As recently as 2003, when I entered the HO scale side of the hobby, I could pretty much buy any loco I wanted, Athearn or otherwise. But, by 2007, it was all over. It is hard to find anything you want anymore.
As far as Athearn goes, recall that it is now owned by Horizon Hobbies and every loco it produces is quickly distributed to retailers. So, if you look on the Athearn web site, everything is always out of stock.
Specific road names and engine types, if they are available at all, are buried on the shelves of LHS and on line retailers.
Interestingly, if you look long enough and hard enough, you can still find new locos for sale that were first packaged back in 2003. You just have to look long and hard, real long and hard.
Rich
Alton Junction
Sir Madog it´s not only Athearn, it´s all of the mainstream manufacturers. This is one of the pitfalls of limited batch-runs in manufacturing. Either you order early, or you might not get it.
it´s not only Athearn, it´s all of the mainstream manufacturers. This is one of the pitfalls of limited batch-runs in manufacturing. Either you order early, or you might not get it.
Yeah,that's the name of the game now..Buy now or lament later.
Thankfully there's e-Bay,HO yardsale,the local use market,train shows and some on line shops..One needs to look around on the Internet and attend train shows in order to fill the missing gaps..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
Keith,
Long gone are the times, when you could get whatever item was listed at any time.
every time i check their website all they are making are the genisis stuff it seems anymore everything else is sold out and when they do produce them they always produce stuff in the NS UP BN BNSF SP ATSF it seems thats all they produce anymore i have a athearn GP 38 in iowa interstate if you find one on ebay it goes for premium dollars Just my thoughts is all