Athearn vs Scale Trains Which is Better?

Both of these brands are among the best of the best when it comes to model railroad manufactures, especially in the plastic sector of the model train industry. Between the brands, there are lots of similarity's; however that being said there are also some fairly large differences that might sway a modeler to a specific brand. 

Lets dive into each brand a little to form an understanding of the two, then we can use our understanding of each brand and compare some apples. 

What is Athearn Trains?

Athearn Trains is currently a sub house brand of the Horizon Hobby empire, seemingly the largest hobby manufacture and distributor of models across the hobby board. 

Athearn currently runs several lines of detail and pricing features. Ranging from the most detailed Athearn Genesis, midrange Athearn RTR and beginner models from Round House. 

 

What is Scale Trains?

Scale Trains is currently a growing multi member us based business. All of the members of the ScaleTrains.com Inc have been involved in the model railroad industry at some point in time. 

Scale Trains currently runs several lines of detail and pricing features. Ranging from the most detailed Rivet Counter, midrange Operator and beginner kit models from Kit Classics. Another line was briefly run that seems like it may disappear; Museum Quality, these models offered top of the line details and functionally for a pretty steep price. 

 

Major Differences Between Athearn and Scale Trains?

Major differences come down to just a few things. Dealer Sales / Customer Availability, Pricing, Turnaround and offerings. 

Dealer Sales / Customer Availability:

Athearn Trains

Athearn has a large dealer network, while they only sell to hobby shops with a retail storefront. They are open to new dealers that can fulfill the retail store front checkbox as well as some other minimal and reasonable checkboxes. This means customers can source Athearn products through their local hobby shop or even preferred online shop. It also means there are hundreds of locations across the globe that a customer can walk in to a hobby shop to find an Athearn model. They can physically see, hold and admire the model before purchasing. 

Scale Trains

Scale Trains has a small dealer base, they are also not adding new dealers as of this writing. They desire direct customer sales, not dealer sales. With this small dealer network, the pricing of the models will be the same across the board. Be it a dealer our direct purchase. In most cases it will be cheaper for the consumer to buy direct as Scale Trains offers free shipping. Not all dealers offer free shipping. Depending on the state your in, Scale Trains may or may not charge sales tax to your shipping destination. 

Since there is a limited amount of dealers that stock Scale Trains products, customers do not have the ability to see a model in person without having purchased the model. In many cases, if you want a model you have a guarantee a preorder, this mean you are not really given the opportunity to walk into a hobby shop and purchase a Scale Trains model at your leisure. 

By not offering dealer sales, Scale Trains is allowed to profit more on the sales of their direct to customer sales. While this allows them to produce a minimal extra profit to fund further tooling costs to out run Athearn... It's not supportive of the hobby and the hobby shops. With out hobby shops, customers will soon see a day where everything is purchased direct from the manufacture at full MSRP. A customer will loose the ability to see products at their local shop, loose any discounts shops may have offered and the knowledge that lingers around hobby shops. 

 

Comparison Between the Two

While both brands price their models around the same MSRP, Scale Trains has a unique MAP policy in place. In simple terms, the price is the price is the price. It won't matter where you go. On the other side of the fence, Athearn models can be found a varying pricing around the globe from various retailers. In some cases, looking at the ES44 GEVO locomotives, the Athearn models may be upwards of 10-15% cheaper than the counter part because of every day discounts dealers offer. 

Both manufactures offer nearly the same level of detail in the Genesis and Rivet Counter lines. Each manufactures at the end of the day makes the highest detailed models on the market when compared to alternative manufactures. 

Both have some of the same models, while Scale Trains is growing and offering more models as time and funding permits. Athearn has a tremendous portfolio of tooling. With a massive selection of 4 and 6 axle locomotives, and nearly 4 times as many freight car offerings. Athearn sure take the cake for the larger catalog. 

When it comes to quality control, Scale Trains has already sent full runs back to the factory after arriving at the warehouse and not meeting their standards. Athearn seems to be working on changing their tune and learning quickly from Scale Trains on how to handle product issues. 

So, which manufacture is the best? Well.... that would be a relative term. In the essence, the best would only hold on a model both offer. That would then depend on personal preference, relating to the look, feel and color of the model. 

With each manufacture having models the other doesn't have, there is no "best". It becomes who has what you, the modeler needs.