Twenty years ago the hobby shop owners were mad at Kalmbach for running so many ads for mail order houses in Model Railroader magazine; now it's the Internet that's supposedly putting them out of business. Strange thing is, most of the hobby shops around Seattle & Portland do Internet orders as well !!! Please note however, that North End's owners are simply retiring; no mention is made of any extenuating economic conditions ( other than losing their lease ).
I am waiting for an order from Whistle Stop in Portland; they are waiting for the Walthers minimum buy amount.( Fortunately I order early; before I need it to finish my layout. ) You may also have noticed that Walthers no longer carries ANY Athearn in their catalog; Athearn's new owner Galaxy Hobby decided to utilize their existing model car & RC distribution system. The result is that Athearn parts, always hard to get, are almost impossible to obtain nowadays( especially the Blue Box stuff ).
Kudos to the model train manufacturers for the high quality of their current product, which approaches the detail of brass models from 15 years ago. However, for the price being asked they should try to get the details & paint jobs closer to correct for a specific prototype. The new Athearn SD - 40 uses the old Rail Power body, with its' chunky, squared - off dynamic brake blisters. The Espee version is painted for several Sacramento rebuilds,( even the funky paint on 7323!!!), yet it doesn't include the trademark Espee nose lights, or the split equipment doors under the cab. And for the price involved, I'm not about to carve into the paint job to add them. Result: no sale !!!