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Post by Deleted on Mar 5, 2019 10:47:27 GMT -8
Larry,
Sorry to hear you had that many issues w a GP-9. |
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Post by valenciajim on Mar 5, 2019 15:43:55 GMT -8
Succession planning is a huge issue for family owned businesses and the death of an owner can present challenges that are frequently solved by selling the business.
Based solely on what is written in Wikipedia, it appears that Athearn/Horizon is owned by two private equity firms since 2013. Before I retired, several of my clients were private equity firms and they typically held their investments for a targeted five to seven year period. Usually they held their portfolio companies for no more than ten years. So it would appear that Horizon is entering the period when it may be sold. Trimming payroll and other cost cutting frequently precedes marketing the company. Horizon is a fairly large company that has other business lines besides Athearn, so it is not inconceivable that the company may be broken up as part of a sale if the sum of the pieces produces a higher selling price. Also it is not uncommon for a buyer to sell off product lines of a newly acquired company to help finance the acquisition.
Like I said, it sure is fun to speculate!
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Post by ChessieFan1978 on Mar 5, 2019 17:06:45 GMT -8
I suspect if any company can buy Athearn it would be Walthers or Atlas. Wild cards would be MTH or Broadway Limited. GOD I hope it's not MTH or Broadway Limited that would be tragic!!! |
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Post by bnsf971 on Mar 5, 2019 18:54:00 GMT -8
Athearn's warranty/parts dept.seems already to have suffered.
I emailed about a Sinclair radio antenna for an SD38. They sent me one. It did take a few weeks, but I did get it.
With a bill from the Post office for $3.26 POSTAGE DUE.
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Post by csx3305 on Mar 5, 2019 20:15:02 GMT -8
Atlas is owned by a family I believe.
When I read brakie’s post at the top of this page, I got brief flashes of dark satin gray window boxes in my minds eye. No basis for this whatsoever. Just a knee jerk reaction.
There, that oughta be vague enough to deprive the self-righteous former high school hall monitors of any tattle-tale ammo.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2019 9:12:23 GMT -8
Atlas introduce some new N Scale of late while buying up Walthers N and have bought BLMA and Branchline.. I wouldn't count Atlas out or a weak company since their engines is still selling. I don't count Atlas out of the game, but they certainly are not the Atlas they used to me. It seems like they never fully recovered after the previous round of China issues. I have said it before, and will say it again. Atlas needs to wake up and start doing proper road specific details, as well as ditch lights, if they plan to stay in the game. Just about every modeler I speak to agrees with me on this one. They rode the success of their drive being the selling point too long. All of their newly tooled models have ditch lights and support for sound. IIRC, even their DC models have a speaker installed. YRMV, but I've never had a QC issue with Atlas. I wouldn't count them out at all. |
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Post by riogrande on Mar 8, 2019 10:04:57 GMT -8
greenwizard,
On the whole I would agree that Atlas has had fewer QAQC issues than Athearn.
The only one I can really remember was there was a run of GP40's with reported running issues so Atlas supplied replacement track/gear assemblies for those customers with that particular run. I happened to have a pair of GP40's from that run and because I didn't have a way to run them at the time, with no test track etc., Atlas sent me the replacement truck assemblies. I forgot about them and a couple years ago ran those GP40's at a modular layout and at least there running at moderate speeds they seemed ok. I didn't try slow running them as the issue may have occurred at speeds other than bookin-it around a layout.
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Post by csx3305 on Mar 8, 2019 13:37:02 GMT -8
I recall the first run GP40 problem being slipping flywheels.
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Post by brakie on Mar 10, 2019 16:17:53 GMT -8
I recall the first run GP40 problem being slipping flywheels. As did two out of five of my CR Athearn RTR GP38-2,both RTR CR GP60Ms, and one RTR CR SD38. My GATX GP38-2 had a grinding noise and I simply took the trucks apart and reassembled them and that fixed the problem. The above engines run quite smoothly and all is capable of tie to tie creep in DC mode and will start tie to tie creep in speed step two.. CR did order IIRC 26 GP60Ms but, cancelled the order which makes Athearn CR GP60Ms foobies but, these engines was a Christmas gift from my son and I like 'em as a almost was but, no cigar engine. |
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Post by loco8107 on Mar 11, 2019 6:43:52 GMT -8
I recall the first run GP40 problem being slipping flywheels. As did two out of five of my CR Athearn RTR GP38-2,both RTR CR GP60Ms, and one RTR CR SD38. My GATX GP38-2 had a grinding noise and I simply took the trucks apart and reassembled them and that fixed the problem. The above engines run quite smoothly and all is capable of tie to tie creep in DC mode and will start tie to tie creep in speed step two.. CR did order IIRC 26 GP60Ms but, cancelled the order which makes Athearn CR GP60Ms foobies but, these engines was a Christmas gift from my son and I like 'em as a almost was but, no cigar engine. Wow that was it with an Athearn? That’s good to hear. Usually one had to replace that stupid clip with wires. I wonder if that works with a BB unit too despite the fact the BB’s need new wheels from the start. |
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Post by brakie on Mar 11, 2019 10:38:49 GMT -8
Athearn RTR does not use the old BB pickup clip.
The RTR engines come either DCC ready or DCC/Sound equipped.
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Post by loco8107 on Mar 12, 2019 16:28:17 GMT -8
Athearn RTR does not use the old BB pickup clip. The RTR engines come either DCC ready or DCC/Sound equipped. Oh that’s right the new ones come that way along with good headlight system for a change. |
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