Model Railroading > Why no 3 packs on Athearn's latest Ethanol tanks?

I already ordered all three numbers of the next run of TILX, NATX, and GATX/Abengoa tanks but was bummed to not see any additional three packs as were offered in the initial run last year. I already own 28 of the Athearn cars from the first run and will be able to bump that number up to 38 now, but I was really hoping for about 50. Perhaps double the order and change the numbers? I guess the demand has dropped so the extra numbers were also dropped. Just curious about others opinions.

Mr. MRL - Corn Futures dropping?

Two tanks can be shipped in the mail without HAZ MAT documentation. Three or more requires a lot of paperwork and a GPS tracking device to make sure the tanks don't fall into the wrong hands. A cost that Athearn does not want to burden the customer with.

YM

Mr. MRL

We inquired directly to the source on this one and received the following answer:

Everyone in our Sales Department asked the same question - We were first told that they just were not going to do it. A couple of days later someone else told us that it will be a to small of a production run to sell single cars and 3 packs.

Not sure how accurate this really is however it does fit with the move on the part of the major manufactures to go BTO (Build To Order) only and only billed what is "Pre-sold/ordered". No back up stock in the warehouse or for the dealers shelves.

Northridge Switcher

Prototype note:

Saw an article yesterday stating that there are orders outstanding for 36,000+ ethanol tank cars. At 65 cars per train plus 5% spares, the back-ordered cars represent some 530 trainsets. I believe that there are about 900 coal trainsets running today, so think about how often you'll be looking at ethanol trains at a crossing near you!

Note to Athearn:
Keep building models, this is going to be a long-term thing.

Yardmaster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Two tanks can be shipped in the mail without HAZ
> MAT documentation. Three or more requires a lot
> of paperwork and a GPS tracking device to make
> sure the tanks don't fall into the wrong hands. A
> cost that Athearn does not want to burden the
> customer with.
>
> YM

Well that Athearn is @ucked because I ordered 3 .......

I am pretty sure the 36,000 number is TOTAL rail freight cars, not just Ethanol cars, but for sure the market is growing...

Unfortunately, some of the Athearn schemes have build dates prior to the introduction of the specific car they are modeling.

It would not deter me from buying some, but perhaps it might deter others...