A twist on the UP pay us story

[Anonymous]

I was reading a story in an Early 80's MR last night, about Lionel when they were a powerhouse. Companies paid Lionel to have their name on a car or engine. Santa Fe, EMD, and NYC paid 1/4 each for the cost of the tooling of the F3. About $35K Each in 1940's dollars. They looked at it as great advertising. Sunoco, Baby Ruth others paid Lionel $0.25 per car to have their name on a car. Now in Todays world UP says you pay me. Just found this interesting. Dave

[dave9999]

Interesting......

BTW, I have a can opener you can borrow if you really need to open a can of worms...[;)]
Dave

[Junctionfan]

DOHHH!!..........How is U.P going to explain that in court?

[Anonymous]

I don't know but I wi***hat it all would come to an end!

[Anonymous]

What if everyone who runs UP stuff on their layout when they show it to guests sends UP a bill for advertising? If you serve your guests sodas and popcorn while they watch the UP engine (immaculately maintained and always on schedule - not like the prototype) you can then charge UP good will and marketing expenses too! Wouldn't that be cool?!?!? OK, maybe there's not a chance of this doing anything, but it would be kinda fun to do.

Kinda reminds of when California ran out of money and started issuing IOU's to folks that the state owed money to. A bunch of companies and citizens started forming movements to pay their state income tax with IOU's. California then came up with the money. Sometimes making the public aware of how stupid an entity's action is might be all it takes.

[twhite]

have you noticed that Athearn's latest ads for the Genesis 4-6-6-4 show the CLINCHFIELD instead of the UP model? Hmm, trying to tell us all something?

[Anonymous]

dkelly, that sounds like a good idea. kind of funny how things have reversed.

[Anonymous]

Yes I did notice the MR ads by Athearn and their new Challenger show the Clinchfield model. I don't believe Athearn has much of a care for UP any more.

[twhite]

Yah, well then if Athearn is getting bitten in the behind with UP, they should have picked another prototype for their 4-6-6-4, say Rio Grande or NP. Don't meant to step on toes, and this is an old argument of mine, but don't we have ENOUGH UP Challengers out on the market now, anyway?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by twhite
they should have picked another prototype for their 4-6-6-4, say Rio Grande.

UP owns the rights the their logo too!

[Anonymous]

Off topic, davsachz, what part of the Reading do you model?

[Anonymous]

Well then Athearn should have made a NP model!

It's be something we actually NEED!

[Anonymous]

Boo Hoo!

[Anonymous]

What athearn should do is UP loco in their paint scheme but no markings or numbers or do they have a claim to that, better still just issue models of other roads; eg the Clinchfield Challenger and/or a undecorated version.

[bcammack]

I believe that they've trademarked the paint scheme as well.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by bcammack

I believe that they've trademarked the paint scheme as well.

Actually I do not think they can. As for something to be trademarked, It has to be constant and unchanging. UP cant keep the colors constant and unchanging from paint batch to paint batch let alone what happens to the colors once units have been on the road for a while. Due to the death of my grandmother last week I had the unfortunate cause to travel along UP's Powder River Sub and saw many UP locomotives. All painted in the same paint scheme. But the Yellow from Unit to Unit never quitet he same.

James

[railman]

I say Athearn and the others should go on the offensive- paint some engines in colors that never happened- wouldn't every Milwaukee Road fan like to have a Dash-9 or P42? (Oh, what could have been,eh?) Hey, go back in time, too. Letter some steamers for BNSF. Although I know this could start a civil war among the purists, this could be a nice way to get back at the money grabbers. Please not that I did not mention painting ANYTHING in UP colors. Let them see how they feel to be left out of the gold rush of oddball locomotives. (oh, wait, UP HAS every engine. Drat!)

[ericsp]

Athearn could paint their UP locomotives to match those coming off of the Tehachapis. Nobody would be able to see any markings.

I am guessing that Athearn is delaying the announcement of the roadnames and prices for the SD45T-2 until they know the outcome of the lawsuit (which could be awhile).

[Anonymous]

Athearn MUST sold the Challenger in UP - They must sell as much as possible Challengers or the price will be in Overland regions! And the SD45T-2 is the same!

The decisssion pro and contra a model will be make with the expected quantities. With new technologies the building of castingforms was become cheaper in the last 10 years, so the quantities can be lower.

I think something between 3.000 and 5.000 will be a good quantity! The rest create the playgrounds for PFM / Overland and..............

Clinchfield, D&RGW (also under UP licence !!!) and all the others are fine but the best marketing for a Challenger are the real prototypes like 3985 or 3977 at Cody Park IN UNION PACIFIC PAINT
Challenger IS UP for most! How many were surprised when they see the other versions?

There is an other side: Athearn makes no agreement, produce the models and pay UP for each sold model a fee!! [:D]
This way is also possible, cheaper for Athearn, must pay when the models are sold.

BTW: You pay also when you buy a model car like a Mercedes or Porsche or Ford !!! And the Rolls-Royce grille is a trademark! Use without permission is forbidden!
BTW II: The german DBAG wanted to do the same like UP years ago - The DB owns the copyright for the logo and they wanted to make money.
They doesn´t bring this to an end !!! The bad articles in MR magazines were a to bad marketing! So they stop this plans and said: Modelrailroad is a good marketing for us (!!!), the modelrailroaders say yes to the railway. And when they must pay us for the hobby, this is no marketing. But the UP manager are harder than the DB guys years ago!