Atlas Container Shipping Report

Mike, that's an expensive shipping report!!! Thanks for the update!!

Interesting that Atlas continues to sell out these latest runs at ever increasing prices, the 2 rail Trinity lists at 114.95 with a probable street price of 100.00, a 3 car Maxi-stack with 6 containers will hit 400+/- street price. I would guess the production runs are as small as possible to still be profitable. JMO

Ouch !

Jeff78rr posted:

Mike, that's an expensive shipping report!!! Thanks for the update!!

Jeff, You're telling me? LOL!

I'd be more excited if some of the engines that are YEARS over due were actually on the list...

Realistically with Atlas today you have to reserve a product to have a chance at actually getting it if it is produced, with limited quantity BTO models today when it is produced virtually all the production is spoken for, good luck getting one at that point. Bear in mind most dealers do not require a deposit so by reserving what you want there is a better chance of that model going in to production at some point. JMO

Could agree more Hibar!

jonnyspeed posted:

I'd be more excited if some of the engines that are YEARS over due were actually on the list...

Jonathan, which locos are you waiting for?  I really only have some F units and TM Dash-8's, maybe some of the new announcement locos that I'm interested in from Atlas at this time.  They just aren't delivering when it comes to locomotives.  Hopefully that changes sometime soon!

jonnyspeed posted:

I'd be more excited if some of the engines that are YEARS over due were actually on the list...

Atlas can most likely make more money with rolling stock, than with locomotives.  If you'll notice, the Atlas locomotive pricing really has not increased that much, even from when the locomotives were first produced (and now being rerun) some over 10-years ago.  Yet the new outfitted (with containers) Gunderson Maxi Well Car will sell for just slightly less than the price of a new locomotive and not have near as much the complexity or components to source, e.g. no drive system or electronics to deal with.  

I believe the reason for this locomotive price discrepancy is because although Atlas competes with the likes of Lionel and MTH on rolling stock, neither Lionel or MTH offer comparable equivalents in the level of detail on rolling stock (I don’t know of any Trinity 5161 level pieces of rolling stock from either Lionel or MTH), so Atlas really has very little competition in this high-end rolling stock arena.  Therefore, they pretty much control the pricing, adjusting for what they have found that the market will bear.  However, on the locomotive front, Atlas has stiff competition from both Lionel and MTH in the 3-Rail market, of which Atlas probably sells higher quantities of 3-Rail locomotive models.  Therefore, Lionel and MTH are keeping locomotive prices in check due to the fact they are more of a volume manufacturer and so Atlas is naturally gravitating to the path of least resistance, that being rolling stock.

And if you look at 3^rd Rail, they are kinda following what Atlas is doing, but on the locomotive front.  3^rd Rail has little or no competition for highly detailed plastic locomotive models, e.g. recent F and E-unit offerings and upcoming SD7/9s, and their pricing reflects that.

Since O Scale in itself is a niche market, manufacturers kinda have to find their niche window in that small O Scale market where they can form their own little monopoly to sustain profitability and justify taking risks in ever increasing expensive tooling investments.

Scott K.

Austin, TX

Just received pick up call on new Trinitys from my dealer!

I wasn't interested in the Gunderson Maxi IV well cars when they were announced months ago. It wasn't until the All Scales Catalog for July-December was released that I changed my mind. When I saw the August announcement for CSX SD40s's I thought 2 SD40's pulling about 12 well cars and 24 containers would be pretty neat.

I contacted Caboose Stop Hobbies in Cedar Falls, IA and asked Merlyn if he had any sets of TTX and BRAN well cars unaccounted for plus 18 containers (CSX, Pacer and UMAX). That's a lot of stuff to ask for well after preorders were taken.

He contacted me 24 hours later and said he could fill my orders for both road #s of the TTX and BRAN well cars in addition to all 6 road #s for the containers.

If you go through a large volume dealer like I did you can still get highly-anticipated Atlas items like the Gundersons and 53' containers. On top of that, I got one helluva price on the 3-car sets that I seriously doubt anybody could match.

Now the trick will be getting the SD40's. Those are next month's announcement and they're due 2nd quarter of 2017. I've already placed my order with Merlyn but something tells me that we won't be seeing these models for at least 18 months.

Catnap, I get most of my O Scale through Merlyn and Carol at Caboose Stop Hobbies.  So happy to hear Merlyn was able to get your first run well car/container order filled.

hibar posted:

Just received pick up call on new Trinitys from my dealer!

At least we get a month or so in between the 5161's and the well cars!     Will be an expensive summer!

The 89' flat cars might take another 6 weeks to reach the hobby shops.

Andrew

I am not surprised Merlyn has ordered extra stock on these items probably MrMuffins too as this will be a hot item the first time around, Atlas has already listed a second run of these in the July-Dec catalog ,also people ordering multiple sets of cars and containers should be able to get some excellent pricing .

falconservice posted:

The 89' flat cars might take another 6 weeks to reach the hobby shops.

Andrew

I can not believe they got enough reservations to run this car again, last time around the run was cancelled at 115.00 a car and now at 120.00 2 rail retail its coming in , I just sold 3 of them for the street price of one new to a lone bidder fortunately I had picked them up years ago from a dealer blowout. This is really a very weak resale market lets hope it does not reach the Weaver level.  JMO

Yeah, the 89' flat seems like a limited interest car at the detail level price offered by the Atlas car.   I would pay in the 100 range for a more actually detailed car, scale hitches, etc.   I would also be interested in the different variations of the car, channel sides, pipe loads, general purpose, etc.

Mike DeBerg posted:

jonnyspeed posted:

I'd be more excited if some of the engines that are YEARS over due were actually on the list...

Jonathan, which locos are you waiting for?  I really only have some F units and TM Dash-8's, maybe some of the new announcement locos that I'm interested in from Atlas at this time.  They just aren't delivering when it comes to locomotives.  Hopefully that changes sometime soon!

F's, RS-3's, GP7's... I've been buying my diesels from 3rd Rail lately. Scott is much more open to ideas and gets new products to market in a fraction of the time that it takes Atlas. If Atlas cares about selling engines they have a lot of ground to make up.

I must be one of the few individuals who placed an order for the 89' flat cars (TTX). I'm getting a case of those. I had my doubts, too, about these cars making the cut.

This might be the last run for these cars for quite awhile so I want to add to the 7 I have.

You don't see too many of these go up for sale, probably because they require such wide curves to operate. I'm not sure if these were ever really a good seller and the price tag on the current run won't help either.

Where are the engines? I have tolerance for delays, but not lack of information.

Mike and Catnap ..... thanks for mentioning Caboose Stop.

I never heard of them before, so I googled it and sent them an email. So glad I did.

"Merlyn" quickly returned my email, he has the Atlas cars I was looking for still available, and at a really great price. They have a new customer in me.

Jim

jonnyspeed posted:

Mike DeBerg posted:

jonnyspeed posted:

I'd be more excited if some of the engines that are YEARS over due were actually on the list...

Jonathan, which locos are you waiting for?  I really only have some F units and TM Dash-8's, maybe some of the new announcement locos that I'm interested in from Atlas at this time.  They just aren't delivering when it comes to locomotives.  Hopefully that changes sometime soon!

F's, RS-3's, GP7's... I've been buying my diesels from 3rd Rail lately. Scott is much more open to ideas and gets new products to market in a fraction of the time that it takes Atlas. If Atlas cares about selling engines they have a lot of ground to make up.

Jonathan, I certainly can't disagree with the lack of locomotives being delivered by Atlas over the last several years.  IMO, I would have taken the opportunity to redesign some things, such as going to a single horizontal can motor, fully detailed cab interiors, more scale width trucks, even allowing the flexibility to move the sideframes in for 2R.  In terms of the electronics I would have worked with someone like Matt and ESU to get some of the effects and animations to enhance the overall experience!

EBT Jim posted:

Mike and Catnap ..... thanks for mentioning Caboose Stop.

I never heard of them before, so I googled it and sent them an email. So glad I did.

"Merlyn" quickly returned my email, he has the Atlas cars I was looking for still available, and at a really great price. They have a new customer in me.

Jim

Jim, So glad you were able to locate the cars you needed at a great price!

catnap posted:

I must be one of the few individuals who placed an order for the 89' flat cars (TTX). I'm getting a case of those. I had my doubts, too, about these cars making the cut.

This might be the last run for these cars for quite awhile so I want to add to the 7 I have.

You don't see too many of these go up for sale, probably because they require such wide curves to operate. I'm not sure if these were ever really a good seller and the price tag on the current run won't help either.

Catnap, I have 24 of these cars and really like them.  Converting some to Long Runners as well as general purpose flats to carry pipe loads, etc...   Here is an older set of photos when I started a conversion to a PTTX 89' flat.  I lowered the car for a prototypical ride height, converted the car to Kadee 746's and removed/grinded off a lot of the deck details, installed a new deck.  This was just prior to painting the new deck, removing the original markings, and weathering.