ATLANTIC CENTRALAthearn, Atlas, Bachmann, Walthers and Intermountain all seem to be doing fine with batch production that, while "advertised" a little differently then in the past, is really not much different than it was 30, 40 or even 50 years ago inthis hobby.
Small correction, Sheldon. Atlas has gone the pre-order route, too. Check their home page.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I agree a return to the concept of "inventory" would be better for the hobby and likely better for the manufacturers in the long run.
But my personal solution is to simply not put anything on my "want list" until someone in North America has actually touched a regular production version of the product. I simply don't consider it to exist until then.
In the April MR that just arrived yesterday there is an open letter from Rapido about the "need" for the pre-order system and the future of their company/product lines. Personally they have yet to make anything I need or want, and while their stuff does look very nice, I don't care one bit about their money problems (are any of you loosing any sleep about your neighbors money problems?). Either they want to be in business or they don't, either they can offer products to the market that people buy or they can't.
If they can't - oh well, someone will, OR the market simply did not exist in the first place and nothing they did created a new market.
I am a small business, I don't ask my customers to pay me in adavance or to even commit months or years in advance to buying/needing my services - why should we do that for these manufacturers?
Find enough working capital or get out and leave it those who have proven they know how to do it.
Mass produced model train products have ALWAYS been produced in "batches", that's not the problem. If they want to make one batch and wait to see how it goes before making more OK. But don't tell me up front your only making one battch to get into a pre-order and a high price. Make it, put a price on it, INVEST YOUR MONEY AND TAKE YOUR CHANCES like the rest of business world does.
Athearn, Atlas, Bachmann, Walthers and Intermountain all seem to be doing fine with batch production that, while "advertised" a little differently then in the past, is really not much different than it was 30, 40 or even 50 years ago in this hobby.
BLI, Rapido and whoever need to stay on the porch if they can't play with the big dogs.
Sheldon
Once upon a time ... all fairy tales start with these words...
Well, once upon a time, there was an annual catalog, which was usually published in time for the Christmas business. All of the items shown in there you could actually buy - no pre-orders, no pre-release notices, no TBD´s. This was heaven! Each year, in February, new models were introduced at the Nuremberg Toy Fair, and you could be sure, that you were able to buy them before Christmas. This was also heaven!
Today, we suffer from limited runs, product announcements, which show up years after the announcements, re-scheduling and you name it.
Takes the fun out of the hobby!
CAZEPHYR It was a surprise to find the BLI Daylight train to be on HOLD, or TBD as they call it. The schedule recently had the 1941 train due almost any day after the first of 2010. It has backed up and backed up until it is now out of sight around the bend on TBD. Any thoughts on this latest schedule of lack of it??? CZ
It was a surprise to find the BLI Daylight train to be on HOLD, or TBD as they call it. The schedule recently had the 1941 train due almost any day after the first of 2010. It has backed up and backed up until it is now out of sight around the bend on TBD.
Any thoughts on this latest schedule of lack of it???
CZ
Well, it's a good argument for switching to N scale since Kato has already released the complete train and a choice of motive power for it.
<Lou Costello> "I'm a baaaaaad boy" </Lou Costello>
Andre
duckdogger Wondering if they have even carried through with the production tooling. Multi-cavity molds are expensive when you have a tentative demand.
Wondering if they have even carried through with the production tooling. Multi-cavity molds are expensive when you have a tentative demand.
I believe we were treated to some pre-production models at one of the shows last year of several cars. They were not painted, but looked fairly good. Anyone have pictures??
Maybe its because of MTH's lawsuit against BLI.
You are probably right about the lack of money and MTH is bringing in some parts of the train also. \
Lack of money, lack of preorder victums to pay too much only to see the balance for sale at 1/2 price.