Attn: Good People at Atlas

The Atlas site shows a container shipping date of Sept. 29.

EDIT: For the Zephyr cars, I should have said.

David

Dash 8s, F7s ...... hmmmmmm

NKP Muncie posted:

The Atlas site shows a container shipping date of Sept. 29.

...

Plan on another 7-8 weeks before Atlas-O receives them from China, and in turn ships them to their dealer network.  So that'll be Atlas-O's Christmas present this year to those who ordered these beautiful sets.

The locomotives are unfortunately a whole different story -- or so it seems.  Atlas-O seems to be still having a challenging time getting locomotives out of China. 

David

Well, they could drive them out. Ive only been waiting 5 1/2 years for my Dash 8's. I don't even want them any more but Horizon wont let me cancel the order

Well I guess if your credit card got cancelled, so would the order.... when ever they arrive 

I cancelled mine a long time ago. F7s are on the fence next for a cancel.

Laidoffsick posted:

Well I guess if your credit card got cancelled, so would the order.... when ever they arrive 

I cancelled mine a long time ago. F7s are on the fence next for a cancel.

I have been waiting for the Atlas Santa Fe (A-B-B-B-A) F7's for a loooooong time.   Guess it is safe to assume that the WP's I ordered for the CZ will be way behind the WarBonnets.  

I'm not sure how ANYBODY can maintain interest in locomotive products that take that long to ship.  12-18 months MAX for me before interest wains.  Maybe 24 if it's something unusual that I REALLY want.  After that, I would have no problem canceling if my interests were drawn elsewhere.  5+ years???  Fuhgeddaboudit! 

I'm happy for the folks who purchased one of the GSC CZ sets, because they didn't need to wait too long at all.  In fact, it would appear those sets are coming in right on time.  It took me practically 7 years to acquire a complete CZ set when Atlas-O was producing a couple of cars at a time over a multi-year period.   Never, NEVER again will I jump on board that piecemeal bandwagon.  It's one thing if an importer produces a few add-on cars a couple of years later to a set previously announced and delivered.  But no way would I entertain buying something one car at a time anymore.  There's just too much volatility with overseas factories these days. 

Look how long it's taking 3rd Rail to nail down the El Capitan 2nd production run.  The project is supposedly "on" again -- this time with a different factory but reportedly with many of the same workers (just working in a different factory now).  Gotta be absolutely crazy navigating through all these Asian manufacturing machinations nowadays!  

David

You could always pull your CZ sets with the Trainman RS-3's 'cause they shipped a month ago.

catnap posted:

You could always pull your CZ sets with the Trainman RS-3's 'cause they shipped a month ago.

Until Atlas-O ships the Rio Grand F3 ABBA's in the bumble-bee paint scheme (which I'm thinking we might see around mid-2017 at the earliest), I have 3 modern-day Lionel SD70ACe diesels from their UP Heritage production runs doing the honors -- one of each: WP, D&RGW, and CB&Q.  Although not prototypical, it makes for quite a colorful configuration of motive power heading the train!    And they don't even break a sweat pulling 12+ cars. 

David

I think Atlas is going to pull out all the stops to get the F3's and F7's delivered next. The latter is about 12 months overdue. Atlas has another run of F3-s planned for 1st quarter of 2017 and they haven't delivered the current run yet.

An RS-3 pulling a California Zephyr train would look funny to say the least, especially if it was an RS-3 in that silly Peabody paint scheme.

We (LHS) hope to get a 'horse's-mouth' update on the F7's at York.  Our Atlas sales rep has kept us...optimistic and somewhat...informed.  But I, personally, have F7 multi-units in ATSF and DRGW in the reservation stack.   And, I'm weakening.  Bucket lists, sense-of-mortality, rising healthcare costs, a realistic (no-spin) assessment of the economy at my own level/geography, too much 'stuff' and not enough time/space to enjoy it, etc., etc., etc. has me considering cancelling.  

And, I'm almost thinking it would be a good thing for Atlas if I do so.....sooner rather than later.

Here's why....IMHO, of course.

As many responses above have indicated, there are mounting frustrations and changes of life that have us second-assessing our advanced order for these engines.  If we further wait before cancelling or refusing delivery, we'll not only be hurting ourselves with our retailer relationships, but the distributor-network will also suffer, and, ultimately Atlas.  Late cancellations are a bad scenario all around.  And it may be too late, already, in terms of Atlas' investment in trying to bring this long-overdue project into fruition.  Forthright communications might have helped put this fiasco into a better prospect.  If nothing else, reducing production volumes accordingly....and facing up to any contractual penalties...may be better than the alternatives...........i.e., losing credibility top to bottom for the longer term.

It would help relationships all around if Atlas were to take the initiative and ask for an F7 project reservation reality check from customers, retailers, distributors, giving some explanation and (now) best guess for delivery.  It's not your Tylenol or Volkswagen Clean Diesel sort of corporate traumas.....but for this hobby segment so dependent on off-shore manufacturing and its conundrums & chaos, I think it would help us all.

But, what the heck?.......I'm here in the bleachers.  What do I know?  I retired from the corporate, global sourcing/marketing realm long ago.  I'm in the caboose trying to enjoy the rest of the ride.

KD

catnap posted:

You could always pull your CZ sets with the Trainman RS-3's 'cause they shipped a month ago.

According to my dealer just 2 weeks ago he was told by Atlas rep that RS3s have been pushed back to early 2017. Just saying! I do believe Atlas is clearing the schedule to make the CZ project happen.

dkdkrd posted:

...

It would help relationships all around if Atlas were to take the initiative and ask for an F7 project reservation reality check from customers, retailers, distributors, giving some explanation and (now) best guess for delivery.  It's not your Tylenol or Volkswagen Clean Diesel sort of corporate traumas.....but for this hobby segment so dependent on off-shore manufacturing and its conundrums & chaos, I think it would help us all.

..

Those F7's were originally announced in March 2015 for arrival in 4Q2015.  Then they updated us on some tooling tweaks that pushed the ETA to 4Q2016.  We just entered 4Q2016, and if Atlas-O can't tell us at York that a container has shipped by then, there's no hope of us seeing any F7's in 2016.  There's typically a 7- to 8-week lag time from the time the container ship leaves China to the time containers arrive in the States.  If the factory hasn't even begun working on these F7's by now, then we'll be solidly into 2017 at the earliest before we see these gems. 

When Atlas-O announced the GSC and Limited Edition CZ passenger sets, they also announced a production run of F-3's which they also listed as arriving in 4Q2016.  Now whether those are shipping with or later than the F-7's is unkown.  But we can all do the math either way.  Let's hope the F-7's and F-3's are being done simultaneously.  If not, then it'll likely be another year before those F-3's are in our hands.  That's the shipment I'm waiting on with the Rio Grand bumble-bee paint scheme.

Just sayin'...

David