Railflyer Updates


R

railflyermodel

Member
Guys,

A few things like the meter base (3 wire) and additional odds and ends increased the wiring costs but after today, everything is covered.

Now its on to design fees for the electronics ($3000 pays up the balance and gets prototypes in hand for testing), and we need two sets of inserts to cover the two initial hood door releases ($1300).

With this covered, we can restart tooling on-site when the electrical work is done. After a few months of up and down time with the CNC but having it never really work right, we found voltage fluctuations during a service call in January. This caused crashes on the tool box, burned out motors and PCB's.

I got a bunch of stuff done with Luigi on Sunday, it is going slower than expected as we had to make a shopping trip but yesterday I ran some conduit on my own.

EMD/GMDD Dash 2 Hood Doors

emd_generic_gpsd3840-2_doors_1_zps03c3eaff.png


GMDD CN/CP Hood Doors

gmdd_specific_gpsd3840-2_doors_1_zpsc6d7f383.png


Starting with the doors because (1) we're contracting out the initial mould design work and we need something easy to learn with. (2) all of the cutters needed are already here so we start machining without delays. (3) they are needed in the full kits and it should go quickly so we can start more complex stuff faster.

The next two moulds for doors will include EMD variations such as the GP39-2 phases, early Dash 2 (the first group of GP38-2's had a very minor variation in the door frame overlap) and then the EMD/GMDD GPSD38/39/40/45 doors.

IMAG0437_zpscf1bef84.jpg


537712_622483497778806_351663756_n_zps3febf654.jpg


So at this point, the faster we get the sales picked up, the faster we can get the running drive on the rails and tooling restarted.

The shop is completely torn up right now, I have been packaging what I can get to but it will be another two weeks before things are reorganized.

Christopher Howard, Railflyer Model Prototypes Inc.
www.railflyermodel.com
 
Hello Chris,

Around a month ago you posted an update on the forum, I replied asking status on your speakers. I didnt hear/see any response. I am not interested in bashing or anything, just want to know when and if these are actually going to be produced. I have two GP7's which have sound boards installed, just waiting for the 2 speakers.

Matt Rasmuson - I ordered 2 oval speakers last summer. Thanks
 
Chris, when will you be refunding the money you took in the past for products that will never be shipped?

Folks, don't send him any money. He's using money he stole from earlier customers to build out this fancy company without ever delivering the products he sold in the past. Don't let him do the same with your hard-earned cash.

Google "Railflyer bankruptcy" to read some of the stories of people who never received either refunds or the products that they ordered.
 
I had made a big order to them at the beginning of 2012. I was real Lucky when the envelope came back as undelivered because I had made a mistake on the Zip Code. I then found out from a friend that they were having trouble w/deliveries & I never reordered which was another Lucky Break. I know a lot of guys lost quite a bit of money w/preorders. If I was still in the MRR business I don't think I would ever be able to clear my mind to get anything from them knowing what happened in the past.:mad:
 
I think they are trying to do too many things at once, and are obviously not good business people. Taking money for advance orders is fine, but you really have to deliver in a timely fashion, if not, you need to refund in full promptly, and make sure you manage your customers' expectations.

I am sure that these constant cheery updates really just pizz off those who have sent money and gotten nothing.


Sent from my Vic20 using JavaMoose
 
So, I noticed we're having our monthly "let's bury him in the ballast" post and figured I'd chime in.

I have no connection to Chris Howard or Railflyer other than that I'm a satisfied customer. Yes, I've actually purchased items from Railflyer and received them. I sent him money last week and I do expect that he will ship me what I've ordered, because he has in the past. Yes, I'm still waiting on a few small items, but I believe that he will deliver.

But that's the problem with the internet. Anything you say stays on there forever. He said something about bankruptcy, and it went viral. Now everyone is crawling out from under their rocks and saying he's a crook...even people who have NEVER ordered from the man. Every time he posts anything, someone has to ask about refunds when he's already answered that question.

By the way, it's cheaper for him to stay in business than to declare bankruptcy.

This is a business that has had an uphill battle since the beginning. First, one of his competitors took photos of his product and posted it on the internet, claiming the parts were warped when they were not. When Chris defended himself, friends of this competitor decided to complain about how he was defending himself. By the way, there used to be a code in this business...Irv Athearn would never take a photo of another company's products and post that the parts were warped. I guess when he died all the rules went out the window.

Others have claimed he shouldn't have chosen "such an obscure prototype" to start with, yet three of the biggest companies swooped in and got there first with inferior models (badly proportioned, poorly painted) of what he was producing. Again, there used to be a rule about that, but those three companies didn't call him, did they?

Here's a little thing about communication...how many of you have called him if you wanted a refund? How many of you have looked up his phone number? Funny...no hands in the air. That's because it's far easier for you to go online and call him a crook, and the best part of it is that you can hide behind a nickname.

I've read enough complaints about light bulbs that burn out too fast, handrails that warp like wet spaghetti, motors that are great in one unit and terrible in another, and the overuse of lubricant and glue when models are built in China. Here's a guy trying to bring production back to North America and what does he get for it? Crapped on by every message board...by some anonymous guy who probably is complaining because everyone else is.

Chris Howard has a conscience, because he hasn't taken your money and run away, like some in this business have done in the past. Ask someone who ordered a Pointe Ste. Charles caboose from Canadian Model Trains about their purchase. Those people will likely never see their money or any kind of product. With Chris and Railflyer, we at least will see product coming out. It's just a matter of time and money.

How are we to know that those of you who bash Railflyer are not in competition with him? Chris signs his posts with his name. Many of those who bash him don't. And that's why I'll trust Railflyer...at least I have some idea of who is doing the talking.

Again, no connection to Railflyer other than as a satisfied customer.

Timothy Dineen

btw, Matt...Chris posted that Chinese New Year is over and shipping of speakers can begin again. Maybe that was the hold up, maybe not. Give him a call...
 
What products were claimed to be warped, the doors, or the paint, or the traction motors, or the tablet computers, or the....you get my point.

And I've never claimed they were crooks. They are spread too thin with not enough resources.


Sent from my Vic20 using JavaMoose
 
Guys,

OK - we lost moulds related to PREORDERS we posted in 2010-2011, not all but enough that we cannot release them yet.

We lost money on this tooling after it was abandoned when the suppliers either went dark or refused to correct mistakes.

We have never CANCELLED these projects.

Anybody who had the ability to cancel the order with their credit card did so.

Anybody else was told they would either get the product when the tooling was done or refunded when the project was completed.

So when you post commentary that is not truthful, its killing the guys who have two speakers on back order because the production is done, however we rely on sales to PAY for products from our suppliers.

When you blast me for being a crook, get the facts.

We've been setting up a shop in Ontario, Canada to do everything from micro tooling to painting and assembly.

How I invest in my business is my business. The fact is that high precision micro tooling in China is not available for reasonable cost. I am also not the only manufacturer who lost tooling in China due to negligence on the part of the supplier.

Bringing the manufacturing in house is how we're correcting the situation. If it takes a few months or a few years to release the PREORDERS at this point is up to sales. We've made a significant investment in equipment that needs capital to operate. At this point the only source of capital is sales.

So if you profess to be looking out for the "modellers" blasting me on-line is not helping any of the people who are waiting for stuff. I cannot do anything without sales or cash flow which take a drop with every fu$%tard with a better business plan posts his response to our progress.

But then again, most who are blasting me either have a vested interested in seeing us fail or will never purchase our product in the first place.

Also, when I posted the "bankruptcy" on my personal forum it was in response to my leave of absence from my full time employment which did cut our income around 35%. A member of our private group then took this and made it viral thinking this was smart way to attract some attention.

The fact is that it costs $10,000 to file a bankruptcy, while it only costs $3000 to finish up our DCC/dWiDCC and another $1000 to purchase materials to start our first injection mould tool cut with our own machine.

With the electronics going into the pre-production phase and us cutting our own tooling now, we will have from the GP9 up to the SD50/60 series 50% complete within 90 days. Then its just a matter of how many inserts we can fund within this time and if we can raise the deposits required for our laser which will entirely replace the need for us to outsource photo-etched metal.

Whether it takes a few months or a few years is 100% dependant on sales, we can make money doing other OEM projects in the mean-time. While we're still trying to climb out of bad situation with our CNC installation, the fact that it will be up and running after this weekend turns the corner for us, whether this makes you happy or angry, it is a win win for anybody how actually uses our products or has PREORDERS.

The new speakers are much better, now that the wiring is funded, we're going to be getting another tablet and speaker shipment paid when we get a few more orders.

All the best,

Christopher Howard, Railflyer Model Prototypes Inc.
www.railflyermodel.com
 
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railflyermodel said:
How I invest in my business is my business.
Click to expand...

Not if you are using customer's deposit money to pay Peter while you rob Paul.

People should know the past while you are blowing sunshine about the future.

Truth hurts. If that makes me a "fu$%tard", so be it.

'nuff said.
 
Gentelmen, (and I'm not pointing fingers) if you have a personal gtievence please use the private message option to sort out your differences. However even using the PM options please keep your differences within the guidelines of the forum.
An open discussion of a personal nature tends to lead into a choosing of sides by other other forum members who wish to air their their two cents worth on the subject ending up in a locked thread which pleases no one.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation on this matter.
Willis
 
I approved this layout today, the 3D files so we can start tool path set up will be done tonight.

door_mould_zps43643f96.png


Between the part design and actual finish of the injection mould tooling will be about three weeks.

The issue with our type of business model is this:

We have to pay for the product before we get them. Some sell, some don't. The photo-etch has a huge draw back because it requires "tooling". So if some SKU is in low quantity it stays there until we can fix it.

Some of the multilayer photo-etch we've done has cost up to $1800 to photo-tool. While some of the cheaper items vary between $65 and $200 for tooling, how many $5.49 orders does this take to get enough to pay for the production, restock, or retooling if needed?

The same goes for injection mould tooling, we're just now paying off tools we did in 2006-2007. Guess what, nobody remembers the GP Jack Pads or Coupler Plates we did and still have thousands of waiting for orders.

So the laser system will completely eliminate the need for us to outsource the photo-etch. We can do it without photo-tooling and do the right quantities when we need it without tying up thousands of dollars of inventory that nobody wants. It is also a huge improvement in quality over photo-etching as a side benefit.

The intent with doing the tooling ourselves is to get rid of the headache of trying to get somebody half way across the world do it right and have your best interests in mind. If I want to try something I can now test it and see the results right away. I don't have to wait 2 - 3 months for samples to show up. We've also cut our direct costs by more than 60% by doing the work ourselves.

So in the end it means a more sustainable product line. While the feeding frenzy for screw us the past year has hurt, the end is looking very good right now to finish up what we've started and then some.

Like I said last year, if you would have just listened, we lost the tooling, we are bringing in the equipment to do it ourselves. If that makes the the villain here, so what? The projects are getting redone. Have a little faith and be positive for once. I am getting very excited that this is finally coming together as are a lot of you.

Christopher Howard, Railflyer Model Prototypes Inc.
www.railflyermodel.com
 
just wanted to add, I had this facebook conversation a few days ago, you can see it if you want to expand some of the comments.

like many here blasting us the past year, David admitted we did no wrong by him.

while everything has been a cluster the past year, mostly due to sales dropping due to the slander, a lot of the "voices" you hear are going from what is being posted elsewhere or they are just being "lovable" trolls.

anyway, we're up and going forward, thank you for the support.

http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa329/RFMP_2005/sales_zps22cc0fb1.png
 
I for one hope you can make a success of this venture. I have no dogs in this hunt and it's doubtful that I will buy any of your products (wrong scale).

I did work for a small startup air conditioning company back in the eighties, so I have witnessed first hand some of the trials and tribulations a new, small company can somtimes be subject to. This is not a comentary on any business practices one way or another. It's just a sincere hope that you do indeed last long enough to become a successful company in this great hobby of ours.

From what I've read, your company seems to take a somewhat novel approach to new products that are in the pipeline; your traction motors being a prime example. This hobby needs someone that thinks outside the box. Good luck.
 
For those of you that think Chris is blowing smoke I suggest you ask Athearn,ATLAS ,InterMountain or Micro Trains about their Chinese suppliers not delivering the merchandice.
 
Chris,

If I can offer a bit of constructive criticism, I would like to see not only which items are in stock on the website, but how many of each are in stock. Say I decided to build 3 SD40-2s and I need some of your early SD jack pads. The website says they are in stock, but I don't know if that's because you have one of them left or one hundred. If you only have one, that really doesn't help me when I need three. In fact, since I don't like to start on projects until I have the critical mass of parts necessary to actually build the model, I might not give the project the green light without key parts like fans, bells, reservoirs, etc. It can work the other way, too. If I know I can get the parts, I might decide to work on a project I hadn't considered before.

I bring this up because you mention you have thousands of GP jack pads in stock. I just knew they were in stock according to the website. I think those parts turned out great and since I model Mopac, I can use an extra set for my geep models. In my opinion, this is a good match for customers and for the business. The best parts to sell are those you've already paid for and the best parts for me to order are the ones I will get right away. It's pure profit for you and I get what I want now.

What's discouraging is purchasing products without knowing whether the parts will arrive or not. It shouldn't be a crapshoot. I understand there are eleven holes in the dike and you only have ten fingers, but using inventory quantities to communicate the number of items you have available to your customers I think is one problem you should fix right away. It can help eliminate the trust issues that have developed between the delays and internet rumors. Most important, it can get sales rolling in.

I'm telling you right now, if I know you have 300 Blomberg B brake lines in stock, I'm ready to order several sets. There are a bunch of your parts that are awesome and modelers like me are very interested in them. The way it is now, I don't know what you have so I'm not likely to send money, especially when the updates give the impression (intended or not) that money I just sent is funding a tablet or scale traction motors or whatever thing that's not what I ordered.
 
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Guys is like this, we're going to have the shop rewired this weekend which means the installation problems with the CNC will be over (hopefully) and we're cutting "MADE IN CANADA" injection mould tooling and once we hit another $34,000 in deposits, we're also doing "MADE IN CANADA" micro machining on a micro-meter level on both thin metals and the inserts from the CNC with the laser system.

The past few months I couldn't even afford to pay for gas money to go to the shop and it got to the point in Janary where we actually were in the social assistance office applying for benefits. So if you wanted to hurt me you did, however as for critism, its like this, I am doing the best that one person can do. Give me the sales I need to hire extra people and improve our infrastructure and I will do it but $30,000 to $45,000 in sales per year will only go so far.

We can't invest in product or service at the same time.

Regardless at this point more sales = more inserts = more parts = locomotive kits in 2013. So if you are blasting me for delays in shipments, releases, just buy more stuff, it will solve the root causes.

I am not here to screw anybody, don't really care at this point if I make money, I haven't for seven years in working on this, I just want to GET IT DONE.

Between the new Layout Control and Locomotives, this is a game changing system on many levels.

Anyway, whether he went up or down, either place is rocking today with the death of Stomping Tom Connors. So I am off to clean up my aircraft, got a trip to Bolivia soon and yes it is awesome to get away and not have to deal with the headaches of Railflyer for a few days. I am however seeing a light at the end of the tunnel in that we can no actualise our R&D because of the "MADE IN CANADA" injection mould tooling.

All the best guys, its going to exciting to see how this pans out. Our space parts is what funded our first set of inserts, so I guess we robbed Peter to pay Paul on that one too!

Christopher Howard, Railflyer Model Prototypes Inc.
www.railflyermodel.com
 
catt said:
For those of you that think Chris is blowing smoke I suggest you ask Athearn,ATLAS ,InterMountain or Micro Trains about their Chinese suppliers not delivering the merchandice.
Click to expand...

Key difference is that Atlas wasn't holding on to customers' money all that time -- and is not saying that it may hold it for "months or years" longer waiting for more orders.
 
GenSet said:
Key difference is that Atlas wasn't holding on to customers' money all that time -- and is not saying that it may hold it for "months or years" longer waiting for more orders.
Click to expand...

How many items did you pay for and not get?
 
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