Time for some current information.

The passing year started completely different from how it began: quietly. The Czech car models had been delivered and we were all waiting together for the Marschbahn trains in H0 and the Czech dining cars as well as the cars from the EC 100 in orange/grey. And waited.

Various circumstances in China meant that the factory could only work two or three days a week, and so the delivery dates were repeatedly postponed. In addition, from late summer onward, there were imponderables in the transport to Europe. You will have followed this here and there in the news.

In October, the delivery started. And what happened was what you try to avoid as a small company: everything came at once. A challenge for the warehouse, for shipping and communication. But a lot could be managed before Christmas. Then, shortly before Christmas, there was a setback in our shipping department due to illness. We are currently lagging behind the targets we set ourselves and are running at half speed. Shipping times have been greatly extended. We are currently organizing a short-term interim solution until our shipping department is working at 100% again. Therefore, I ask all those who are still waiting for a package for a little patience. And all who are still waiting for the invoice for the order as well.

On the other hand, the models have been very well received, some are already sold out. There will be a re-release of the Marschbahn cars. And also for the EC 100 we are doing a small re-release – different from what we thought. After rather moderate pre-order numbers, this one was practically sold out after only a few days.

Meanwhile, the DE2700 diesel locomotive is making progress, for which a separate article will be published soon. In January, we will make completely new sound recordings for the locomotive family on the living object together with the electronics supplier ESU. We expect the locomotive to be delivered in April/May 2022. Further variants are in preparation.

An outlook on 2022

2022 is planned to be a somewhat quieter year. Our Czech cars continue to be delivered, as well as the marschbahn cars in the NOB version. Another variant is being prepared. In addition, we will of course use our existing molds to offer the Czech supplementary cars for the blue and white EuroCity trains. And we can make even more out of them.

I would like to thank you for your loyalty, your patience and your interest in our models in the past year, and I look forward to you taking a look at our assortment in 2022 as well. There will always be news.

I wish you a happy new year 2022

Christian Arndt

ASM

Das Jahr ist fast wieder um. Weihnachten ist da.

Je nachdem, wo man aus dem Fenster sieht, wird es wieder einmal eine eher herbstliche Weihnacht denn eine weiße. Aber das spielt eigentlich auch keine Rolle. Es geht darum, zur Ruhe zu kommen und einmal nicht im alltäglichen Strom der Gedanken, was noch alles zu erledigen sei, mitgerissen zu werden.

Das Team von ASM wünscht Ihnen allen ein ruhiges Weihnachtsfest.

The delivery of marching railway wagons in H0, the building kits and the Czech wagons is running at full speed. Looking at the calendar, the goods arrived very close to Christmas. We are open and honest and do not want to promise anyone that they will have their model delivered by Christmas. We do what we can, and we cannot change the parcel delivery times. But: You will receive your model.

Best regards,

Christian Arndt

ASM

The Czech dining cars are here!

-> Delivery will start on 19 December.

The EuroCity 100 “Jože Plečnik”, consisting of the Czech EuroCity cars in the original orange/grey livery has also arrived.

The matching dining car is of course also part of it

-> The number of pre-orders for this train was high, secure your model in time. There will be no further edition of this EC 100 train.

Also the nice lasercut house kits in Scandinavian wooden house style “Lyngstad gård” are available.

-> They can be ordered now from your dealer or from us.

The finished house can be equipped with interior lighting. Each room can be lit individually; interior walls make this possible. Additions for the enclosure are planned for next year, so that the building ensemble can be completed.

Many greetings,

the team from ASM

Dear model railway friends,

The Marschbahn cars have arrived. Yes….but where?

After we had started the delivery, we received feedback that the reading and programming of the decoders for the interior lighting did not work in digital mode properly. A test on our part showed that this is true for many digital command stations with the exception of ESU Ecos and Märklin CS1. Analogue operation is not affected.

What happened?

The digital decoder expects a certain pulse length of the signal when reading out and programming. With some digital control units, the required length is not reached, so that the decoder stops working, so to speak.

Why does one do this?

The aim was to get a decoder for the interior lighting that responds equally well to digital and analogue operation. While everything was still in order during the acceptance test with Ecos, Lokprogrammer, Fleischmann Profi-Boss/Intellibox and Märklin CS2, a mistake was made during the final programming, which was not noticed during the test of each individual wagon at the factory. A digital commanding unit was used there whose signal is long enough (Ecos).

And now?

We have stopped the delivery. All cars will receive a software update and will be tested again. This has already been done for some of the models, which are being delivered as of today. Your dealer and ASM will take care of the goods that have already been delivered; the respective dealers have been informed.

This is all very annoying, especially in the run-up to Christmas. However, we are working flat out to rectify the situation.

Thank you all for your understanding.

Best regards,

Christian Arndt

Yes, if you look at the current situation regarding the transport of overseas freight from China to Europe, you wish there was a functioning hyperloop. Or the functioning teleporter of Mr. Scott from the starship Enterprise. But first things first. I would like to give you an overview of the current status of production and delivery.

Production at the Guangdong plant in China was limited to two or three days a week during the summer. The reason was a lack of water at the power plants, so there was not enough electricity for industry and also for private households. The summer was hot and very dry. Actually, we all – including the plant staff – had hoped that this situation would end by the end of August. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Perhaps you have read it in the newspaper or heard it in a report on television. In some regions of China, it is said that they are struggling to meet the government’s targets for the reduction of CO2 emissions for 2021. And so they are now trying to avoid further emissions. By restricting electricity purchases and industrial production. Our factory is also affected by this. An economic disaster for the factory, its owner and all the workers and employees there.

For our models, this means that realisation will continue to be postponed. The DE2700 in H0 is affected, as are the EuroCity cars of the EC100and the dining cars. The latter will hopefully be delivered before Christmas. It is not foreseeable. We expect the DE2700 in spring 2022.

Transport is worth another chapter.
Until now, we were used to receiving the goods by ship within three to five weeks. In the meantime, this time is needed just to wait for transport capacity on a ship. You can confidently calculate ten to twelve weeks for transport by ship.
The situation is not much better for rail transport. Here you can calculate about eight to nine weeks of transport time. It used to be 28 days.
That leaves air freight. Do you guess? They have recognised the demand and increased the prices. Five times more than before, to put it concretely.

The factory was kind to us and sent us part of the Married-Pair wagons by air freight, the other part by rail. The models sent by rail are on their way, but as of today they will not arrive until the beginning of December. This delivery includes all the supplementary sets as well as some of the basic sets. We will deliver everything we have already received, as soon as the remaining pallets with the models arrive, they will be delivered; without extra costs, of course.

You are not enthusiastic, we are not, in the factory they are not….who is actually the winner of this situation? Strictly speaking, no one. Except the hauliers.

And when will all this change for the better? There are rumours that things could get better in the middle of next year. But we will not sit back and hope.

Unfortunately, I cannot give you any better news at the moment.

Christian Arndt