Have just got back from my holiday and seen the open letter to customers on the Intermountain website: - https://www.intermountain-railway.com/index2.html
Atlas, apparently, was the first to break the news about the Chinese factory AFFA closing. That closing has affected a number of US and foreign model train companies including Atlas, Intermountain, ExactRail, Wheels of Time, Trainworx and others. There are many discussions elsewhere. Reportedly Athearn, Rapdio, Walthers and ScaleTrains are not affected. There is some word that AFFA may re-open so we'll have to wait and see. For me this is mixed news. I have been waiting on certain models from Trainworx and Wheels of Time, so those release will likely be delayed by at least 3-6 months (rough guess). OTOH, between some new releases from Atlas (FMC 5503 box cars, Intermountain (SP Beet gons) and the new release of D&RGW 3-bay coal cars from Arrowhead Models, my budget has been getting hammered hard so I could due with a break in new models!
There is an extensive thread on this subject in The Inspection Pit: http://www.trainboard.com/highball/...na-for-atlas-imrr-and-other-companies.118857/ Please continue and discussion there
