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Post by simulatortrain on Mar 3, 2021 14:02:18 GMT -8
Did you all get emails about shipping?
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Post by TBird1958 on Mar 3, 2021 14:07:21 GMT -8
In Transit 03/03/2021 3:10 A.M. Tacoma, WA, United States Past Event Shipped 03/02/2021 10:21 A.M. Bellingham, WA, United States Past Event Label Created 03/02/2021 9:43 A.M. United States My cars are in motion, that is a good sign! 3:10AM in Tacoma........It's reasonably safe there at that hour
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Post by txcavgr on Mar 3, 2021 14:09:35 GMT -8
Did you all get emails about shipping? I did
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Post by upcsx on Mar 3, 2021 14:28:32 GMT -8
I did also.
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Post by upcsx on Mar 4, 2021 13:16:42 GMT -8
My four came today three CSX and one CP all I can say is they are great the CP Rail looks like the ones I see on CSX 696 and 697.
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Post by edwardsutorik on Mar 8, 2021 9:33:39 GMT -8
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Post by csxt8400 on Mar 8, 2021 9:38:10 GMT -8
Wow, and for once the Athearn lettering is even superior.
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Post by Baikal on Mar 8, 2021 9:45:56 GMT -8
I remember these cars well. When they were new & common I thought the color was like Rock Island blue but a somewhat darker. A pure blue with no hint of purple or green. They faded fast.
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Post by cera2254 on Mar 8, 2021 15:09:07 GMT -8
I’ll be the first to say it, yuck!
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PWRS 5077?
Feb 21, 2022 18:01:11 GMT -8
via mobile
Post by grabirons on Feb 21, 2022 18:01:11 GMT -8
Mike, I was going to ask the same question! Why bother to get Tom’s input if nothing could be done with the information. It doesn’t make sense. Too bad Gene Fusco closed Rail Yard Models. He probably could have done this car as a resin kit with photo etched parts, custom decals, and detailed instructions and it would have been stellar. Thanks, Mark It's frustrating to hear manufacturers continuously cite the cost of labor in assembling models as a driver of higher prices, yet not have any real selection of high-detail, pre-painted kits. I would very much like to see some modern equivalents of the Proto 4427 at some sort of price compromise between molded-on detail, low parts count and high detail RTR. You think taking away the cost of assembly for the manufacturer and offer a lower cost but high detail model to the consumer would be a win-win. I'm wondering this more and more as manufacturers prices climb, and I'm not talking about just their high detail models, the lesser detailed runners are going for what the high detail stuff was going for just a few years ago. This is the made in China stuff with the throw away couplers. However Accurail still offers a very good product line made in the USA, and I can add metal wheels and kadees for about 20$ per car. Although, I would like to see high detail kits come back, they'd have to be highly detailed one piece molded in color plastic parts to keep prices down. Sorta similar to how accurail molds the 4750's end cages, and how moloco/kadee molds there freight cars/details in a molded color that the real car is painted as. If we could get kadee to shoot some plastic for other types of freight cars would be great. Though, I'm rooting for 3D printing to get much faster and competitive this decade. I think tooling and the molding of plastic parts will be a thing of the past at some point, maybe not in our life times but, who knows?
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PWRS 5077?
Feb 21, 2022 18:11:41 GMT -8
via mobile
Post by grabirons on Feb 21, 2022 18:11:41 GMT -8
Parts packing could be part of it. Some other thoughts are: -Assembly costs may be a lower part of the total cost than we often think -Sales of high end kits could cannibalize sales of RTR -Market is too small to do it -Manufacturers are doing well enough they don’t need to take the risk - if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
My guess is that something like this would come from a company that is willing to shoot the plastic and do the painting in North America and doesn’t want to mess with a Chinese partner.
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Post by lvrr325 on Feb 21, 2022 23:20:07 GMT -8
I don't think there's less labor to pack a kit than to build one. A live person still has to count out the correct numbers of each detail part and bag them or pack them in some way so they ship securely. Accurail kits work because most of them don't have a ton of parts to include.
Lee over at Bowser has posted right on here, forget about getting painting done here. He was sending his shells to China to be painted for assembly here because he could not find anyone who could do it in the US for a reasonable price, and ended up moving the entire production to China because of the damage and loss on the shells going back and forth, including "testing" by federal consumer protection when they came back. Accurail must have theirs entirely in house, or they're using environmentally friendly paint.
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Post by lars on Feb 22, 2022 14:20:40 GMT -8
I don't think there's less labor to pack a kit than to build one. A live person still has to count out the correct numbers of each detail part and bag them or pack them in some way so they ship securely. Accurail kits work because most of them don't have a ton of parts to include. Lee over at Bowser has posted right on here, forget about getting painting done here. He was sending his shells to China to be painted for assembly here because he could not find anyone who could do it in the US for a reasonable price, and ended up moving the entire production to China because of the damage and loss on the shells going back and forth, including "testing" by federal consumer protection when they came back. Accurail must have theirs entirely in house, or they're using environmentally friendly paint. So I’ve had this discussion before and out of pure curiosity I even timed myself packing up an Accurail 4750 and a Proto 4427. The short story is that it will depend on whether the item is designed as RTR or as a kit. If it’s RTR then the manufacturer is likely shooting multiples of the same part on a single sprue (e.g. 50 brake wheels on a single sprue) and someone has to clip all those off and put them in a bag, so you’re getting close to what it takes to just assemble the thing. If it’s designed as a kit and there are multiple different parts on the same sprue then packing up a kit is greatly simplified and is likely measured in seconds. Wire parts would be somewhere in between in that you have to pack them but to remove them from a sprue.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2022 10:12:17 GMT -8
It is not about how fast you or I could pack just one kit.
When kits are packed, it is many many at one time. Also, somebody not only has to count all the parts, but that count has to be double checked by someone else.
The packaging of kits is different from rtr, so now a separate package has to be designed, and finally, the Chinese factories just plain HATE to provide kits. They are very good at assembly-line rtr production. If they drop a part on the floor, they just grab another from the box--but they don't have to deal with the tedious counting, etc involved in producing kits.
Also, for the factories, the cost they get paid for rtr rolling stock makes it worthwhile for them to do rtr. Kits of anything at a lower selling price point are not money-makers, or won't generate as much cash for them as rtr.
As far as Bowser is concerned, their one factory just determined that fully loaded engines cost too much too make, and they asked to do freight cars only. Surprising decision, perhaps, but they (that one Chinese factory) decided they could make their money most efficiently on the rtr freight cars. Also I think Bowser still offers some kits? but the selection is less than in the past.
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