Model Railroading > Railflyer Model Prototypes Inc

Has any one had a problem with this company, I ordered from a link off locophotos.com on Feb 19th and still have not received anything. I email four days ago and I did not receive a reply should I be worried has any one purchased from this company?

bnsfmodeler Wrote:
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> Has any one had a problem with this company?

Understatement of the century.

Fortunately, I did NOT order anything from them, but there was a Loooooonnnnnnnggggg thread about them on the RPM-list Yahoo group. The short end of the story is that the owner was allegedly taking money from orders to pay off tooling for new models, as opposed to fulfilling placed orders. The owner ended up getting kicked off the list by the moderators.

If I were you, I would have your credit card company cancel your order asap. Caveat emptor.

- Jeff Carlson

> The owner ended up getting kicked off the list by the moderators.

He also got kicked off the Diesel List for the same reasons a few months back. I've not heard anything more on the company's fate since then. You are not alone in your concern over never receiving product.

best regards,
Mark G.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/13 22:47 by MarkG.

About three weeks ago Chris Howard sent out a mass e-mail updating folks on the status of Railflyer Models. As he explained, and I paraphase, he had issues with some dies and getting issues corrected in a timely and economical fashion. He has managed to get refinanced and has acquired equipment domestically in order to produce parts on this continent. He indicated that he had to go back to work as apilot in order to continue the business. I will see if I can dig up the e-mail and post it here later this am.

Russ

I've ordered from him a number of times over the years, but he's really run into issues the past couple years. Someone pointed out that Walthers has a lot of his parts in stock, so that's a safe way to order if your dealer will get them for you.

Dave

There seems to have been problems all along.

No doubt, their products are really nice, some of which appear to be so overly engineered to make
one wonder if they will ever get produced and at a cost to the customer that's affordable....i.e.
diesel power trucks with an individual micro-motor on each axle. (Kato has announced that their
HO Amtrak engine will have an individual motor on each truck)

As mentioned above, order from a dealer who can get it from Walthers or another supplier.

Frank30

I ordered micro LEDs (prewired) from him a couple months ago and it took about a month for them to arrive. When checking on the order, he noted it takes a while to wire them and there was a backlog. I finally got my stuff, but it took a while. This was my first order from him, and upon reading this thread, I will be very cautious in the future.

-Sean

I just filed a complaint with paypal about them but who knows what will happen. Guess I'm out my money from the e mail he sent out

Mr Howard has a history of........shall we say...... erratic and un-businesslike behavior. I'll let you all decide after reading these:

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/7412

Peter

The entire Railflyer thing was a great idea, and his early products were out of this world. His downfall seems to be he just went after to much, all the while alienating his clientele with to many promises. I still support the venture, but he wont get a dime from me until I see stuff in hand, in production.. I really feel for some people that pre-ordered from him. I dont know ho whe expects people to keep buying his stuff when he keeps doing things already done, plows, fans, etc. Start with stuff never before done to build up a good base, then start with a new drive, etc..not the other way around.

I hope for the best, he has some killer detail parts, but I am not counting on the company making it..

I purchased a step well kit and two EMD HTC brake pipe kits from Railflyer last year. I placed the order and a day or two later got an e-mail stating the order had shipped. The order arrived about five or six weeks later. I know the stuff has to go through customs, but I've bought Kaslo shell kits which arrived about two to two and half weeks following purchase.

I will assume I was lucky getting what I ordered.

Jim

Yup-I get shipments from Fast Tracks in about 1 week. True I live pretty close to them in Albany, NY but still.............6 weeks???
Peter

sixaxlecentury Wrote:
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> The entire Railflyer thing was a great idea, and
> his early products were out of this world. His
> downfall seems to be he just went after to much,
> all the while alienating his clientele with to
> many promises.

Reminds me of Brian Marsh's (of Overland Model Imports) venture into plastic some 8 years back, aka Tower 55...

Just got too caught up with the nitty-gritty, loosing sight of the big picture.

Mr. MRL

Posted from iPhone

MrMRL Wrote:
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> sixaxlecentury Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The entire Railflyer thing was a great idea,
> and
> > his early products were out of this world. His
> > downfall seems to be he just went after to
> much,
> > all the while alienating his clientele with to
> > many promises.
>
> Reminds me of Brian Marsh's (of Overland Model
> Imports) venture into plastic some 8 years back,
> aka Tower 55...
>
> Just got too caught up with the nitty-gritty,
> loosing sight of the big picture.
>
> Mr. MRL
>
> Posted from iPhone

Very well put..