Will Aster make more Great Northern S2 Northern live steam models in the near future.
Two things, 1) Aster has been sold to Accucraft and 2) Aster would do a run of X number of units and then not do the same engine again. Yes I know there were a couple examples they did over but that was never the plan, incredible quality and limited quantity kept the price up keeping customers willing to pay the prices. This also has kept the after market prices up, most Aster’s now sell for more than their issue price. Your best chance of getting one is the secondary market. It is a hard one to find as it was such a great runner people are reluctant to give it up. You’ll probably have to make a deal with the widow. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif)
Two things, 1) Aster has been sold to Accucraft and 2) Aster would do a run of X number of units and then not do the same engine again.
Dan, while I share your concern for Aster, they didn’t get “sold” to Accucraft. The Japan website is still up and running.
http://www.asterhobby.com/index.html
My impression of what happened is that they realized the manufacturing cost was killing them in Japan so they worked out a deal with Accucraft to share the manufacturing. I think it would be fair to say that the latest Aster models are Aster/Accucraft productions.
As far as the GN S2 is concerned, I can only confirm my impression (and yours) that they keep the volume low to make sure they sell out of each model. It is very unusual for them to re-run a limited-interest loco, but you never know . .
Check Sunset Valley.
He might have one or know of one for sale.