Athearn Genesis rolling stock more expensive than everyone else now?


Sir Robbins

Sir Robbins

Well-Known Member
I am curious. I have noticed the new airslide hoppers from Athearn in the Genesis line are hitting $50/car at several retailers. The lowest I found was $44 which puts it higher than ScaleTrains, Tangent and Exactrail.... Has anyone noticed some phenomenal increase in detail and construction to warrant the price increase? I want to get a few airslide hoppers from them but don't want to drop that money on rolling stock that isn't as detailed as prior mentioned manufacturers.

I don't see any jaw dropping changes from their prior run of these... I attached a few photos of some... They do look really good. Just shocked to see Athearn now outpricing everyone.... it's happening on their locomotives too...
 

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I have noticed the prices going up but I have only seen 1 car. The quality of that IMOO is still less then Tangent and ST. I never used to really worry about prices but being retired now sure makes me look more carefully. I only buy what I need, no longer the I like it purchase

TomO
 
I don't know where you're seeing those prices, but $50/car is on par with Tangent, Moloco, ScaleTrains Rivet Counter, Intermountain and ExactRail. This is not surprising.

It's not practical for most of us to have entire fleets of these cars. More like, you have a crapton of BlueBox, Accurail and Walthers cars which are spiced up with these extra-fancy offerings. This is how my collection is built, and same of other modelers in my clubs.
 
DakotaLove39 said:
I don't know where you're seeing those prices, but $50/car is on par with Tangent, Moloco, ScaleTrains Rivet Counter, Intermountain and ExactRail. This is not surprising.

It's not practical for most of us to have entire fleets of these cars. More like, you have a crapton of BlueBox, Accurail and Walthers cars which are spiced up with these extra-fancy offerings. This is how my collection is built, and same of other modelers in my clubs.
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Lombard Hobby tends to run the best prices I have seen around.... Many ScaleTrains cars are under $40... Tangent around $43 for hoppers.... Just surprised to see Athearn running that league now with no real evidence of them getting more detailed.

I too don't purchase anymore just for the liking, more for the function on may layout.... I was looking to add single and 2 bay hoppers for shorter rolling stock being a switching layout which is why I went looking.
 
Sir Robbins said:
Just surprised to see Athearn running that league now with no real evidence of them getting more detailed.
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In a shrinking market prices accelerate upwards due to reduced production volumes . As has been noted in other threads, 30% increases from one batch to the next is not unusual , this is not unique to Athearn, nor is it unique to model railroading , the United States Department of Defense has the same problem.
 
This level of detailing on some of these new products is fascinating,...BUT aren't all these superdetailing add ons subject to handling damage in a lot of our usage?

These cars are made for display cases more than use on our everyday layouts. And $50 plus for one freight car is certainly getting out of my price range,....and I imagine a lot of the younger generation just getting into the hobby.
 
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while this is true, my point was that Athearn, even their genesis line has always been comparable to Intermountain, Atlas Gold Line and such.... in terms of detail, price, etc. Athearn this year surpassed even ScaleTrains in their price for locomotives and now rolling stock. I was curious if anyone could justify the price hike on more detail, better selection of decoders and so on... I have not seen the newer products in person so this thread was meant as an inquiry into anyone who has purchased them recently. I will tell you I just went ahead and bought two of those hoppers last night at $48/piece, nearly $10 more per car than a rivet counter ScaleTrains hopper...

I am all fine with paying more as a supply and demand issue and I am aware this industry faced some real challenges when covid hit... I just haven't noticed the trend with anyone else or any other line....
 
Just remember that BB cars, with KD couplers, metal wheel sets and some light weathering will look good on any layout when operating. I been purchasing boxes of cars like the above at swap meets for roughly $35/box of seven or $5/a piece. A real bargain!!!

Nothing wrong with better quality cars like the Kadee, Scale Trains, Accurail and the others. I have a collection of Kadee friegth cars that see little service on my CM&N Railroad.

Greg

Soo Line 4436.jpg

A likely weathered BB box car near a rust bucket Athearn locomotive.-Greg
 
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I don't own any Genesis freight cars so I can only comment on ones that I have seen on other layouts. I don't tend to purchase the top of the line freight cars, especially since most have details that no one sees like brake rigging. I bought one Exact Rail car just to compare it to everything else that I have, and in a running train, it is indistinguishable. Athearn has upgraded many of their original Blue Box cars as well as the old Roundhouse line of cars, (Horizon now owns both) and sells them RTR. They have metal wheels, Kadee compatible couplers and etched metal parts. Some even have separate ladders and grabs. They are quite reasonable in price considering the add-ons. Given inflation, these cars are pretty equivalent to what I paid over the years to upgrade my kits.
If people don't buy them at these prices, then it will have been an expensive lesson for them. At 800 freight cars, I cannot afford these higher priced freight cars. I do have two Genesis locos purchased over ten years ago, and I have nine ScaleTrains locos, soon to be 13. I will pay the prices for these items as I replace many of my 30+ year old Blue Box models.
 
Maybe a thread hijack....but a point about the price of the hobby.

$50 for per car is steep and for most folks more than an hours wages. The cars look nice but are out of the reach of many people.
(hijack part ->) How will the hobby sustain itself if young people cannot afford to get into it?

When I started in HO in the early 1980's an Athearn BB, add metal wheels, slap on some Kadee #5s all for about 1/2 hour wages of a mechanic. The cars would survive the crash bang couplings at the club layout, add some weathering would look just fine rolling along. If you can afford $50 for a hopper more power to you, I am just concerned we are in a dying hobby and it will get worse if young people are not enticed to participate.
 
conscious thus far

As I read thru the responses thus far it appears as thought there are quite a number of us older modelers that are NOT willing to pay more than 25 per RTR run freight cars. We just do without, ....or VERY limited purchases,... or just get along on what we have collected up in the past.

Makes me wonder how long these modern day creators of these very detailed/high price cars can continue to stay in business? If they happen to make a mistake in choosing their next prime product, and don't find that many enthusiastic buyers , things can go sour quite quickly,...cash flow.
 
Sir Robbins said:
I was curious if anyone could justify the price hike on more detail, better selection of decoders and so on..
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Those things don't really matter in a non - competitive market ,The level of detail only matters to the extent that the manufacturer meets the minimum expectation of the potential buyer.

Model railroading rolling stock is and has been a non - competitive market ,If I,m the only "manufacturer" that has a given car painted in the livery YOU want , you pretty much half to pay whatever I,m asking , what anybody else has or does is irrelevant.

Thirty years ago things were different , manufacturers actually made things instead of contracting manufacturing out, They had permanent workforce and capital investments that they had to keep running to pay the bills , so rolling stock was continually manufactured . That forced manufacturers to keep prices at a cost + reasonable profit (manufactured good) . They had to look for ways to keep sales up and the workforce /taxes paid ...enter limited run liveries and later numbered sets . You could buy a whole 12 car numbered set for what one car sells for now. Then they wanted to sell more , now they want to sell less at a higher margin by under supplying the market .

Sir Robbins said:
I am all fine with paying more as a supply and demand issue and I am aware this industry faced some real challenges when covid hit..
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Covid only exacerbated a problem that was already present , Model railroading boomed in post war years because of the "Boomer Generation" .That generation is now dying off at an increasing rate.

BoatWrench : Younger people aren't coming in because model railroading takes a lot of space and with increasing real estate prices ...RC cars ,drones, video games ,ect leads to increased competition for free time /space. It is not a problem that is unique to model railroading .

beiland said:
Makes me wonder how long these modern day creators of these very detailed/high price cars can continue to stay in business? If they happen to make a mistake in choosing their next prime product, and don't find that many enthusiastic buyers , things can go sour quite quickly,...cash flow.
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Brian : Thats part of what "advance reservations" are for. It lets them gauge the market , and then they deliberately under supply it .If they think the market is 10,000 they only order 4 or 5,000 , that means their guaranteed to sell out in 90 -120 days at full retail or maybe 20 % under.

The only thing thats likely to kill them off is pricing themselves so far out of the market place , that buyers look for some other way to spend their free time.


One of the biggest indicators to me of a shrinking market was the way MTS shutdown. If we were in an expanding market or even a stable market , either a existing corporation or private capital would have swooped in and purchased it lock stock and barrel and continued to operate it, make it more efficient and then sell it on at profit. Instead it was sold off piecemeal with competitors buying only the hard assets .
 
I'm not paying $45-50 for a freight car.

At my age, I can't see the fine details from normal viewing distance anyway.

The most I've paid has been about $35, and only for one particular car I wanted, and one particular caboose. Don't need any more.
 
I have been listening to many members tips.....keep a close look for what I want only, and go to the used section lots for really nice cars on occasion. Its harder to get some of the models I want anyways so it will just take time.
 
Prices are getting out of hand, that's why you'll see the high priced cars sit and the lesser go right away. Adding a little detail and weathering can make a big difference in how a car looks. The CSX grain hopper is an Accurail at about $16. Add wheels, couplers, and paint and decals. The RFP is a Trainman by Atlas, added couplers, paint and weathering.
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Thought I might add my 2 cents,or .50 worth allowing for inflation, of all my cars which include Athearn Genesis,Exactrail, Tangent, Walther's etc,yeah I would have agree that today's rolling stock is getting quite pricey, the problem I have is that companies like Tangent,and Exactrail,as well Scale Trains don't offer any real discounts on their products,and you have directly from them, whereas you can get some cars through Walther's,and Horizon. So to answer question,yeah HO rolling stock is getting out of hand,and the manufacturers really need to bring the prices down a bit.
William.
 
beiland said:
Note that we are not talking about engines etc in this discussion,....FREIGHT CAR PRICES
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speaking of Engines, I was looking to add a Canadian Pacific Dash 9 to my roster and went to Athearn's site for preorder info. They were asking $349.99 for one with sound/dcc..... It's getting EXPENSIVE to have detail and sound but then again, Kato is notorious for insane prices on sound equipped locos where you have to attach everything yourself 😂😅
 
Imagine a world in which all auto manufactures have ceased to exist except for Lamborghini , Ferrari , and Rolls Royce.

(You walk into a Lamborghini Dealer)

But the price that Ferrari wants for their.......Sir , your not here to buy a Ferrari ,your here to buy a Lamborghini ,If you would like to place an advanced reservation for one of out beautifully crafted cars , we would be happy to take your order. We let you know when its ready for you to pick up.

(You walk into a Rolls Royce Dealer)

How much does ...? (the salesman turns and walks away ) ( you turn and look at hostess by the door ) ...if you have to ask how much you can't afford it.

You leave and move to Cuba ( where they just keep driving the same old cars) .

Any of this sound familiar ? Thats pretty much the way things are in model railroading.


L&N Castle said:
So to answer question,yeah HO rolling stock is getting out of hand,and the manufacturers really need to bring the prices down a bit.
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As long as they keep ordering in batch lots from overseas and continue to sell everything out in 6 months , there's no incentive for them to reduce prices or discount. I do think some manufacturers / importers( Walthers being one) , have made an attempt to control prices ,because they can see the handwriting on the wall.

I think its interesting to note that boutique kit manufacturers (Westerfield ,Tichy,ect ) in the US have NOT had huge price increases ,their prices seem to be relatively stable .
 
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