| 6 October 2008 |
Athearn Trains Acquires T55 Products Tooling
Dear T55 Customers and Dealers,
Late this week, the sale of the GE Evolution Series and EMD
SD70ACe tooling to
Athearn® Trains was
finalized. T55 Products enjoyed its short time in the plastic
model train market and decided it was time to sell its tools to
a proven leader like Athearn. A copy of their press release is
listed below.
We felt with Athearn’s expertise in the plastics industry and
our dedication to detail, the time was right to roll the T55
diesel projects forward within the Athearn network. We truly
hope that you can appreciate our decision to sell and also
understand that this acquisition has been in the works for quite
some time but could not be disclosed until the sale was
completed. We truly appreciate all of our customers support and
business since the launching of T55 and will deeply miss that
portion of our business.
If you have any orders for T55 models, they will not be
transferred to Athearn. We will be happy to provide you with a
backorder list so that you can compare your orders to the models
Athearn will be announcing and place any new orders with your
Athearn distributor. Also, if you currently have a deposit on
record for any T55 models, those deposits will be refunded to
you next week.
Now that the T55 transaction is completed, we can better
focus on our brass model train business known as
Overland Models. We’ve been delivering fine brass scale
models since 1976, with plans to deliver even finer models in
the future.
We are pleased to turn over our baby to Athearn and are
excited to get back to our brass roots. We truly appreciate your
business and support.
Sincerely,
Brian & Missy Marsh
Athearn® Trains is
excited to announce we have purchased select tooling from T55
Products, the plastic division of Overland Models. T55 is one of
the model railroading industry's leading producers of
high-quality injection-molded models. Using T55's outstanding
tooling, Genesis will soon be producing a run of General
Electric GEVO (ES44AC and ES44DC) models, as well as EMD SD70ACe
and SD70M-2 models.
These prototypes are the most current locomotives from North
America's primary builders, and are found in the fleets of Union
Pacific (including the Heritage Fleet and Bush Presidential
Library and Museum), BNSF, CIT Leasing, CSX, Canadian National,
Canadian Pacific, EMD Demonstrators, Ferromex, Florida East
Coast, GE Demonstrators, Kansas City Southern, Montana Rail Link
and Norfolk Southern.
Just as these locomotives are the backbone of today's Class
One and Regional railroads, they will also be an important
addition to Athearn's Genesis® series of top-of-the-line HO
models. Locomotives, in keeping with Genesis standards, will be
offered with and without sound. They will also feature
directional lighting; operating ditch lights; separately
applied, etched metal details; and the same attention to detail
you expect from Genesis.
As Genesis announces each new run, please contact your local
train store to place your new order. Release dates, pricing and
specific product information will be announced in future
editions of Athearn News and online at
Athearn.com.
|
|
November 2007 |
THE NEW DEAL
advance
& special orders at the best possible prices we can achieve.
A great deal of our business is for advance orders
from the whole range of American producers and special orders from
suppliers such as Walthers, Horizon and Bowser. This is great
business for us – you tell us what items you want, we order them, they
come in our consolidated airfreight shipments and we send them to
you. These are often for long standing and loyal customers who we
have always wanted to reward in some way for their business. So for
ADVANCE RESERVATIONS and NON STOCK ITEMS
which are ordered we are trimming prices as far as we possibly can.
You can work out the price before you order too (no POA, or ring for
price here)
PRICE TO YOU IN £’s = Manufacturers Recommended Retail Price (MRRP) in
dollars x 0.5
So $50 items will cost you £25, a $500
item will be just £250 and that’s a fully inclusive of VAT and entry
shipping fees.
¨
Individual items must have a MRRP of over $20.
(Smaller items we need to work out sensible UK prices for)
¨
This deal applies to the vast majority of items ordered
from America for you e.g. KATO, Athearn, Life Like, Stewart, Bowser,
Atlas, Tower 55, Walthers, and most items in the Walthers Catalogue.
¨
A very few suppliers such as Red Caboose,
Broadway & Atlas Gold
Line will need MRRP x 0.65
¨
It does not apply to the Bachmann American range these
will be at 15% off the Bachmann Europe RRP which is in £’s .
¨
Obviously we can only supply what is available or due
to be produced!
¨
We do not expect to have to vary this deal but reserve
the right to do so in the event of currency fluctuations or other
circumstances beyond our control e.g. EU trade sanctions, unexpected
variations in our wholesale terms or MRRP and so on………..
¨
We do not take deposits
BUT we do expect you to take what you
order – otherwise
these prices would have to be higher to cover ourselves.
¨
Whether we accept and place such special orders is
completely at our discretion.
Shipping costs incur a number of one off costs so to
achieve these prices we are going from several shipments a month to one
even bigger consolidated shipment in the middle of the month – in other
words every 4 or 5 weeks. If this proves a problem we will increase
to two a month. |
|
4 February 2006 |
All the Graham Farish
and Bachmann Branchline lists for 2006 are now also up on the web site. |
| 1 January 2006 |
All the
Hornby including new models and models we still have in stock which are no longer listed
are now up on the Site. Just select Catalogue page and then Hornby 2006 lists. |
| 20 November 2005 |
DECODER FITTING SERVICE.
We
can now offer a decoder fitting service.
We strongly recommend people to have a go themselves as with
modern models it can be quite easy even if time consuming! The general guidelines are,
1. We will fit decoders
bought from us to models supplied by us – preferably at the same time.
2. Our standard minimum
fitting charge for most DCC ready locos is £15.
In most cases this charge will not be exceeded.
3. For non DCC ready
the minimum fitting charge will be £40.
4. We reserve the right
to vary prices as necessary and to not fit decoders where we feel the cost of installation
vastly outweighs the value of the model.
5. We are looking at
the possibilities of fitting sound decoders in the future. |
| 4 January 2005 |
New Hornby 2005 loco and passenger car details now up on
site. |
| 3 January 2005 |
Rumours of movement on the EU silly duty
surcharge. US have agreed with WTO to phase out the charges they
imposed and EU should therefore within rules of WTO lift theirs - but they do not appear
too keen as they prefer to keep taxing their own citizens unfairly and
unreasonably. I wonder if this is really all just about extra revenue,
at the expense of their own citizens, for the EU..................... |
| 29 August 2004 |
The Sunday Telegraph is carrying an article today raising
our concerns over the lunatic policy which results in modellers of American model trains
being surcharged! |
| 26 June 2004 |
Horizon Athearn deliveries happening O.K. now and as they
have just bought MDC (Roundhouse) this should be fine for ordering Roundhouse too. Soundtraxx sales going well and slow build up of stock.
Future Arrivals button now available on web site. See
what is on order and get your order in to us. |
| 14 May 2004 |
Well the first Horizon delivery of Athearn has happened and it
arrived in good condition so all is set fair for Athearn to keep flowing through the door
- and out to you! |
| 7 March 2004 |
We are pleased to say we have been appointed International Dealer
Status from the new owners of Athearn - Horizon Hobby. |
| 7 February 2004 |
We are pleased to say we have been appointed an authorised SoundTraxx
Dealer and will be receiving our first supplies in the next couple of weeks. |
| 9 December 2003 |
The change to WORD for our lists has happened and you should be able
to print out all our lists quite easily. Next move as time
permits is to get all "buttons" on to title page. We also hope
to put a "future arrivals" list option which will list all the announced models
for which we have placed orders and an "arrived" page to which "future
arrivals" will move as they actually appear in the shop! Too busy at
present but we will get there eventually. |
| 5 June 2003 |
We are working on upgrading our web site with more easy to print out
lists and a "button" page that gives full access to the whole site from one
page. This should happen within the next two
months............................... |
| January 2003 |
The January edition of Trains has been lost in a fire at the European
distributors - no will get! Far fetched as it sounds it is true. |
| 16 August 2002 |
We are hopeful that the problems we have been having with supplies of
Trains and Model Railroader will be solved for September editions and certainly by
October. We should have a new supplier who we believe will offer the level of
service you and ourselves deserve! Or am I just being stupidly
optomistic again - time will tell...................... |
| 14 June 2002 |
Magazines from Kalmbach were a problem in June which we are still
trying to sort with our suppliers - frustrated and annoyed does not do my feelings justice
- if we treated you the way our supplier behaves we would be out of business. We are
doing our best.................... |
| 15 May 2002 |
We have added a list of our current Second Hand items. Please be sure to check we are talking about
the same thing when you order! Second hand is NOT new, and you should be aware that
not all of these items are going to be in mint condition. The price should be a
guide to the quality, when compared to the price for an identical new model. You
should also check to see if the item is boxed, weathered, hand-detailed, etc. |
| 15 May 2002 |
The format of several of the news pages has been improved, and the
broken links on the "exit news" button should have been fixed. We update
from two computers, and one of them insists on changing all links to "index.htm"
to "Default.htm" which is a very Micro$oft type of bug - James |
| 19 February 2002 |
prices for all newly announced American Bachmann models in N, HO and
On30 now up on the lists. |
| 15 February 2002 |
New Graham Farish 2002 Price list with planned models for year now up
on the site. |
| Branchline 2002 |
new Bachmann Branchline lists for 2002 are now up on the Web site |
| Hornby 2002 |
Their loco lists are now up on the web site. |
| Mantua |
they have ceased production of their train line, what we have listed
is what we have left. |
| Bernie's progress |
I hesitate to say all is good news now in case it tempts fate but it
looks like I will have to give up Bargain Hunt, Crossroads, Ready Steady Cook and all that
other great daytime TV and get back to work in the shop! All goes well for me (touch
wood) so I should be spending reasonable time in the shop - although still not heaving all
the heavy stuff around. The good wishes cards and e-mails have been great moral
boosts and I am very grateful, so thanks. You should be safe to start bringing in
your part exchange again - but as always ring to make sure I am going to be there when you
call. Now that I know how well the ladies can mange without me I could do more
"research and product testing". Just reread the two items below - boy I
had a paddy on when I wrote them! Quite justified though. |
| E-Mail Viruses, November
2001 |
Our virus protection on e-mails let us down (probably our
fault!). It should now be sorted and we do apologise to all those who were e-mailed
at random by the virus. In the unlikely event that the virus idiots are reading this
I hope that when they are seriously ill after cancer surgery that someone is as stupid to
cause them the same trouble pain and discomfort that I have suffered while sorting out the
problem. We may have deleted some genuine e-mails during the clean up process.
So if you have not had a response from any e-mails you sent us please try again or give us
a ring. Also if the idiot who put in our shop window at midnight
the day I found out I had to have radical surgery reads this I do wish him all the bad
luck in the world so that maybe he will learn some sense by experiencing and suffering
from other peoples stupidity towards him. |
| Bernie getting back to
some work, 16 Nov 01 |
well there have been better days and rather a lot of bad days but I
am getting over the results of the operation and feeling a lot happier about life - still
a long way to go! But as you can see can now get access to computer and feel fit enough to
sit and tap. Will do my best to update the lists on the site over the next
week. Still not back in the shop so keep being as helpful as you can to the ladies -
you've just no idea the strains and pressures they have been under keeping things going
and handling unfamiliar tasks at such a busy time. |
| Bernie Skiving off |
I have to go into hospital shortly and when I get out will be out of
action for some weeks. During this time we will not be at the usual Shows and
Swapmeets we attend. We will also not be able to accept part
exchanges or repairs until further notice. The shop will continue to operate as
normally as possible with the ladies offering their normal high levels of service.
You can help by keeping telephone calls to a minimum, having item numbers and descriptions
of what you want ready, always giving gauge and your postcode. |
| IHC |
happily the problems we appeared to be having with supplies of this
firms excellent value for money range appear to be over as you will see from our arrivals
page. We look forward to continuing to offer a full stock of this firms non Mehano
made items. It would also appear that the magazine problems mentioned below are over
- or am I speaking too soon! |
| KALMBACH magazines |
we have been having real problems with supplies of these since April
but we have supplied everyone on order every month, after much effort, but barring
miracles it does not look like we can supply July Model railroader. We have
even tried to buy retail to meet ordered copies! Trains has been supplied as usual
for July. We are promised all will be OK for August but are losing faith with
Kalmbach and our suppliers. We will give it another couple of months
but may then have to give up on them altogether... For those who are becoming as
frustrated as ourselves we have a few spare copies of Model Railroading which is an
excellent alternative to Model Railroader. |
| Shows: |
NMRA Scotland Division Meet 21st April 2001 - see Shows page for
details. See you all at the SECC in Glasgow this weekend 23, 24, 25 February
- we hope! |
