Model Train Production News

[sailormatlac]

Larry, I'm still not quite sure what the problem is. I went to M.B.Klein's site, and they list 648 Accurail products in stock, over 22 screens full -- all of it basically HO scale freight cars. Walthers' site lists proportional amounts. Accurail's site catalogs years of old production, and this is helpful, because you can get renumber decals for out-of-production road names. But what Accurail lists in stock doesn't reflect what's been in the pipeline; Walthers and Klein carry stuff that's no longer on Accurail's site. There's nowhere near as much stuff on any site from Athearn, Intermountain, or whomever else -- and they do runs that sell out as well. Is it just that Accurail does runs that sell out, and it might take them a year or two to do another run in a different road number? I don't see how any manufacturer does anything differently -- and if you look back on the bluebox days, Athearn was doing a fairly limited selection that was maybe kept in stock more, though not necessarily. There were many years between runs of things like the 4-truck flat car or the 250-ton crane.

Athearn reported on their face book page BB kit sales was down 80%..Maybe Accurail is suffering the same slow sales since there are 648 Accurail products in stock at Klein?

There's no doubt the hobby has changed from generic car kits to more correct cars-I dunno but,something is amiss in kit land.

I recall when Accurail had lots of cars in stock-I ordered several and still have four 50' data only boxcars.

InterMountain like Atlas,Athearn and Walthers has monthly announcements.Not sure if Accurail does since I don't keep track of them.

This I know..When I visited Accurail web page early today I seen far more white out of stock boxes then the gray in stock boxes.

I must admit Accurail in stock rate is going down lately... But just like Wayne, it fits my era and the kind of modelling I'm doing. So far, I try to support them when I need new cars to bash. They recently upgraded their cars with crisper details and better paint job. It's a few step beyond what we use to know with BB kits. Just like any plastic kits, you can't ask for prototypicalness, but at least, it's money well spent for what you get and products are upgraded in term of quality and engineering.

There's a tremendous pressure upon modellers right now for prototypicalness. For many folks, that means buying the best RTR possible because they know they won't be able to build up a large fleet relying upon their kitbashing skills. That trend improved a lot the hobby but at a cost that is going crazy. Actually, a "good" model in term of detail start somewhere near 30$. If you need something a little bit less common, prepare yourself to dig up to 50$ per car. At this price, building a train cost a lost. And it doesn't mean your pricy RTR car will provide you a lot of satisfaction and self-fullfilment. For canadian roads modellers, a lot of correct freight and passenger cars are appearing on the market recently, but at incredible price...

I'd like to say I'm independant of all this trend, but that would be a complete lie.

Matt