RioGrande, I am indeed guilty of glossing over reality with my statement about Athearn struggling. Yes, they are putting out some high quality equipment, made overseas. I guess what I meant was the standard line we're all so familiar with wasn't going to be able to last much longer on its own. I have no knowledge of their financial condition at the time of sale, or now for that matter. To the credit of those who ran it after Irv's passing, they identified that something had to be done. Don't have any of their F units so can't comment on them. Bought two of the 2-8-2's, they run beautifully but their traction stinks. I wrote to them looking to buy spare driver sets so I could experiment adding traction tires, was told since the units were made overseas there were not, and would not be, spare parts for the mech available, would I like to buy the entire mech? I tried NWSL to see if they would offer aftermarket drivers with tires, but no. The fact that the traction is awful doesn't mean Athearn s---s, like some irate posters elsewhere state. It means they made a mistake. Adding power pickup to the tender and adding a traction tire to the rear driver would improve things a lot. The problem with its traction is caused by it being way off balance, something every manufacturer ought to be aware of. It was the lack of concern on their part that turned me off. That kind of thing doesn't help a company trying to retrench and establish a new image with their longtime customers. How difficult would it be to bring in some spare drivers?
Anyway, that's not what this thread is about. I don't know much about Accurail, I like the cars I've bought, don't know how long they've been around or what their structure is. Out of the 3 companies, theirs is the one I figured I'd be buying more cars from. But honestly I need more cars like I need a hole in my head. I'm sure not going to rush out to buy them "before they're gone" I would think that Walthers may try to get in on the act before they lose to much market share. Hopefully as the dust clears all these lines will still be available, at least those which sell and can be sold at a profit. some stores may not be dealers for both Horizon and Walthers, that's just something we'll have to get used to. It stands to reason that both distributors will do what is needed to reach all potential customers. Somewhere on the Atlas forum I had read that Horizon would only sell to brick and mortor stores, that angered a lot of folk. There are several brick and mortor stores that sell mail order so I'm sure Horizon's products will be available to all customers.
Well, enough of this!
