Athearn/Horizon Hobby is Squeezing the Life out of Brick & Mortar


What a stupid place

I have been around railroaders my whole life. I have found them to be among the most overlooked people in the whole scheme of things as far as credit is concerned.

I have been around model railroaders all my life too and their is a HUGE difference. But that comes from all the real experience and crap that takes place in the railroad workplace with terrible hours, too much federal oversight in stupid areas, and virtually none where it matters, and the ongoing politacl ANTI RAILROAD attitudes in Washington DC.

Most of those playing with trains in their spare room, garage, or basement would rather not get into all that other stuff as it would make them frustrated and jaded.

Nevertheless, I see them as decent people. UNTIL TODAY. WTH guys. After looking at threads here for several years, I finally sign up and make a single comment ON THE SUBJECT OF HORIZON HOBBIES AND ALL THE CORPORATE TAKE OVERS AND KILLING OF SO MANY GREAT MODEL TRAIN MAKERS.

I expected an intelligent and considerate conversation ON THAT LINE OF TOPIC......but NO, all I get is a dozen BULLSHIT COMMENTARIES BY A GROUP OF SADASS WANNA BE RAIL GUYS.

Dont the news in this good ol ILLUMINATI STATES OF AMERICA depress and frustrate enough WITHOUT ALL THIS SHIT? I guess not. THIS IS A NEW WORLD ORDER GUYS and its all BIBLICALLY prophesied. What is happening in the corporate world is all part of this. THERE IS NO MORE CONSTITUTION. The US PATRIOT ACT ABOLISHED THAT AND REPLACED IT AND ITS ALL IN PRINT JUST READ IT.

AND ITS ALL CRAP FOR EVERYONE JUST LIKE THAT DAM OBAMA CARE and its all global rule over us all. THE MODEL TRAIN THING IS SO MINOR BY COMPARE. GEt a grip and either GET BACK ON TOPIC OR GO TO SOME OTHER THING ALTOGETHER. For me, trains are the one thing I have (both real and model) THAT HELPS ME KEEP IT ALL TOGETHER IN THESE DARK AND SATANIC END TIMES. CAN ANTONE AGREE WITH THAT? Thanks.
 
Hey fellers, how much more do you think the mods will take before Kevin gets himself banned? That would be a first I think!!!
 
So to be a "REAL" model railroader you have to work for the railroad? First I heard of this, where do I turn in my trains? Sounds like the judement of a "SADASS" individual.

Never used the ignore feature on any forum until today, and I am rarely even here.
 
Dont bother Im resigning. This is too dumbass to be believed and way to many OBAMA people here to be AMERICAN.
 
Wow, just wow. The illuminati and new world order railroad, train 666 is now departing on track 69.

All aboard!!!!!




Sent from my Vic20 using Java Moose
 
Kevin,

My dad taught me to never bring up religion, politics, and sex in a public place without a flame retardent suite (thick skin). You haven't made a rant about sex yet but I will give it time.

I have enjoyed the talk in this thread about business ethics, personal ethics, consumer responsibility, and the educational system both in the USA and Canada. It is mind expanding and the conversation has been thoughtful and respectful. Lets keep it that way....k?

I love the Fonz in the previous post. Boy! Was that cheesy, even when I saw it the first time when I was a teen. The hype leading up to that episode was funny. It was all over TV Guide, previews, people talking in school...just goofy lol.
 
From what I hear its little actual Athearn left and ALL Horizon Hobby. This is bad for everyone and you cant even get ahold of anyone at Horizon about any issues. I hope this doesnt end up like the Rivarossi situation and we lose it basically altogether. I feel for all the shop owners having to cope with the ever shrinking group of product makers and do agree to an extent about the technology side of it driving prices up. Lets face it, we love our bells and whistles (especially TRAIN BELLS AND WHISTLES), but that comes with a premium tag and too many people cant cope with that and there doesnt seem to be any answers/solutions on the near horizon (no pun intended). For me Athearn was always a dependable standard in my train collection for years. I know guys that swear by those rubber band drives (even though that was a little primitive for me + before my train collecting years). But the tried and true mechanism they came out with in the 80s and improved that we later imported into all our Proto engines was solid and I could say that for those in the US Athearn was a beloved standard.

IF ANYONE HAS A POSITIVE SUGGESTION as to what we can band together and do to address the HORIZON issue, please lets get together on that. ALSO, keep the political nonsense outta this. That one thread I was looking at before posting this started with this subject and went stupid. I would like to hear real and sound suggestions so we can save some hobby shops and the model train legacy for our young people.

AND FOR kgt13, cool off dude. WE HEAR YOU, but you are way too into this. Take a few days off, and if you still want to jump in, do so on nicer terms. These guys are screwing with you. We know the economy is crap and trains are our way off from that too. Everyone else give him some slack and lets see. Sometimes people dont express themselves well but dont mean anything. IF IT GOES BAD AGAIN, we can kick him.
 
I dont know, and its not looking all that funny. I have been registered here over the years under several different names and keep losing my info. But I read here all the time to follow issues with model railroading and mostly for advice. So its been about a year since I personally have posted. Then today I was trying to get some info on what that deal was with Horizon debacle (at least its looking somewhat like one) and came upon this. This is the weekend. Some of these guys are way to ready for football season dont it show? WOW.
 
steveL&N said:
IF ANYONE HAS A POSITIVE SUGGESTION as to what we can band together and do to address the HORIZON issue, please lets get together on that. ALSO, keep the political nonsense outta this. That one thread I was looking at before posting this started with this subject and went stupid. I would like to hear real and sound suggestions so we can save some hobby shops and the model train legacy for our young people.QUOTE]

The best way to control what any business like this does is by voting with your wallet. All any manufacturer does is follow the market. If people weren't buying it, they wouldn't be making it. That's supply and demand capitalism.
Click to expand...
 
Yeah but wont that hurt alot of honest shop owners? I know some great people who have their lives invested in this to have a train store. As a purchaser I can hit the train shows for clean up deals, and dod the ebay thing. But I try to limit that only to hard to find pieces that are not current and keep my new purchases at the local shops. Otherwise I would say sounds great.
 
Most LHS are diverse enough to handle a drop off in sales of one brand. This decision will be one made by the market collectively, just as the market decided it wanted highly detailed RTR models. The market may one day decide it wants the cheap stuff again. If that happens, the manufacturers will react. Changing a market is like steering a blimp. You turn the wheel and two miles later the ship begins the turn. I believe there would be time for LHS owners to react. Look back to the 1990's and look how long it took to get from the earliest Proto 2000 diesels to where we are now. It was years.
 
Fair enough. Meantime, any ideas about getting athearn parts? I would like to at least run what Ive got until things make a decision market/product wise. I have several proto engines with pieces missing off the truck assemblies already relegated to display in shop scenes as it is. Now the athearn thing is hurting. Its a funny thing actually, about 10 years ago I bought several Bachmann plus engines due to them being oddball RRs marketwise (Lehigh Valley, Seaboard Air Line citrus). I thought they would be the display ones. Now they are my main stock and seem to be running great overall. For the money I spent (about $35 per engine) its been a total upturn to my model RR world.

But I do love my athearns and would like to someday get them out shopped. The proto thing is seemingly mute. I have a set of E6s (white and red SEABOARD AIR LINE) that I had given to me and I thought that was a grand gift......until I realized the truck assemblies were incomplete. SO, I figured the hobby shop had parts. NO. So I figured LifeLike, NO they were out of business.

SO, I crossed my fingers and prayed. Then Walthers resumed some of the LL line and I had word directly from them that they had the truck assembly thing regarding all E unit models on their to-do list and I was marked to be notified when that happened. I am still waiting. Somehow I think that white & red paint scheme stands a better chance of come back at CSX than the assembly parts do. I dont know why some of the fusses pop up here when there are so many things we all can agree on and network about.

The good news this year for me was Norfolk Southern reviving its steam program and this could get really interesting as I have a connection that has told me they have eyeballed more than one of those stored up BIG BOYS to which are 25 nationally. They did that N&W A, so they have the guys. UP would probably foot a good part of the bill. If that came together, I think I would pack up my model set for a time and go see that.
 
As long as thats over lets just let it go. Maybe he just wasnt train-ed right. Or maybe he has PTSD. Anyway its quieter now, thank God.
 
I don't know where to get new Athearn parts, but I was able to restore my old Tyco's by buying other used ones to scavenge for parts. eBay is a good place to look for used ones.
 
I was planning on shopping the train shows and seeing what I could find. There is always a guy or 2 with a great box of crap that to some people is actually a box of salvation via parts. In the long run I am hoping Horizon gets a handle on this. I would think that among hobby clubs and mid range model railroaders, that Athearn was our standby for probably 20 years solid. I know more than one guy that had their days salvaged when they found they could replace those proto drives with newer athearn ones. Now I am needing to do that myself + some other things. Thanks for the input. I know others will benefit from this discussion and thats good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top