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Post by gerd on Dec 23, 2018 15:36:07 GMT -5
Thanks for the update, Rob. I guess the biggest problem is to find a new factory with the capability to produce and assemble your product from existing tooling. From my time in the injection moulding business I know people are not happy to put someone else’s tool into their precious injection moulding machine. And finding design capabilities is another set of problems...
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Post by Commodore on Dec 23, 2018 17:36:50 GMT -5
Hi Folks, In the spirit of the holidays, here is an update on what's going on at AZL: 1) AFFA is in the process of winding down (still) AND we expect one final shipment of product from them VERY SOON 2) We have managed to recover ALL of our tooling from AFFA EXCEPT the Zephyr. 3) AFFA completed the Maxi-I tooling, and we have it, but we have not yet identified a factory to produce it. 4) We are still looking for a new factory 5) We have ALL the P42s in our warehouse now. (Yes, VIA is coming) 6) We still have plenty of inventory of previous products in stock. All in all, we think this is good news, especially compared to the potential disaster we faced last summer. I expect we will be back up with new production sometime mid-2019. In the meantime, the final product delivery from AFFA should provide us with plenty of new releases through 2019. AZL is alive and well. Merry Christmas, -Rob(A) Merry Christmas, Rob! |
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Post by QcKraag on Dec 25, 2018 11:20:19 GMT -5
Wow Rapido trains newsletter just came out and guess what, they are announcing that they now have room to produce for other train companies... and are looking for new commercial partners... “As I was leaving China the LRC factory was well into Royal Hudson production and was doing colour tests for the Tempo and RS-18. The factory is growing and looking for one or two new customers, so if you are a mid-sized model train manufacturer looking for a better factory to make your stuff, please give me a shout and I will put you in touch with Colin, the LRC factory grand poobah.” P.s. yesssss via p42  and Merry Christmas to all |
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Post by domi on Jan 2, 2019 4:38:38 GMT -5
Yeah, I definitely agree with "finish up with announced", for sure. I guess I have a different definition of "future" than a lot of you....I would think "future" would imply that nothing already announced would suddenly go away. I guess AZL sort of did that with the AC4400 by swapping out mid-stream with the ES44AC to respond to the market for the NS heritage locos. But (aside from leaving out the BNSF Heritage-II scheme) I doubt many folks got impacted by that move, and it made a ton of sense. I agree the AC4400 would be a less-desirable choice at this juncture, but if AZL got a significant amount of the work done on it already, it might be prudent to eventually move forward with it. (but yes, they need to ramp up production of the coalporters--especially BN and some of the other BNSF schemes--and more grain cars including the Trinity 5161's would be nice.) The C44-9W's on the other hand.... Almost all of the major Class 1's had them, especially if you count the NS C40-9W's. The obvious popularity of BNSF and especially the silver warbonnet scheme takes more of the risk out of the equation. C44-9Ws and AC4400CWs would not be such a bad idea. Even some regional railroads and shortlines now operate second-hand samples of these. Last summer I spotted a freight on former Montreal Maine & Atlantic RR (Lac Megantic wreck), which is now Central Maine & Quebec RR, whose power consisted of a pair of AC4400... But I do agree with what had been suggested earlier : I definitly vote for GE U-Boats. Even if in the past Rob Allbritton told us it’s unlikely AZL ever designs one, due to market considerations... Dom |
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and Merry Christmas to all
