Atlas still in business? Taking the Summer off?


J

jackstrat

New Member
This model railroading hobby is all new to me (2 weeks and counting) and am I am sure this has been discussed to the ends of the earth, but...

Is Atlas struggling, out of business, taking a Summer break? I have emailed them, etc., with no reply.

Noticed that Lionel had been in financial difficulty, Faller evidently closed their doors a few years back, Cox model airplane engines are no longer manufactured, difficult times for hobbies.

Jack
 
Atlas is doing just fine.

I never had any problems reaching somebody when I called them on the phone. Try that.

If it's something important when trying to contact these manufactures, I never send email. They always answer the phone.
 
Its a trickle down effect man. We arent in the best of time right now, its hard on the people, that translates to hard on the companies that rely of the people.

But, as far as i know, Atlas is doing fine, they continue to release new stuff and i continue to drool over it because im not allowed to buy it :D
 
jackstrat said:
I have emailed them, etc., with no reply.
Click to expand...

What were you looking for? Maybe someone here could help you with something? Loads of knowledge here, and what email address are you sending too. They can always be reached at 908-687-0880. These guys are great when it comes to customer service.:cool:
 
Atlas has been having factory problems since the middle of April in China. My hobby store guy said the kids went on strike. But He ran out of switch track in May and cound not get any more, same with terminal joiners, Bridges and 1/3rd 18" radius track. I thought for a while he was full of it but when I went to the other hobby store in minot, she was not able to get any switch track till July. and Last week finally switch track started rolling in and now I get to finish my layout.
 
Most Atlas track and models are produced in several plants in China run by a company called Sanda-Kan. They dumped contracts with about 60 small manufacturers to concentratge on Atlas production. They wound down those contracts with the idea that they had enough Atlas inventory to tide them over. Unfortunately, the company was struck by a string of wildcat strikes, as workers tried to get higher pay, since the Chinese government doubled the minimum wage. Strikes are really not tolerated in China, so the Chinese government took some harsh actions against the strike leaders, and Sanda-Kan fired a bunch more of them. All this has combined to put Atlas products in short supply. I understand things are now getting back to normal and Labor Day is the target date to begin deliveries of new stock to the USA.
 
UP2CSX said:
Most Atlas track and models are produced in several plants in China run by a company called Sanda-Kan. They dumped contracts with about 60 small manufacturers to concentratge on Atlas production. They wound down those contracts with the idea that they had enough Atlas inventory to tide them over. Unfortunately, the company was struck by a string of wildcat strikes, as workers tried to get higher pay, since the Chinese government doubled the minimum wage. Strikes are really not tolerated in China, so the Chinese government took some harsh actions against the strike leaders, and Sanda-Kan fired a bunch more of them. All this has combined to put Atlas products in short supply. I understand things are now getting back to normal and Labor Day is the target date to begin deliveries of new stock to the USA.
Click to expand...

Honestly after hearing about that I wouldn't be surprised to hear about more companies having problems. Although some companies manufacture in batches and only ship when they got enough orders coming in so that might buy them some time.
 
Hey maybe the Chineese workers will form unions and make US jobs viable again...
you never know!
 
Well what is actually going on is that Kadar purchased Sanda Kan and is pretty much merging all the work. Kadar owns Bachmann/Liliput so obviously those Co.s will stay with the same manufacturer. A bunch of smaller manufacturers were dropped as Kadar is trying to keep the big orders coming and weed out the Co's that do small runs and only a handful of items.

Now the labor market is also changing in china and due to wage increases and benefits a lot of the employees are going to jobs that pay more for skilled labor such as plants manufacturing electronics such as PC's , TV's, Etc. That means that SK is now short and that is why you have been seeing a lot of QC issues with models as they are most likely assembled by new employees.

Also with manufactures being dropped a lot of changes have to be made as transferring the tooling that the MRR Co. owns, setting production schedules with other manufacturers, and obtaining new contracts. All this has delayed production and things should straighten out by the end of the year as the different Co's get things straightened out. Also with SK trying to catch up everything is being rushed so down the road when things slowly get caught up QC should improve.
 
I ordered and received a layout but was short some track, called them up and talked to someone in their parts dept. He sent the track out and got it 3 days later. Actually seem like a good company to deal with.
 
hey.............
actually they normally answers on phone..........and personally i didnt meet them...........and he is going well......
 
i was at my LHS, i had remembered this thread and checked for atlas track. They had numerous switches, curves, straights, crossovers on the wall. it looked like 4 packs for each thing.
 
Anyone know if their code 55 is available again yet? Last I heard they'd broken their mold.
 
Well, it's probably more than a mile deep and there's nothing to salvage since the water pressure would destroy the container with everything in it.

I'm sure that Atlas has insurance in case this happens, and would be able to re-make anything that they lost.
 
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