Large Scale Central

Walthers: Your Number One Resource for Model Railroading Product

General Discussion
#1

Really? “THE” Number one Resource?
The October 2008 “Walthers Flyer” has zero information on large scale.
That zero information went out to a lot of model railroaders – try the entire subscribers to Model RR. I don’t have any idea how they have gotten my address without my subscription to Model RR.

All model railroaders reading this epistle found out Watlthers thinks there is obviously NO market for large scale being encouraged by Walthers.

Nothing in the flyer. No isolated Aristo or Bachmann products. Nothing. Zero.
What’s the point? Look at the ads in Garden Railroader. Are there not products? Am I losing my perception?
Do we not exist? Do you not see pages of ads? What about the reviews? The photo layouts?
Ah, yes, Walthers, a sponsor of the The World’s Greatest Hobby!

What is the information mesage in ONLY offering H0, N, Z, and O gauge in their flyer with the self-proclaimed "YOUR NUMBER ONE RESOURCE FOR MODEL RAILROADING PRODUCT INFORMATION?

According to Walthers, we DON’T exist!

Maybe they are being honest. Maybe in the world of commerce, we don’t.

Even Model Railroader’s newest track/layout book does NOT feature a single large scale layout.

What message what do you want to send to Walthers? What message have they already sent to the readers of Model Railroader?

CONCLUSION:
Don’t claim that the industry is doing all it can to promote large scale – at least where we can see you do it.

Any takers in offering an opinon?

Wendell

#2

WHAT!?!?!?!?!
As the EXCLUSIVE distributor for Märklin, they don’t list the Märklin large-scale stuff?

Oh, wait…this came via Clambake?

#3

Number one? Smells like number two!

ha ha ha, I crack myself up…

Regards, Greg

#4

Good thing, too, since you don’t crack anybody else up.

Oh, wait, this isn’t the slam-and-bash forum!

So, this is a good replacement for the old Sears Catalog?

#5
Curmudgeon said:
Good thing, too, since you don't crack anybody else up.

Oh, wait, this isn’t the slam-and-bash forum!

So, this is a good replacement for the old Sears Catalog?


I greatly fear the print will come off on a largescaler’s bottom! Stick with Sears! :wink:

#6

IIRC Walthers HAD a standalone LS catalog back 10 or so years ago? I didn’t buy it then because, for ME, it was too spendy just for the cat, let alone anything IN it.

I’ve come to expect that large scale is going to remain the Rodney Dangerfield of model railroading anyway…I recently went into our LHS (who CLAIMS to be the “largest and most diverse hobby shop in Western Pa”)… They have a HUGE selection of model cars, military stuff, plastic monsters, a couple dollhouses, an assortment of Lionel and a bunch of low end HO… While I was in there (for paint) I made a mental note of their LS offerings – they had 2 B’mann sets, 4 single USA cars, an Aristo house and station, a styrofoam tunnel, and some Model Master (?) figures – a lovely little mostly useless (to me) hodge podge…My daughter even made the comment that I have 5 times the LS stuff they do.

I asked if they were getting in any more LS stuff closer to Christmas. The guy says. “Probably not, it’s too expensive and nobody wants it” I said, “I guess I’m nobody.” and left.

#7

My local true value hardware store had a better selection of G scale and model railroad things then most hobby stores I have been to. Its too bad they owner retired and sold the store. Now it is a tracter supply. Wish I was into G scale before they closed could have gotten great deals on g scale.

#8
Curmudgeon said:
WHAT!?!?!?!?! As the EXCLUSIVE distributor for Märklin, they don't list the Märklin large-scale stuff?
No, but they displayed Märklin H0 at largescale prices! $600+ locomotives!!
#9

My LTS has 1 Large scale car on the shelf.
(There are over 60 “G” scale owners in our area.)
When LGB went TU, he had shelves full of the stuff.
Now it’s just the other small scales.
I asked him what about the other brands.
He said no one was interested in them, and now everyone buys on line anyway.

So another LTS, “G” scale only has stepped in to fill the gap. Located in the Coeur d’Alene, Id area.
The owner is a member of LSC, as well.

Ooops. sorry for the hi-jack. :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

#10

ahhh who be the LSC train store owner? Got a web site or contact info. Always ready to support that kind of venture by a feloow LSCer.

Andre’

#11

Walthers HAD a dedicated LS catalog for years, I have one from I think 2001, but my understanding is that after LGBoA became the sole distributor for LGB, Walthers dropped the lineup from their catalog, along with the online mail-order distributors allowing buyers to bypass Walthers began having their effect, shortly afterword they dropped the dedicated LS catalog and combined it with the “other” large scales O, S and Standard Gauge. Thats the way it it today as far as I know, there selection of LS is still severly limited today.

#12

Keep in mind, Walthers has for years been the Corlione Familia of hobby distributors for years, there Modus Operendi was to offer exclusve distribution deals to LHSs, namely they WERE the exclusive distributor for almost all major manufacturers, if you wanted anything you had to go thru them or your shop would get nothing, or at least far less than going with them, so strong were their ties with the manufacturers, and for years it worked, but enter some upstarts, like some large scale manufacturers (and others in smaller scales) who set up there own deals with bulk mail order houses, allowed the average modeler to bypass this cozy for Walthers setup and buy directly from the wholesaler. Now add in new distributors like Horizon cutting into their interests, and we get a rather interesting set up, from what I’ve read on the Model Railroader forums, apparently if any shop orders from Horizon, Walthers will cancel their contract with them, sour grapes to say the least, so now shops simply tell customers that if the shop cannot get the item from Walthers , for the customer to order direct from the other shops, least they upset the Familia.

So now I’m not surprised to read something like this at all. In the Walthers Universe, if they dont have an agreement to distribute it, it simply doesnt exist and shall not be mentioned under any circumstances.

Otherwise its kinda like selling Coke at the Pepsi distributor, see?

#13
Victor Smith said:
So now I'm not surprised to read something like this at all. In the Walthers Universe, if they dont have an agreement to distribute it, it simply doesnt exist and shall not be mentioned under any circumstances.

Otherwise its kinda like selling Coke at the Pepsi distributor, see?


Aw c’mon Vic… We get people coming into the Sunoco station ALL THE TIME still in their uniforms from working for the competitors…one is even an assistant manager. :wink:

I guess I must be beyond stupid businesswise… if I don’t have something, and can’t get it, I’ll tell the customer who does (if I know). (It’s the ones who take up hours and days of your time with questions, then buy what you recommended off somebody ELSE to save a lousy $3 that burn my biscuits!)

I once had a supplier try to strong arm me. Said if I didn’t stop carrying another brand that they would stop selling to me AND include me in their “suit” against the other vendor for “infringement”… I said I intended to keep offering the two products side by side on the same table and let the customers decide…(but would also make printouts of their generous offer available to the public as well) I haven’t heard another word about the second, and they’re still selling stuff to me when I call. :smiley:

#14
Greg Elmassian said:
Number one? Smells like number two!

ha ha ha, I crack myself up…

Regards, Greg


:lol:

:lol:

#15

Wendell

On that Walthers question, could it be that they believe much of what they read on the fora i.e. “What kind of models are these “G” items?”??
The other possibilty is they realize that they’re not in the lucky position they once were; too many other sources with more reasonable prices and better product knowledge.
How much would a Bachmann “K” be when sold by Walthers? You could ask that question for any number of other items from other mfgs.

Perhaps you just need to wait 'til the enterpreneurs get in on the action.That should revive things quite a bit. Could generate some “interesting” topics that aren’t supposed to fly below the radar. :wink: :slight_smile: :wink:

#16

Yep Wendell! $210 to $250 MLGB container wagons from the entrepreneurs are really going to revive the pent up demand. I’m sure Walthers would have liked a share of that kind of pricing.

#17

The net is my source, used to be the mags about 20 years ago, but as pointed out, they are not keeping up.

Hans-Joerg Mueller said:
Perhaps you just need to wait 'til [url=http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LGBFamily/message/5620]the enterpreneurs get in on the action.[/url]That should revive things quite a bit. Could generate some "interesting" topics that aren't supposed to fly below the radar. ;) :) ;)
Good pont HJ. The net has opened up the grey market too. Nothing new, in the land of cars, we had US dealer networks that claimed that they would not support any grey market imports....whatever. The did not care what they sold parts for, a dollar is a dollar to BMW, Mercedes, etc.

A friend here in Nashville has imported Marklin privately for years, and there are already grey market importers of model railway stuff here, and compare their prices to the Romans/Reynaulds, Silvergate, Walthers, et al.

Most of my H0/H0e European collection came over from Germany and the Netherlands in the past. When you could get a set of Preiser figures with shipping from Germany at a price cheaper than the official importer, which makes more sense?