licensing also. There will be a lot of legal rangling here making the fat cat lawyers richer. Some RR logos are now legally owned by historical societies - a brilliant move I think. A few years ago some goofball tried to copyright every railroad logo but the court wisely threw it out because he didn't own any of them. Anyway the fee for UP at least is a very small percentage of retrail. The kicker is that UP wants the tooling to default to them if production is stopped. Oh ya that is going to happen -not - even in our screwed up court system.