David Russell said:I begs to differ....
NO! It was a Christmas Song Bing and Dave
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpn8MANhdLU
Whichever way the cooky crumbles and whatever the “deny, deny and spin” is, I don’t really care. Since I model IIm Swiss proto it won’t really affect me much, but it is certainly interesting to see how things develop and shake out.
BTW the announcement of Bachmann Europe ending the Aristo distributorship for Europe, together with the Polk’s being “no shows” at the 2012 Nürnberg Exhibition sure got the grapevine humming in Europe.
Victor Smith said:David Russell said:I begs to differ....
NO! It was a Christmas Song Bing and Davehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpn8MANhdLU
But that isn’t with Bing Crosby as originally stated
Details details …
I received an email from Aristo, today. Now they are trying to unload their RS-3’s. If they had one for a western RR, besides SF or UP, I might be interested.
Steve Featherkile said:You can always repaint and reletter to whatever you like ... if the price is right. ;)
I received an email from Aristo, today. Now they are trying to unload their RS-3's. If they had one for a western RR, besides SF or UP, I might be interested.
Steve Featherkile said:Not a bad price. If I had a spare $200 I could be tempted to grab that New Haven job. I have 3 now and love them - they run great.
I received an email from Aristo, today. Now they are trying to unload their RS-3's. If they had one for a western RR, besides SF or UP, I might be interested.
Jon Radder said:Yeah, Mom loves you east coast guys best. :PSteve Featherkile said:Not a bad price. If I had a spare $200 I could be tempted to grab that New Haven job. I have 3 now and love them - they run great.
I received an email from Aristo, today. Now they are trying to unload their RS-3's. If they had one for a western RR, besides SF or UP, I might be interested.
I must admit, the RS3 is one of the best “runners” I own.
I couldn’t see a Canadian road in the bunch either… What’s up with that? 
But they had Pennsy!!! 
I’m pretty sure Mom likes Canadian guys better than West coasters, too, Steve; almost as much as the Northeast crowd…
Glad to hear that it’s a good runner 'though, Mark. =) I LIKE to read good news! =)
So Tim, Lewis is back at his desk? So his retirement announcement was a bit misleading? So he’s no longer retired in Florida? I know the company is still up in NJ, so is he back up there or did they send his desk to Florida?
Greg
Greg Elmassian said:
So Tim, Lewis is back at his desk? So his retirement announcement was a bit misleading? So he's no longer retired in Florida? I know the company is still up in NJ, so is he back up there or did they send his desk to Florida?Greg
Greg,
It must have been a “misunderstanding”, but I’m sure someone has the official announcements “archived” for future reference. 
Curiouser and curiouser!!!
Greg,
he spends his time between Florida and NJ, but still retains a firm grip it would appear.
From confidential source. Lewis if not there now will be retruning back to Fla. only to return for the spring show. He is up here to deal with family issues and to take care of some legal paperwork.This is not to say he is helping Scott daily greatly in many details. He ran he business for many years with the knowledge base kept in his head. He is “teaching” or down loading these to Scott as needed. It will be a great struggle for Scott as the business is in economic turmoil. One of Lewises downfalls was it was a company business and he kept on "family’ too long after the economic downfall, using resoures to support payroll. This business like many small family owned businesses always had the problem of ambition and ideas far outreaching the limited economic pockets available. Thus, we heard (promises) what what Lewis wanted the company to be, but saw what the limited economic resources allowed for in reality. Lewis had great vision but again a limited wallet.
Certainly those are good and valid points.
But there’s also the “head in the sand” attitude of “that is not a problem, we have never seen that problem” on many issues that “turned people off” about buying their products.
The constant fight for replacement parts.
I have several friends that have waited over a year for replacement ties on the “lifetime guarantee”
The power pickup issues.
The problems with wheel gauge.
The “villianization” of anyone speaking out saying something is wrong.
These things have surely hurt Aristo when there are other choices.
Look at the constant improvement in Bachmann products.
Look at the newcomer AML who has made changes and whose president asked me (just an example) for a 2 hour sitdown on how he could improve his products, and then implemented all the suggestions.
When times are good, you can do almost anything you want and create any “reality” you want.
When times are bad, your customers will vote with their checkbooks.
I hope things improve. I need more stuff to buy!
Greg
Hi Greg:
Yes you are correct on those several points.
However, I seriously doubt that Lewis ever had his head in the sand but rather was constrained by financial reality resulting in annoyed customers unable to obtain parts or a proper response for defective product shipped to the customer.
I am still annoyed at losing 150.00 in shipping fees for Aristo mailing me a C-16 loco that was obviously not in suitable condition for sale to the public.
On the other hand, I pestered Lewis to add metal side rods to the Pacific loco and the C-16 to the point of suggesting that he could maybe ask Bachmann trains to make the metal side rods for him!
Lewis stated that the side rods are only there for appearance sake to which I replied exactly as that is the whole point of buying a model steam locomotive as to watch the metal side rods and metal valve gear. However, I could never convince Lewis to change the valve gear style from Baker to Walchester ( spelling ) .
I did manage to persuade Lewis to produce a run of NYC Green heavyweights. Lewis initially commented that the NYC heavyweights were not a success for him. I said yes of course as you made the ugly grey ones ! Lewis later told me that the green NYC heavyweights were a success for him.
The short Sierra cars should have later been produced as per the full length prototype and the short Sierra cars should have been produced without the end vestibules.
The live steam was a great concept but was greatly criticised in the Live Steam section of the other forum. Basic bullying. Lewis produced a Mikado live steamer at a price point affordable to those who could not buy an Accucraft product. Really too bad that the live steam product died out.
As to comparing Bachmann and Aristo Craft: Bachmann is able to use the profits of their HO and N scale product lines to finance the losses generated through the large scale blow ups. Obviously Bachmann has sufferred financial losses in largescale through those massive clearouts of problem or overproduced product.
The present situation facing Scott is that hobbyist are no longer buying the volume of product they once were such that even if the Aristo Craft product line was absolutely perfect, a large amount of product will sit in their warehouse awaiting future non existent customers.
My advice to Scott is to change the Pacific valve gear over to Walchester, retool the Sierra cars as the short version without end vestibules and the full length version with end vestibules.
Attempt to reassemble the mfg team to reintroduce live steam as the Pacific locomotive. Use a real steam whistle under the side running board in place of the air tank, install a chuff box in the stack and provide manual controls for which supplied servos can be installed by the end user for those wanting remote control. No simulated sound.
Possibly Aristo Craft needs to find another country from which to produce their product line as the new product pricing from China obviously means future product sales will be a fraction of what they once were for all large scale mfgs. .
Norman
Greg Elmassian said:
When times are good, you can do almost anything you want and create any "reality" you want.When times are bad, your customers will vote with their checkbooks.
I hope things improve. I need more stuff to buy!
Greg
Me too Greg…I’m already brainwashed into this scale!. I remember bitching about Bachmanns untrue wheel sets once (to a group of very knowledgeable “OLD” guys)
My response …" if you don’t like them then spin up your own " Point well taken gentlemen and understood.
…:)… _ _…_http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/gary_buchanan/tazdance.gif
The issue is not really “head in the sand”, rather the perception of that action by the consumer base. The bull poop we put up with from the AristoFoamers that Lewis is a Gentleman, and really cares about the hobby just forestalled what we’re seeing now.
Lewis has done a good job of delaying public awareness of what is really happening, and the Kool-Aid drinkers just rallyed around and supported that.
Parts availability to keep the stuff running is an issue…the delay or dropping of items is another. Can you say GG1? My perception, after working in a line for years that Lewis tried to claim he was first in, seemed to become a mantra to him to announce first, think about building later, so he could then claim he was “first”. Chuckie once told me he had decided to do a caboose…bay windown, extended vision, can’t remember exactly, but Lewis announced one. So Chuckie waited. And waited. Finally said, screwit, and produced one…and Lewis never did.
When does your Crystal Ball tell you the next shipment of Revulsions will be in country?
Inhouse production allowed manufacturers to more tightly control quality issues and spare part availability. Alas, when manufacturers now have to bid to get production timeslots, issues such as lack of QC and limited spare parts availability are the norm. Look to Bachmann a few years back. When a loco was returned for warranty repair, parts were scrounged from disabled/cannibalised locomotives. It was simpler to give the customer a new loco than to explain that the lack of repair parts meant the product was unreturnable to the customer.
Manufacturers will find it harder to source companies actually able to produce their trains. I read on another site (unfortunately could not open the pdf. file referred to), but apparently Kader are not performing as expected this current year. This could seriously impact on the mainstream companies ability to release new product.