Atlas Model Railroad Co. to discontinue its online forums

I will miss the forums. I got a lot of help here and loved helping other modelers.

Sadly, I've gotten better answers and more support from people at Yahoo! groups and other online forums than I ever got from the rather short sighted and/or narrow minded individuals that assumed they were "know-it-alls" on the Atlas forums.

I, for one, am not sorry to see it go and agree 100% with the Atlas CEO that the money can be better used for development of improved and/or new products than wasted on moderation and upkeep of a site that has extremely limited potential for return of investment. They are, after all, in business to make a profit from the products they produce and sell and not to fritter money away keeping a "social club" online for the use of a few.

Those who feel that they are losing a means of contact with Atlas should try writing a letter (remember to include a stamped self-addressed envelope for replies), sending an e-mail or even making a phone call (heaven forbid that you might have to actually give up anonymity in exchange for a response), you would probably get a faster and better response to your query and waste less time weeding through all the poor responses, that at times had nothing to do with the original question you posed, from the many "know-it-alls".

I stopped using Atlas track products many, many years ago because they don't make code 70 or smaller railed track that fits in with the earlier eras of railroading that I choose to model.

I'm not condemning their products, I think they are the best for beginners in the hobby and great for modelers of post-war (WWII) modern railroads, I'm just saying that they no longer have products that fit my personal modeling needs. I sold their products for over 31 years and never had many complaints that couldn't be traced to a misuse or misunderstanding of the items.

Greg Melby
Seattle, WA.

Shows lack of customer support topped by total lack of care about the customer. I agree wholeheartedly with George Monahan from New Hampshire.

I agree with most. Atlas should have an Online forum or other presence. To not have one is short sighted and well cheap on their/atlas part. Hire a kid out of college/train nut to manage it, or moderate it. I am sure Atlas could of hired or got a scale train nut to moderate it for peanuts.. weak they backed out, so now- I have to call them? odd..

I'm just getting my layout started but I have received a lot of good advice from the forum, I am sorry to see it go. There are other ways to get good information from Atlas though.