OPB, aside from the political & social commentary, I do agree with your comments on Athearn & the model train hobby. At the Espee Tech convention in Sacramento last fall, Athearn showed off test shots of their new SP / SSW double - door lumber boxcar W/ Landis doors; retail price to be $36.95 !!! I told the rep flat out: " At that price I'll only buy one !!!" The recent SP sugar beet cars ( Red Caboose ??? ) are another example; you need a bunch for a realistic look, but not at 30 bucks a pop !!! Now that I think of it, what cars does Athearn sell in their Train Sets ??? I'll have to look next time I'm at the local hobby shop. Most every model railroader started with a packaged train set, complete with track, engine & transformer. How much are these train sets nowadays ??? Hopefully not priced out of reach of beginners ??? Considering the demise of Roundhouse / Model Die Casting, and now Athearn Blue Box, I too wonder if new owner Galaxy Hobby really knows the model train business; their background is high - end RC cars & off - road stuff (big $$$).
The latest issue of the Espee Tech newsletter has a lengthy article comparing the new Daylight coaches from Athearn / Brodaway Ltd / MTH. Lots of + & - to each mfr.; the hard plastic full - width diaphragms on the BLI car were singled out for being inflexible, & hard to replace w/o trashing the paint job. The low hanging underbody components were also mentioned.
I personally think full underbody details on a skirted passenger car are a waste of (my) money,(unless I were going to model the wreck of the City of San Francisco); Broadway Ltd was guilty of this in the CZ cars too. I have a BLI California Zephyr Dome / Obs car that will be on my layout's private car spur, waiting (forever) to be rebuilt & returned to private car service.
The almost complete lack of unpowered diesel models is another problem for me; consider that almost all prototype trains have at least 2 units on the point, and the new models pull very well. I'm glad I can (still) choose to buy diesels w/o sound; I'm more thankful for the dummy diesels I've bought in years past.