While I wholeheartedly agree that Atlas would outsell MTH on equivalent locomotives and rolling stock, I also believe that Atlas "really" wants to have a case of little or no competition in their product lines (especially in O scale) throughout the life of the model (which seems to go on for up to a decade or more), not just its initial release. Atlas’ business model appears to require several runs of a model before it starts to earn its keep and as long as there is no competition, the model just keeps on giving, and giving...
Therefore, I think Atlas deliberately shies away from the more common models just to deliberately keep the sales going release-after-release. I also agree with RDunniii in that the reason the Dash 8-40C model keeps getting pushed back is because MTH has theirs out and since Atlas also gets much of its volume from the 3-Rail crowd so many of the models that would be purchased from Atlas, have already been purchased as MTH models. This, of course, lays a big egg on potential profit margins, especially if successive runs don’t do well or get cancelled, not good on the financial investment for a brand new model (at least for Atlas anyway). Atlas might best be served by bringing out the Trainman version as promised to satisfy the existing pre-orders and recoup some financial outlay and then go back and retool it as a Masterline version on successive runs and try to cause the MTH Dash 8-40C owners to rebuy the upgraded Masterline version to steal back some of the market. I don’t know if the Trainman version, although forecast to be better than the MTH version (which seems to get good reviews, by-the-way), has enough differentiating features to generate long term sales.
One locomotive I think Atlas could potentially corner the market with is the SD40-2. Here’s why… Since MTH and Lionel are predominantly 3-Rail manufacturers and stick with the twin vertical drive design for their road diesels, Atlas could design a horizontal drive, which would probably be a necessity for this model of locomotive anyway due the long patio in the back of loco that half the rear truck resides beneath, so because of this, MTH or Lionel are not very likely to "break stride" and produce a competing scale version of this locomotive and Atlas would enjoy all the spoils for many follow-on releases. 3rd Rail seems to have no problems selling a horizontal drive to the 3 Rail crowd so shouldn't be a problem for Atlas either. Also, lots of potential for follow-on production runs due to numerous road names and even the potential for a follow-on model, the SD45-2, which uses the same chassis, The downside, of course, is that this model is a large 6-axle road diesel, where a more-common 4-axle GP40-2 might be more well-received on typically smaller O Scale layouts. Just some thoughts…..
Scott Kay
Austin, TX
