Athearn Genesis rolling stock more expensive than everyone else now?


Yes, there is currently a lot of "hobby is dying" over at MRH forums in the topic about MicroEngineering track company announcing they are selling the business. The fallacy there is that a great many model railroad companies are owned by one guy and when he is ready to retire, and there is no family succession plan (son or daughter does not wish to continue the business), it goes of for sale. It doesn't mean there isn't a demand or the company isn't self sustaining, it means the company owner is no longer wanting to run it. It's abit like that Chinese factory AFFA. The owner wanted to quit running it and he shut it down one day; there was no succession plan. All that business was still there but importers had to find other factories to produce their models.

Indeed, there are a lot of kits still out there at train shows. Every time I go, as recently as last October at Timonium, they are still for sale. Ebay isn't necessarily the best place buy those models as it is getting less and less friendlier to casual sellers or small fry sellers.

Yes, the Intermountain/Centralia is a fine scale replica of the Athearn C-40 series bay window cabooses. Being an SP fan since the early 70's, I picked up a couple of them to mix in with the C-50 series from Genesis. More Centralia bay window cabooses are planned but it's hard to say when they will hit the shores. I haven't looked closely at the trucks so far.
 
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While I am not changing what I wrote on page 1 of this thread things have changed for me. I have expanded the layout and I upped the rolling stock count for the layout.

I am not impressed by the Genesis rolling stock yet, locomotives absolutely but not rolling stock. I continue to be a buyer of River Counter from Scaletrains.com. I do have a few Operator verisions and 8 pieces of the Classic. I do purchases from Tangent, Exactrail and Atlas. Usually done 1 piece at a time. However, I just purchased my biggest and most expensive rolling stock order of the Atlas 64’ trinity reefers only because they are the same tooling of the BLMA I purchased a few years ago, 5 pieces at $39.00ea. Best deal I found was at MidwestModelRR.com plus they had them in stock. I am a searcher online for best pricing which must include any taxes and shipping. I generally do not pre-order but there was one exception. I pre-ordered the turbines and kit Classics from ST when they 1st started the company.

I don’t buy to collect. My purchases are used on the layout.

All that said IMO the best value of new rolling stock for my time period 2005-2015 is Accurail especially the covered hopers. I am building 2 unit trains, one of those will be a grain train and the other a oil tanker. My 30 pulp cars are Walthers and 25 of them came pre-owned on FaceBook buy/sell sites. Most likely 6-12 of them will appear on Facebook for sale next year.

So don’t limit yourself or say I won’t buy at those prices. Things and circumstances change and you need to adjust. Yes, prices are going up but that is all over not just trains. When grocery prices change you adjust accordingly, do the same with trains.

model railroading is dead or dying What a joke we have heard for years. My belief is this currently is a golden age, YMMBD!

MicroEngineering discussion at MRH forums, I do not want to get involved with the discussion over there because I seem to get very blunt over there. What RioGrande wrote above is so correct IMO.

Happy Model Railroading your way

TomO

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What bothers you about Genesis rolling stock? Whether one is impressed with Genesis freight cars may have something to do with if you need them or not. For example, for SP modelers of the 70's and later, the PC&F box cars were/are iconic. And they are pretty close replicas of a common SP boxcar. Same with those nice Evergreen PC&F boxcars. There are other Genesis models that may be needful, such as the Berwick 60' waffle boxcars.

Now some of the GATC airslide hoppers released recently had bowed end cages so that's a QAQC issue. Being a 70's fan, Athearn Genesis freight cars very much fill common freight car types. That said, over the past 12 months of Genesis announcements, there is very little I expect to buy when they arrive because most are either reruns or models I don't need; the prices have skyrocketed as well. Tangent and ExactRail are a different story.

I don’t buy to collect. My purchases are used on the layout.

I guess I am one of those collectors because I don't have an operating layout. Blame my wife for so many home improvement projects that layout progress has been slow. I imagine the vast majority of us do not buy to collect, but to run. However, some are in a transition state and working toward the goal of an operating layout and often that means people may be collectors working toward a goal, which often takes time.

Actually at MRH forums, being blunt is pretty much how most people are, so you wouldn't be an abnormality. Joe Fugate tolerates bluntness to a fault so it shouldn't be a problem.

Yes, prices are going up but that is all over not just trains.

Now yes, but Athearn big price increases predated this new price inflation by many months. Their announcements going back well into 2020 have represented very big increases. The z-van's I mentioned was just one example of many.
 
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I am in no way complaining about the cost of the Genesis rolling stock, I was asking if it was justified as in, did they go crazy on detail over their other lines like a rivet counter ScaleTrains car or Tangent.... On that note, if you order direct from Athearn for a Genesis locomotive, you could be pushing $400 lol... The hobby is definitely NOT dying and price increases followed by being sold out at retailers and their own sites of those hiked items indicates it's not only alive but there's enough demand at that price to keep going. I imagine covid slowed or limited production runs which alone can run up prices. I can tell you right now I have a ScaleTrains loco sitting on the water waiting to dock in Cali lol and we all know what's happening right now with that
 
Price justificatoin: The companies such as Athearn maintain they are just passing on production cost increases to the consumer and their profit margin is thin. The mantra is modelers want, and are buying the high detail models, so as long as they keep selling they will keep producing at whatever cost there is to produce. Cost of producing models in China, by all reports, has risen dramatically over the past few years, and has been rising steadily for much longer than that as their standard of living has increased. Sharper price increases of 2021 probably are exacerbated by the skyrocketing prices of container shipping and increases in Chinese production costs. Inflation also devalues the currency we have as well. Now we have supply chain shortages and rising energy costs.

That said, Athearn's prices in the past 12 months seem to have rising at a substantially faster rate than ScaleTrains or Tangent. But I have noticed ScaleTrains engines have been increasing in price past year.

But as you noted, product is selling out so that indicates customers continue to buy. Tangents first to runs of 86' Greenville auto parts boxcars sold out quite fast in August and December of 2020. The 3rd and 4th runs this year seem to be lingering in-stock much longer, for weeks vs. a day or days. Not sure if it's because the newer runs are less popular road names or buyers already have enough big/long boxcars that fill up a modest layout pretty fast. I can't see buying many more myself, but most of the roads I needed have been produced in the first 2 runs.
 
These discussions never quite go away. The products are priced at a point at which they will sell. I never thought I would have paid over a hundred bucks for a cabin car, but between Rapido's Reading cabs, Genesis Chessie and B&O, and Tangent's B&O, NYC and PC/CR cabs, I have a small fleet with more on order. What it comes down to is I will buy a product that fits my layout, and meets my pricing criteria. I'm sure many other modelers feel the same way.
 
The cabooses being produced exceed brass detail and correctness without the brass price, which is why they are selling well. For D&RGW caboose era fans, we still are stuck with brass, but eventually we may get an ICC E-V caboose. Athearn reportedly plans to announce one some day.
 
Agree with you Boris, never thought I pay what I do now. Also I also only buy that fits my modeling time period.

MRH forums. I like the place used to love it. Now it‘s just a few that like to pick on topics. Not unusual for any social platform but I am not involving myself as much in that.

Genesis rolling stock, IMO I can’t justify the prices with the level of details. Again, IMO they don’t come close to ST, Tangent or Exactrail. The Genesis locomotives, I have a few and they were worth every penny.

Like I wrote, I am not a pre-order guy. I see so many items that a week after they come out they are at the suggested retail price on the Facebook buy/sell groups. At this time, there is nothing out there train wise that I can’t live without.

interesting and good views here
thanks
TomO
 
Same here on modeling period. Most MRH discussions aren't of much interest to me although there are a few. Also I've gotten some good feedback regarding layout topology which was very helpful. There has been some good discussions on the TCS wifi throttles and upcoming command station.

Regarding Genesis - YMMV. I've been pleased enough on the detail for the models I've obtained - primarily PC&F SP, SSW, D&RGW and Evergreen boxcars. And for varieties sake, a few Berwicks and Seico boxcars. They were also were roughly half of the cost of the ExactRail and Tangent cars. I've also added the Genesis 89' channel side TOFC flat cars as they were common during my 70's and 80's period of interest. I probably have more Tangent and ExactRail models than Genesis, but the Genesis have their place too.
 
I enjoy a highly detail model as much as the rest if us do. But, there's truth in watching a model train from several feet away and you can hardly tell the weathered BB cars from the newer, much more expensive rolling stock.

Now...where's the two Scale Trains locomotives I've ordered???

Greg
 
I keep resisting the temptation to buy a Rapido PRRx31 three pack. Look great compared to the older Bowser fleet I have accumulated, and really not that much more, but from 3 to 5 feet away, I can't see the difference. They were still used extensively when I hired in 1967, mostly in Congoleum Vinyl Flooring service, but surprisingly not in Scott Paper service which used a lot of Perdiem cars, (ie Southern ownership and short line).
I looked this evening, and I really don't have that many Genesis freight cars, I do use a lot of Kadee, Accurail, Tangent, Bowser, and Blue box.
 
I've got one of the ScaleTrains SP SD45R's on pre-order - I think it's due early January. It's kinda at the end of my caboose era at 1984 and I already have the Athearn SD45R's, but ScaleTrains should have superior mechanisms. Also, even though it's out of scope for me, I could resist one of the MILW SDL39's little compact 6-axle diesel. So cool!
 
Something you may find interesting. I have the Genesis that Athearn first did. $20 was big money at the time with the extra detail. Fast forward to today that same car is now in the ready to roll at $35.
The Genesis in the pics is in front and to the right. As you can see same tooling in both.
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Trucks are different. But otherwise the model is the same.

Athearn has sold the Trinity 5161 covered hopper (a Genesis model originally) in the RTR line when the paint scheme isn't an exact match for the prototype.

I think the point they're trying to make is that Genesis is reserved for road-specific (and sometimes number-specific) details while the RTR line is a catch-all that may or may not be true to the prototype. However, even that line has been blurred with recent releases.

Curious: does your original Genesis model have the warped floor? That was a problem with some of these cars. PPW/A-line had replacement floors in stock last time I looked. One of my Union Pacific boxcars has the warped floor but I fixed it before I knew about the replacement parts.
 



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