Rivarossi Gone for good?

I heard someone say that Rivarossi is no more. As far as american pototype is concerned at least. Hornby is taking over Riv. and moving production from Italy to China. The rumor is no more American loco's. I am very worried that if I want a Big Boy I will have to pay too much at a train show or E-Bay; have to buy a Trix for way too much, or buy from Boadway Limited should they ever make one. I liked Rivarossi because they were the most affordable. I looked at the Bowser kit and was not impressed. Someone tell me that this rumor is not true!

 

Hornby has been cleared by the Italian govt. to buy Lima (who own Rivarossi) and ave stated aims to move production to china. That is all true, there are press statements on Hornby's site confirming all of the above.

Hornby's main stated aim from these purchases is to move into new marketplaces, at present it is a UK-only supplier, apart from buying Electrotren of Spain earlier in the year.

Whilst nothing is certain at the moment, my best guess is that Hornby will eventually use the Rivarossi brand to enter the US market. They have technology that could go down quite well in the US if presented in US outline models, such as their live steam loco's.

A second best guess (and I think much less likely) is that they will shop around the existing US manufacturers looking for a buyer for the Rivarossi tooling. I think that's less likely purely because they have stated they intend the purchases as a way to enter new marketplaces.

Least likely of all is that they will have paid lots of money for recent tooling of popular models, and they just leave them sat in a cupboard somewhere....

Might be a couple of years before you see anything from them though. They don't physically complete the sale until later in the year, then they need to asses the tooling & equipment they have got (and Lima/Rivarossi/Arnold/Pocher have made models covering the planet in many scales for many years, so there is potentially *lots* of stuff to get through) then work out what they are going to do, do artwork, and get the stuff actually being produced to a good standard over in China.

In terms of the US market, they also have to try and access a distribution network...

 

I agree with Martyn here. I believe the purchase would be to increase their range of US outline models, rather than decrease it. I am sure there will be some gap in production during the transition phase....probably starting now until the official takeover....and there will probably be some 'pruning' of the rivarossi line (will the 2 truck heisler make it??!!), but I think we'll continue to see the range trickling through.

 

The purchase will hopefully steady Rivarossi, rather than let it continue in the usual up and down Italian bust/acquisition/rebuild routine.

Just about every well known Italian company except Ferrari, and possibly Ducati, have been through it several times. Who owns Moto Guzzi today?

Maybe we'll see a cleaned up F/FP45 in N, hmmm??

 

My *guess* would be you will see the recently reworked HO stuff first, which includes the Heislers, log cars, FEF, streamliner and 60' HW coaches, and there was also a big C&O steamer of some kind too...

All of those are good quality models having had a recent reworking, and ought to be able to reappear with the minimum of effort.

Don't know wether they will rebuild the link with Walthers though, or try and go it alone, it was almost as if Walthers was specifying the standard of the recent models, and it did produce some good results. Hornby might have a bit of a learning curve with the US market otherwise.

That's the guess from my crystal ball

 

Thanks for the reassurance! I can patiently wait for a Big Boy model at least another few years. By then I may have the bugs and kinks worked out of my railroad.

 

It's an interesting quote. They *might* be talking about Rivarossi, but Lima went bust and stopped shipping much earlier in the year, and certainly Walthers has no Challengers (though it looks like they still have FEF's and Heislers if folk are interested!)

On the other hand, Lionel have announced only a Challenger and a Turbine in HO, they have delivered both of them and AFAIK have announced nothing else...looking at http://www.lionel.com/ I can find no mention of them making a product in HO scale.

My take is that it's directed towards Lionel, there are comments about Athearn having a long history of supporting the HO modeller which would also be true of Rivarossi, but not lionel.

 

Quoting from the Athearn email:

'another maker of Challengers is again leaving the HO marketplace'

Rivarossi have left. Lionel have already left once in the past. I think it means Lionel.

 

Press Release - Snipped from Hornby's site. The highlighted bit towards the bottom is relevant to the US market: