01-10-2016, 04:38 PM
I am going to miss BLMA, not because of their product, as it was mostly out of my era, but because of their innovations they added in the hobby. It is nice that their products may continue to be made, but I fear that there will not be any new items from Atlas at the level BLMA has produced other then the projects BLMA is already bringing to the table. Atlas seems to have peaked in the early 2000's and have not been able to produce anything of significant importance in years. Even their "newly " tooled items look like things that were done 10 and 20 years ago.
The only companies I know that are 'Major' and are all or mostly built in the USA are Micro Engineering, MicroTrains and Kadee, everything else is done all or in-part overseas. There are still a range of cottage industry companies in the USA that produce items either all or in-part in the USA. This shift for the major companies to go overseas happened over 20 years ago, so it is not really news. I will say that I think we are going to see many of the smaller detail companies fade out as people move more towards rapid prototyping.
We have gained to larger companies in the past couple of years including Exactrail and now SacleTrains.com. Many of these companies start as side projects, or hobby companies and blow up to these large companies that become work. I think people like Craig has decided to step back and try something new. I wouldn't be surprised if he comes back in some capacity at another company or starts his own after his time with Atlas.
I again just hope Atlas is better about BLMA then they have been with Brachlines products.
The only companies I know that are 'Major' and are all or mostly built in the USA are Micro Engineering, MicroTrains and Kadee, everything else is done all or in-part overseas. There are still a range of cottage industry companies in the USA that produce items either all or in-part in the USA. This shift for the major companies to go overseas happened over 20 years ago, so it is not really news. I will say that I think we are going to see many of the smaller detail companies fade out as people move more towards rapid prototyping.
We have gained to larger companies in the past couple of years including Exactrail and now SacleTrains.com. Many of these companies start as side projects, or hobby companies and blow up to these large companies that become work. I think people like Craig has decided to step back and try something new. I wouldn't be surprised if he comes back in some capacity at another company or starts his own after his time with Atlas.
I again just hope Atlas is better about BLMA then they have been with Brachlines products.