scale@groups.io | Article about Aztec... (2024)

Alex Postpischil

Hi all-
While skimming the paper (Las Vegas Review Journal) at work today
they had a section that focused on "Made in Nevada". One article
was written about John Claudino's Aztec Manufacturing.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Dec-17-Sun-2006/news/10963433.html

It gives some background on John & the company...nothing
specifically N scale...
-alex-

-alex-
Alex M. Postpischil
Henderson, NV

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Great write up on John. I did not know that it was a one man operation. I
called there one time to check on my order and John was busy. But he called
me back when he was free. I had a very good conversation with him. I must
say he is a great guy and I hope to meet him one day. You can tell by his
voice that he is very in to the work he is doing for us. All I can say is I
hope his health is good and he can keep up the great work he does on behalf
of us Model Rail Road builders. I would recommend his products to any one.

Frank

_____

From: n_scale@... [mailto:n_scale@...] On Behalf Of
Alex Postpischil
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2006 2:42 AM
To: N Scale list
Subject: [n_scale] Article about Aztec...

Hi all-
While skimming the paper (Las Vegas Review Journal) at work today
they had a section that focused on "Made in Nevada". One article
was written about John Claudino's Aztec Manufacturing.

http://www.reviewjo
<http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Dec-17-Sun-2006/news/10963433.h
tml> urnal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Dec-17-Sun-2006/news/10963433.html

It gives some background on John & the company...nothing
specifically N scale...
-alex-

-alex-
Alex M. Postpischil
Henderson, NV

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail. <http://mail.yahoo.com> yahoo.com

R Kroll

At 01:42 AM 12/18/2006, you wrote:

Hi all-
While skimming the paper (Las Vegas Review Journal)

at work today

they had a section that focused on "Made in Nevada".

One article

was written about John Claudino's Aztec

Manufacturing.

<http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Dec-17-Sun-2006/news/10963433.html>http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Dec-17-Sun-2006/news/10963433.html

It gives some background on John & the

company...nothing

specifically N scale...
-alex-

-alex-
Alex M. Postpischil
Henderson, NV

The following is what caught my eye: From David Popp,
Model Railroader Staff.

"The biggest demographic segment in model railroading
-- the baby boomers
-- is aging and losing interest in the pursuit, Popp
said. Succeeding
generations are smaller, so model-railroad
manufacturers and retailers have
fewer customers."

I wonder where this insight comes from. Aging I can
see (it's still better
than the alternative), but what does that have to
possibly losing
interest? Yep, all these guys (mostly) are getting
ready to retire and
can't be bothered with a hobby... yeah, that's the
ticket.

"have fewer customers" Is this view driven by
magazine sales levels? Did
Horizon buy Athearn and MDC and McHenrys because they
need to get some loss
leaders to combat the high profits from all their RC
sales??? <G> And
Walthers bought LL because if you're going to lose
your customers and
profits, might as well do it quickly by buying more
potential
losses?? And Atlas keeps bringing out new stuff.
I'm confused, are the
top 10% of modelers buying fleets of multi unit
lashups and droves of
Bethgons and intermodal and $30 autoracks supporting
this house of cards?

Enquiring minds want to know.

Bob in IDaho

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NscaleMike@aol.com

Yes I read the article as well...interesting on the background of John's
company before he became
involved with model railroading...as well as the sad but true commentary
from David Popp about
the model railroading industry today...

"The biggest demographic segment in model railroading -- the baby boomers --
is aging and losing interest in the pursuit, Popp said. Succeeding
generations are smaller, so model-railroad manufacturers and retailers have fewer
customers.What's more, consolidation among miniature-train makers has left the
industry with a handful of major manufacturers and a constantly dwindling
number of midsize and small companies, Popp said."

Hi All - while the article did not pump up N scale - it did PUMP UP - Model Railroading in a most favorable light - seldom seen in newspapers. it also quotes David Popp of Kalmbach fame - who has a larger voice than any of us here.

John Claudino has been an asset to all of us for quite some time and I might add a credit to the "INDUSTRY of MODEL RAILROADING".

Toots

Carl Heinz

I've known John since his days in San Mateo. Back then, he also
painted prototypical N scale cars. He an Eric Smith would get into
competitions about who could print using the smallest legible fonts. I
think John also beat Micro-Trains in using a three color print process
which gave the illusion of full color print schemes. John's business
there was right next to the SP tracks and he could be relied on to
generate the most current SP prototypes.

Watching John at a show is also a lot of fun. He really puts a lot of
energy into his sales technique. :>)

I think the article was a bit in error. His work has become his hobby
and he enjoys the challenge of making things work right. It's nice
that his hobby benefits us all.

Carl
--
Carl Heinz
cfheinz@...

craigatdeluxe

I would like to take issue with the quotation attributed to David
Popp. First of all, I haven't read the article on Aztec (link
issues…) and everyone knows that newspaper journalists often
take a special pride in misquoting and taking quotes out of
context so I can only comment on the quotations as presented in
the post.

I don't see where Popp is getting his numbers either.To my
knowledge, there has been no comprehensive national poll of
the number of model railroaders (calling households at random
and asking if there is a model railroader in the home.) Popp's
magazine has seen a drop in readership of about 20% since I
started reading it in the 1970s. Back then, the ONLY sources of
info in the hobby of any size were Model Railroader and Railroad
Model Craftsman magazines. When I got into N in 1980, virtually
everyone in my club read Model Railroader. Now, less than 1 in 4
of our club members read MR. I think it's still a fine magazine but
in this era of specialization, there are many more and more
specific sources of modeling info – this list included! My point is
that relying on the MR readership demographic would give
someone a woefully inaccurate picture of the state of the hobby.
Even if you assume that a much higher percentage of HO guys
read MR than N, G, O, S, and Z guys, it still works out that the
number of model railroaders has at least doubled since the
1970s.

The David Popp quotation also mentions the trend in
consolidation and the eroding number of small and midsize
manufacturers as proof of declining market size. As someone
else has implied, consolidation can reflect a market on the
upswing too. Consolidation cuts both ways. In any case, it
ignores the circ*mstances behind these acquisitions which are
often triggered by retirement. The reduction of small and midsize
manufacturers is mostly due to the demand for Ready To Run
rolling stocks at the expense of craftsman kits. It's easy enough
for a guy working out of his basem*nt to manufacture a carton of
die cut strip wood, a set of decals and an instruction sheet. But it
takes a lot of overhead to injection mold plastic, paint it
(especially in this environmentally conscious and regulated
age), and most of all, pad print the lettering. Ready To Run is
even becoming common in narrow gauge which has been a
bastion for craftsman kits.

I would even venture to say the blizzard of interest in Thomas the
Tank Engine, Brio, and the The Polar Express (whose pricey
Lionel set sold out in hours last Christmas,) even bodes well for
the long range health and popularity of our hobby. So fear-not
friends and happy holidays!

Craig

--- In n_scale@..., R Kroll <cnj30671976@...>
wrote:

The following is what caught my eye: From David Popp,
Model Railroader Staff.

"The biggest demographic segment in model railroading
-- the baby boomers
-- is aging and losing interest in the pursuit, Popp
said. Succeeding
generations are smaller, so model-railroad
manufacturers and retailers have
fewer customers."

I wonder where this insight comes from.

craigatdeluxe

I would like to take issue with the quotation attributed to David
Popp. First of all, I haven't read the article on Aztec (link
issues…) and everyone knows that newspaper journalists often
take a special pride in misquoting and taking quotes out of
context so I can only comment on the quotations as presented in
the post.

I don't see where Popp is getting his numbers either.To my
knowledge, there has been no comprehensive national poll of
the number of model railroaders (calling households at random
and asking if there is a model railroader in the home.) Popp's
magazine has seen a drop in readership of about 20% since I
started reading it in the 1970s. Back then, the ONLY sources of
info in the hobby of any size were Model Railroader and Railroad
Model Craftsman magazines. When I got into N in 1980, virtually
everyone in my club read Model Railroader. Now, less than 1 in 4
of our club members read MR. I think it's still a fine magazine but
in this era of specialization, there are many more and more
specific sources of modeling info – this list included! My point is
that relying on the MR readership demographic would give
someone a woefully inaccurate picture of the state of the hobby.
Even if you assume that a much higher percentage of HO guys
read MR than N, G, O, S, and Z guys, it still works out that the
number of model railroaders has at least doubled since the
1970s.

The David Popp quotation also mentions the trend in
consolidation and the eroding number of small and midsize
manufacturers as proof of declining market size. As someone
else has implied, consolidation can reflect a market on the
upswing too. Consolidation cuts both ways. In any case, it
ignores the circ*mstances behind these acquisitions which are
often triggered by retirement. The reduction of small and midsize
manufacturers is mostly due to the demand for Ready To Run
rolling stocks at the expense of craftsman kits. It's easy enough
for a guy working out of his basem*nt to manufacture a carton of
die cut strip wood, a set of decals and an instruction sheet. But it
takes a lot of overhead to injection mold plastic, paint it
(especially in this environmentally conscious and regulated
age), and most of all, pad print the lettering. Ready To Run is
even becoming common in narrow gauge which has been a
bastion for craftsman kits.

I would even venture to say the blizzard of interest in Thomas the
Tank Engine, Brio, and the The Polar Express (whose pricey
Lionel set sold out in hours last Christmas,) even bodes well for
the long range health and popularity of our hobby. So fear-not
friends and happy holidays!

Craig

--- In n_scale@..., R Kroll <cnj30671976@...>
wrote:

The following is what caught my eye: From David Popp,
Model Railroader Staff.

"The biggest demographic segment in model railroading
-- the baby boomers
-- is aging and losing interest in the pursuit, Popp
said. Succeeding
generations are smaller, so model-railroad
manufacturers and retailers have
fewer customers."

I wonder where this insight comes from.

R Kroll

Just a quick addendum to Craig's and my doubts about
the demise of model
railroading because of us older modelers losing
interest.

Tonight (Wednesday), on ABCs Nightly News, guess what
was the feelgood story?

Model railroading's comeback as Christmas gifts/etc.
Macy's and Target
both selling train sets. Lionel with a 40% increase
in this year's sales
#s. Record crowds at a Manhattan train display. IIRC,
noises about $50 or
500 million???? sales numbers.

Bob in IDaho

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