Atlas O F-7 UPDATE

Thank you for finally providing an update. I understand you are starting the "refresh" in May for the Santa Fe Units.

What is your expected delivery date???

I need to know. Please respond with a realistic expectation for your "patient" customers. I understand you want to deliver like we want our delivery. However at this point I need a specific timeframe - not another open ended "when they meet our specs we will deliver" guesstimate that isn't met.

I'm sorry if I sound frustrated, but I'm sure you know this situation could have been handled much better by your company - a company btw that I have a great deal of respect for.

Thank you in advance.

Paul J. Licata

Atlas O posted:

Replacement body shells for the F-7 Locomotives have arrived at Atlas. Repairs will begin the first week of May. As soon as these models meet our quality standards, they will begin shipping from Atlas.

Atlas will have a “refreshed” set of Santa Fe F-7s on display at the York Meet, Thursday, April 28th through Saturday, April 30th.

Maybe you mean Thursday, April 27th through Sunday, April 30th?

Thank you to everyone for your patience.

Great job on QC Atlas !   Glad to see care and interest in protecting your reputation and customer happiness.

Hoping for some Southern Pacific "bloody nose" units someday.  

Really Scott?

What happened to them? I am oblivious to the situation 

I cancelled mine, due to Atlas ignoring the customers for the past 4 months with an update.....you can keep them!

You wait til York to tell people they are still two months away..... thats a joke. You said the same thing at York about the Dash 9s 3 years ago!

I am trying very hard to not cancel the six units I have on order. I paid the vendor when I was told they were ready to deliver. That is a lot of $ that would be much better off sitting in my pocket.

Atlas - a response would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Paul J. Licata

VistaDomeScott posted:

Great job on QC Atlas !   Glad to see care and interest in protecting your reputation and customer happiness.

Hoping for some Southern Pacific "bloody nose" units someday.  

Silence and ignoring your customers is no way to "protect your reputation and customer happiness".  And if Atlas QC had done their job in the first place, this entire situation would not have happened.

Ya gotta hand it to them with that video however - especially at 0.17 where the camera pans up the nose of that beautiful Warbonnet and those highly reflective side panels flash by...

Our goal is to have them delivered to our customers in the month of June.

Does that also include the Erie Lackawanna b-units

ecd15 posted:

VistaDomeScott posted:

Great job on QC Atlas !   Glad to see care and interest in protecting your reputation and customer happiness.

Hoping for some Southern Pacific "bloody nose" units someday.  

Silence and ignoring your customers is no way to "protect your reputation and customer happiness".  And if Atlas QC had done their job in the first place, this entire situation would not have happened.

I think Atlas and Lionel have learned a few lessons and are taking pro-active measures.  I commend Atlas for their response on these issues.  I will buy from companies that to respond and take an active part with customers and the forum.  Again . ... Atlas... good job.

Any chance you guys might make a TurboTrain?  ;-)

I cancelled mine too and have zero faith in Atlas being able to deliver an o scale locomotive 

VistaDomeScott posted:

ecd15 posted:

VistaDomeScott posted:

Great job on QC Atlas !   Glad to see care and interest in protecting your reputation and customer happiness.

Hoping for some Southern Pacific "bloody nose" units someday.  

Silence and ignoring your customers is no way to "protect your reputation and customer happiness".  And if Atlas QC had done their job in the first place, this entire situation would not have happened.

I think Atlas and Lionel have learned a few lessons and are taking pro-active measures.

Really????

 I commend Atlas for their response on these issues.

You mean the "response" that they made about 3 hours ago???

 I will buy from companies that to respond and take an active part with customers and the forum.  Again . ... Atlas... good job.

You've GOT to be joking!

Atlas took good care of my recent issues and responded quickly.  I cannot speak for your experience.

c.sam posted:

Ya gotta hand it to them with that video however - especially at 0.17 where the camera pans up the nose of that beautiful Warbonnet and those highly reflective side panels flash by...

That is the same video Atlas posted LAST YEAR!

Hey "Atlas Member"... what is the story on the F3's that were supposed to be released in sync with the WP, DRG&W and CB&Q California Zephyr re-run?

I also cancelled my order for the Santa Fe and the DRG&W.  E-Mailed Atlas several times and 0 response.

Strange but I find myself agreeing with Hot Water on his above opinion.  Don't happen too many times.

Tommy

They do look nice but this delivery thing is ridiculous.  If Atlas does not deliver these in June they may as well stop announcing upcoming products in catalogs and only announce things for sale that are actually here in the US and ready for immediate delivery (like Mernards does).  They have lost all credibility as to shipping dates and schedules whether due to supply issues or whatever.  You can't operate a business this way.  And I say this as someone who loves Atlas O products and has an entire layout of Atlas track.  BigRail

It is a shame Atlas is having so much trouble getting products, namely motive power, stateside... I got the GSC CZ last year and am absolutely thrilled with it! Atlas makes incredible models; it's just too bad they are having so much trouble getting them delivered to the customers.

Atlas O posted:

Our goal is to have them delivered to our customers in the month of June.

Which year?

Jeff C

I waited for years for my Erie Lackawanna's and was shocked to find that they came with the old QSI decoder instead of the newer ESU LokSound. If anyone wants to buy a powered AA set let me know.

leikec posted:

Atlas O posted:

Our goal is to have them delivered to our customers in the month of June.

Which year?  ...

Ouch!!!  Tough audience.  

Seriously, it sounds like Atlas-O wants this debacle behind them as fast as we want to receive our product(s).  But these Santa Fe F7's have really become the poster child for Chinese factory problems run amok.  And it's tough to believe ANYTHING!  

I do feel for the folks who didn't request a refund after paying an invoice thinking stuff would ship in a couple of days/weeks back in December/January.  But according to Atlas-O folks at York, the replacement shells are here in the States.  Whether that's true or not is anyone's guess.  But I sure as heck hope Atlas-O would be tired of telling tall tales by now.

As for the F3's, I honestly don't know what to believe. Nor do the folks at Atlas-O for that matter.    Current shipping schedule says 4Q2017, so I'm thinking Summer 2018 if we're lucky. 

David

SantaFeJim posted:

 If I don't get any official news from Atlas in the next two weeks regarding the WP F3's I WILL CANCEL MY FOUR POWERED UNITS.  In addition, I will vow to never purchase another Atlas product. 

Oh oh. 

I have had success with most of my F7 engines. The tight gears that slowed the engines in reverse, have eased-up after six hours of run-time.  I have glued antennae plates back into the roof of six engines. Two are back at Atlas O: one Rio Grande F7A #5614 has gear issues and shorts the transformer.  The Amtrak F7B #154 has paint flaws and missing roof rings that were never glued into place by the factory.  It arrived with four broken side steps and roof paint rubs.

My Erie Lackawanna ABA and Pennsylvania ABBA ran smoothly from day one, but I did have to return my first EL F7A #7114 because of broken detail Cab ladder parts and missing/loose roof lift rings that were never glued in place at the factory.  My Pennsylvania F7A #9782A needs a new Cab ladder.

There is only one Dispatcher message and one engineer message on the F7 engines.  After hearing them a few times, they loose their interest. The horns on all 20 engines sound the same and have no controllable quilling. It is hard to tell which engine sounded its horn on the layout when I am running three F7 consists. ...but they are running smoothly and at about the same speed at the assigned Speed Step.  I need to find a powered Erie Lackawanna F7B.

I just finished my last Amtrak Sleeper. Only six sleepers were made in Amtrak livery. Two 10-6. two 6-5, and two 16-section sleepers. It would be nice to have more 10-6 Amtrak Sleepers.

John,

  What brand of people are you using?  I need to get some ridership on my consists!  

I use Preiser 65602 Unpainted 1/45 24 Seated People. The 65602 set comes with 24 figures, including 3 Adults with babies.  I have painted 78 sets of 24 so far. That's 1,872 Seated figures that I used in my Atlas O and Lionel 21" passenger cars. I save $120.00 per 24 pack by painting my own figures. The same twenty-four figures come in five separate Preiser painted packages that cost $155.00 plus shipping. These five sets have been out of stock for over a year.  I figure I have saved $120 times 78, or $9,360.00 by painting the figures myself.

I paint the figures in this order: 1. Flesh,  2. tie,  3. shirt on either side of tie (edging the tie for a sharp clean line) ,  4. Suit,  5. Hair and  6. Shoes.  I paint a box of 24 at a time, using one color for all men's suits (flat brown, blue, gray, light brown, then repeat on the 5th box.) The women's clothes are pastels: (flat blue, pink/cherry, yellow, green, and lavender)  I repeat the color sequence every 6th box.  With the women's clothes, I paint the tops the color and leave the skirts "white" or "tan".  The two colors of clothing on the women adds to the color contrast inside the car.  I paint the passenger car seats a cocoa/chamois tan.  Table cloths and toilets are flat white. Desks are Testors Flat "Earth Red" brown. (For my seats, I mix Testors Flat "Earth Red" into a bottle of Flat White.

I have to grind the rear ends of the figures with a Dremel "Micro" Chargeable Tool with a sanding drum.  This allows me to tilt the figures backward in large seats, or lower them for Dome seats. The newly sanded rear ends accept the Krazy Glue better and makes a better glue joint to the painted seats. I have to vent/air-out the glue for six hours to keep the Krazy Glue from fogging the windows of the passenger car.

I have also used Preiser 68209 1/50 six seated passengers on previous cars, but they are now sold out and out-of-production.

jonnyspeed posted:

I waited for years for my Erie Lackawanna's and was shocked to find that they came with the old QSI decoder instead of the newer ESU LokSound. If anyone wants to buy a powered AA set let me know.

Atlas stated years ago that locomotives designed to use QSI decoders would continue to use QSI decoders.  That, of course must be taken with a large grain of salt, but there are still many thousands of OEM QSI chips left to be consumed from their last run.

John,

Exceptional work!   Thank you for the info.   Maybe next winters project for me!

Scott

I try and stay focused to modern stuff. Those SFe F7s look great to me. I hope I don't run into these somewhere in a moment of weakness!

This thread actually helped me remember that I'd preordered a couple of undec unpowered 2-Rail F7's back in January of 2015. Mr. Muffin's train shop confirmed the order and I haven't heard a peep from anyone since then.

I wonder if they'll ever get made and deliver? I'd still take them.

Jeff C

For anyone still interested, here are the BEFORE/AFTER photos of the Atlas-O Santa Fe F7's. 

Two "BEFORE" photos (with the original shells) re-posted from Atlas-O's booth during October 2016 York:

And here are two "AFTER" photos of "refreshed" F7's (with the corrected shells) captured at Atlas-O's booth during April 2017 York:

I was wearing a bright lime green shirt on Thursday... hence the lime green reflection in the "AFTER" photos.    Very nice stainless steel effect on these models. 

Atlas-O had a Santa Fe F7 A-unit running on a small demo layout Thursday afternoon.  Nice, smooth operation.  But Railsounds were just "OK" to my ears...  certainly nothing to write home about after all this delay.  I personally think the sounds on the 2-rail units I heard last year had more presence and depth than the standard Railsounds we're getting with these 3-rail units.  Sorry to say that's yet another reason I'm likely to cancel the Atlas-O Rio Grande F3 ABBA set I have on order.  It's a cool-looking paint scheme, but the Railsounds package is too dated for my tastes.  And great sound is important to me when I'm spending this amount of $$$.  I have no faith that Atlas-O's Chinese factory will install updated Railsounds even if the F3's delivery date is pushed well into 2018.  And I've lost all faith that Atlas-O personnel Stateside will be able to direct their overseas supplier to update the 3-rail Railsounds package to the equivalent of what's installed in the 2-rail models. 

David

Do these before and after photos show the defect that caused Atlas O to delay the sale of the Santa Fe F7s last December? In the 2016 pictures, the warbonnet was painted with the Farr grilles already on the model - incorrect. In the 2017 pictures the warbonnet was painted before the grilles were installed on the model - which is correct. I purchased an Atlas O Amtrak F7 which I received in December, and I like it very much. Now, I intend to purchase a Santa Fe F7. I have been buying Atlas O models since the brand began - and will continue to do so. Their models are beautiful and mine have been trouble free. I wish people would stop bashing them. The hobby needs them to continue as an O gauge manufacturer.

MELGAR

MELGAR posted:

Do these before and after photos show the defect that caused Atlas O to delay the sale of the Santa Fe F7s last December? In the 2016 pictures, the warbonnet was painted with the Farr grilles already on the model - incorrect. In the 2017 pictures the warbonnet was painted before the grilles were installed on the model - which is correct. I purchased an Atlas O Amtrak F7 which I received in December, and I like it very much. Now, I intend to purchase a Santa Fe F7. I have been buying Atlas O models since the brand began - and will continue to do so. Their models are beautiful and mine have been trouble free. I wish people would stop bashing them. The hobby needs them to continue as an O gauge manufacturer.

MELGAR

Supply chain issues are common and with a small company like Atlas even more so. I personally would have taken the orginal models as I'm not a rivet counter. As Melgar points out many seem to bash Atlas. We're lucky to have so many model train companies. What percent of sales does Atlas O provide to Atlas Inc. ?  Im sure it is way behind HO and even N scale in terms of sales revenue and popularity. By the way Melgar, nice photo of the Amtak F unit and amfleet car on your layout.

MELGAR posted:

Do these before and after photos show the defect that caused Atlas O to delay the sale of the Santa Fe F7s last December? In the 2016 pictures, the warbonnet was painted with the Farr grilles already on the model - incorrect. In the 2017 pictures the warbonnet was painted before the grilles were installed on the model - which is correct. I purchased an Atlas O Amtrak F7 which I received in December, and I like it very much. Now, I intend to purchase a Santa Fe F7. I have been buying Atlas O models since the brand began - and will continue to do so. Their models are beautiful and mine have been trouble free. I wish people would stop bashing them. The hobby needs them to continue as an O gauge manufacturer.

 

Take a closer look at the "before" and "after" trucks.  You will see a difference.

Personally, I much prefer the "BEFORES".

IMHO I think Atlas really shot themselves in the foot with this so called "decoration recall".  There would have been far less complaints, cancellations and damaged goodwill if they had delivered these last December as promised.  The December trucks are what appeared on the original order pictures and NOBODY complained about them.

I am VERY, VERY DISAPPOINTED in how this whole issue was handled.  NO MORE ATLAS for this guy.

Seacoast posted:

MELGAR posted:

Do these before and after photos show the defect that caused Atlas O to delay the sale of the Santa Fe F7s last December? In the 2016 pictures, the warbonnet was painted with the Farr grilles already on the model - incorrect. In the 2017 pictures the warbonnet was painted before the grilles were installed on the model - which is correct. I purchased an Atlas O Amtrak F7 which I received in December, and I like it very much. Now, I intend to purchase a Santa Fe F7. I have been buying Atlas O models since the brand began - and will continue to do so. Their models are beautiful and mine have been trouble free. I wish people would stop bashing them. The hobby needs them to continue as an O gauge manufacturer.

MELGAR

Supply chain issues are common and with a small company like Atlas even more so. I personally would have taken the orginal models as I'm not a rivet counter. As Melgar points out many seem to bash Atlas. We're lucky to have so many model train companies. What percent of sales does Atlas O provide to Atlas Inc. ?  Im sure it is way behind HO and even N scale in terms of sales revenue and popularity. By the way Melgar, nice photo of the Amtak F unit and amfleet car on your layout.

Gentlemen,

My three rail layout is 16x35 with all Atlas O track and switches and 14 of my 18 locomotives are Atlas O.  I love Atlas products as do most that are posting here.  I believe the majority shares your love of their products.  However, you have to admit that Atlas's actions are the seed of all the bashing and discontent directed toward them.  With suitable explanations to their customer base, you would be left with the standard percentage of complainers that complain no matter what.  Their lack of communications and lack of response caused the percentages of complainers to swell.  I am frustrated as well, but know I'll be happy when the long awaited locomotives finally do arrive.  

Bob