N&W Boxcar pre-1963 paint scheme question

[NW Mailing List]

I was going to opt-out of this discussion, but since it's an issue about  
which I feel strongly, I'm going to wade in anyway.
 
I long ago decided that there should be a "Ten Commandments of  
Nit-picking".  I never quite got anywhere near ten (probably fortunately),  but here 
are what I did promulgate -
- If the person or company did the best they could with the information  
available, or ought to have been available, to them, cut them some slack.
- If reasonably they could have done better, "comment", but remember that  
they run a business, and maximizing their sales potential is a critical  
consideration.
- Vote with your pocket book/credit card.  If the error offends you,  don't 
buy it.
 
We all "know" that maximizing sales potential was "old Athearn's" #1  
consideration.  We all know the 40 ft. boxcar underframe was mirror image  of 
what it should have been; we know that was an ignorant error that should  never 
have happened; and we bought dozens of them anyway.  Likewise on  paint 
schemes and road names that never quite existed - but had a good potential  
market.  My biggest bone to pick with "old Athearn" was that they had the  
resources to amass reference material comparable to what an individual could  
reasonably collect - and appeared to have made a conscious decision not  to.  
But, I bought their stuff anyway.
 
There are lots of other examples.  How many readily-available C&O  diesel 
models had the correct five-chime horn?  Close enough to  zilch.  So, I 
stocked up on the Cal-Scale castings and tubes of "hole  filler" and bottles of 
Enchantment Blue and went to work.  No big  deal.
 
Yeah, there's a point to this rambling.  Thanks for bearing with  me.
 
As others have already said, the suppliers run a business, and their  
resources vary.  Some go to the trouble of getting it right, and some don't  take 
the time.  Pointing fingers is only useful to alert people of the more  
egregious errors, but recognize that there may be a legitimate - or at least  
excusable - reason.
 
And, remember, "you catch more flies with honey than with  vinegar."  A 
polite "suggestion" may well get a lot more affirmative  response than a 
high-volume complaint.
 
Regards,
 
Dave Phelps 
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 3/13/2013 12:37:31 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org writes:

Marty - you are missing the point here.  A "big" company  isn't judged 
necessarily simply by the number of employees.  How many  people recognize the 
name "Athearn"?  All 87 million of you put your  hands down now, please.  
THAT defines a "big" company.  Brand  recognition is critical to the success of 
a company and I'm sorry, but  "getting things right far more often (than 
wrong)" and being "TOO sensitive"  to their customer's needs is a recipe for 
failure.

And PS Marty,  it wasn't an "anonymous bash" (see my name below which 
appeared on the first  note), simply a request for the other side of the story.  
I have many  Athearn products on my layout, some more accurate than others; 
I enjoy almost  all of them.  Look up the meaning of "bash" sometime....

And  the apology for the company that "they can't afford experts for every  
railroad" and "take the time" to contact the historical societies because 
it's  a secret(?!).  Really?  A 50' box is a secret? Really?  And  note the 
original comment - "they tend to do a lot of wrong things in  HO".  THAT 
should be a concern of Athearn and warrant a response from the  CEO.

As a great man once said "there's never enough time to do it  right the 
first time but always enough time to do it over".

Ed  Svitil
Norfolk & Western  Railway






 
____________________________________
To: nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org
Subject: Re: N&W Boxcar pre-1963 paint  scheme question
Date: Wed, 13 Mar 2013 01:49:12 -0400
From:  nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org


>The old  Athearn no longer exists. After old Irv >passed, the family sold 

it to  Horizon Hobby.

>No one cares...

 
Please, the  current Athearn gets things right far more often than the old 
Athearn.   And in  my opinion, they are TOO sensitive to what modelers 
think, and  are afraid to make mistakes because of the armchair businessmen out 
there  (including on here), and have refused to do "close enough" production 
runs  that would satisfy most people, because a few people might jump all 
over  them.  But if you're happy with the same old F7s and 40' boxcars painted 
 for every railroad under the sun, fine, bring back the "old" Athearn.   

As for the brave soul who made this anonymous  bash:
 

>What?  A big company like that with a picky customer >base makes a  

production run based on one >overexposed photo?  Seems hard to  

>believe....someone from Athearn should chime in here.

 

>Sent from  my HTC on the Now Network from Sprint!


First, there are no big  companies in model railroading.  Most employ far 
less than 100 people,  small by any standard.  
Second, what's wrong with a manufacturer making a  model based on a 
photograph in a book?  If the photograph was so  obviously overexposed, shouldn't 
the book's author and publisher have included  a note in the caption that the 
color is actually brown, not black?  If I  am a manufacturer or novice 
modeler, with no in depth knowledge of a  railroad's paint schemes, I look at 
the that photograph and say the car is  black.
 
Athearn made an honest mistake, and is far from  the worst or most puzzling 
one ever commited.  At least there is an  explanation for it.  They can't 
afford to employ experts for every  railroad, nor take the time to run every 
project by the appropriate historical  societies, especially if they want to 
keep it a secret until it is  released.  We should be pleased that they are 
willing to invest in the  equipment guides, and do our best to ensure that 
the publications put forth  the most accurate information possible.  
 
Marty Flick
 
 






-----  Original Message ----- 
From:  _NW Mailing List_ (mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)  
To:  _NW Mailing List_ (mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)  
Sent:  Tuesday, March 12, 2013 12:39 PM
Subject:  Re: N&W Boxcar pre-1963 paint scheme question


The old Athearn no longer exists. After old  Irv passed, the family sold it 
to Horizon Hobby.
No one  cares...

Tom Cosgrove

On 3/10/2013 10:08 AM, NW Mailing List  wrote:


What?  A big company like that with a picky customer base makes a  
production run based on one overexposed photo?  Seems hard to  believe....someone 
from Athearn should chime in here.

Sent from my  HTC on the Now Network from Sprint!

----- Reply message -----
From: "NW Mailing List"  _<nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>_ 
(mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org) 
Date:  Sat, Mar 9, 2013 9:53 pm
Subject: N&W Boxcar pre-1963 paint scheme  question
To: _<nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>_ (mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org) 


I can remember my local Hobby Shop owner talking about this  particular 
car. The Athearn Rep had stopped by the store and discussed  this model. 
Athearn had made the model black based on what they saw in the  picture. The Owner 
told the Rep that the car was actually boxcar red   and that the lighting 
in the picture gave it there black look. Looking at  the photo in the book, 
around the door, the color is definitely of a brown  hue. Alan Cox
 
 
In a message dated 3/9/2013 6:45:34 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, 
_nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org_ (mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org)   writes:

The  N&W had a paint scheme used on boxcars before the half-moon logo  
scheme.  It was the pre-1963 scheme that had the Norfolk and  Western roadname 
spelled out in capital Roman style font lettering in  white or silver, w/ N&W 
reporting marks & car number on the  other end in Roman font.  Some of the 
cars had silver doors some  did not.   My question is, were these cars ever 
BLACK, or were they  only the brown/boxcar red in this particular paint 
scheme?     I looked at a friend's copy of the N&W Color Guide, and an example  
of this scheme in question is on page 39 of a combo door 50' boxcar. In  the 
pic, the boxcar looks almost black, but I think it's actually dark  brown, 
in a dark pic.  Did N&W ever paint boxcars w/ that paint  scheme in black?   

Athearn  made this exact car in HO but it is in BLACK, and I want to make 
sure  they were accurate on this- they tend to do a lot of wrong things in  
HO.   


-  Moderator (email question from non-mailing list  person)


________________________________________
_NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org_ (mailto:NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org) 
To  change your subscription go to
_http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list_ 
(http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list) 
Browse  the NW-Mailing-List archives at
_http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/_ 
(http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/) 



________________________________________

_NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org_ (mailto:NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org) 

To change your subscription go to

_http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list_ 
(http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list) 

Browse the NW-Mailing-List archives at

_http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/_ 
(http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/) 




-- 

Tom Cosgrove

Past Captain RBVFA Squad, EMT-B

N2VFK

SKYWARN Spotter LME002

Red Cross Disaster Volunteer since 1995

 
____________________________________

________________________________________
NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
To  change your subscription go  to
http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
Browse the  NW-Mailing-List archives  at
http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/   
____________________________________
  


No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - _www.avg.com_ (http://www.avg.com/) 
Version: 2013.0.2904 / Virus Database:  2641/6164 - Release Date:  03/11/13

________________________________________  NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org To 
change your subscription go to  
http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list Browse the  NW-Mailing-List archives at  
http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/

=

________________________________________
NW-Mailing-List at nwhs.org
To  change your subscription go  to
http://list.nwhs.org/mailman/options/nw-mailing-list
Browse the  NW-Mailing-List archives  at
http://list.nwhs.org/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/nw-mailing-list/attachments/20130313/e4358817/attachment.htm>