You know I would really love to have a DL-109 but why waste an order a slot in my modeling budget when they will most likely cancel it anyway.
Simple, really. Hubert's bought Athearn effectively shutting off Walthers from that line of locomotives. Walthers bought the LifeLike line to have a guaranteed presence in the HO locomotive marketplace. Walthers is an HO-centric company. As much maligned as Concor has been in the past with their "foobies" I have to admit that they carried the ball for N scale when no one [read Walthers] would. Yes, Walthers will distribute N scale but they will not invest money to make it. In other words they will not invest in building the N scale market because they see it as a threat to their HO kingdom.
I promise to have as much respect for Walthers as they've shown to their customers in this fiasco. Let's recap: 1) Walthers announces a new run of SWs, and they're gonna be "DCC ready." 2) A few months later, that's scaled back to "DCC friendly." 3) Walthers misses the original delivery date (spring 2012, I believe), says the engine won't be out until Jan. 2013. 4) Several months later, Walthers posts on their product page the new SWs will arrive Nov. 2012. 5) The second delivery date passes. No word from Walthers. They silently drop the date from the product page. 6) A few weeks later, Walthers leaves it up to its distributors to announce the entire project has been cancelled. Only when directly queried do they admit the project is dead. It's like a course in how to destroy customer relations. Jim
I'm sure glad I got a lot of Life Like stuff some years ago. when they first came out with the GP-18, it ran so well my son and I bought a bunch, and at the then price, it was a god send. We bought a lot of LL stuff, I think I own at least 8 of the SW's we bought some, and I bought out a friend who got out of the hobby.
Yet another thing surfaces in my memory about the discussed company. Over my many years in the hobby I have had just plain bad luck in getting my orders filled. I was lucky to be able to get 60% of my order if that much. Speaking with other N scalers back when it seems it was a widespread problem. Now I don't know about HO or the other scales but I do know about my misadventures in N scale since the 1970s. And as recently as last Christmas my Wife had ordered me something on my wish list that remained unfilled months later, in fact was never filled. As N scale has grown over the years the problem has never gone away with them rather than getting better. Took me two years just to get some full heavyweight baggage cars when they first came out. Back in the early years if you wanted to have a full heavyweight baggage you bought two combines and bashed them. It finally took a phone call only to find out they had dozens of Rock Island cars in the warehouse not moving. Didn't model the Rock but had decals, stripper, and paint and I relieved them of an even dozen. Now with a lot of the suppliers selling direct to the consumer I've been going that route when necessary. So my days of buying catologues and ordering from them are done with the exception of the rare times when something in the flyer they send out is being dumped on the market at a very cheap price. Even that I look at, like my chances of winning the Powerball, that I may actually get what I ordered.
They may be one of Kato's biggest but every other N-scale Manu are leaving them like the plague, just look at there overprice catalog for proof. I think I saw only Atlas and Kato on there last catalog that a page through before putting it back on the hobbyshop shelf. I think Horizon/Athearns has done more for N that Walthers, even though that have scale back some of there N-release to catch p on there factory change.
Thanks, you know when I typed my original post I had the feeling something was wrong [notice the edit notation] but I couldn't figure out what it was. Now I know. Thanks again.
Over here, there are very few so-called model shops dealing in N. They stick to Hornby and Bachmann OO products in the main, and most of them are multiples with a "railway" department. Those which do N are normally dealing in "British N" (148 rather than 160) though some do the 160. I've no true measurement on this, but my guess is about 9 shops dealing with OO to every one shop dealing in UK N. Those of us who do US outline N soon find specialist shops to feed our requirements and two I have been using work from home! Regards, Pete Davies
George commented in Post 17 that one of our least favourite companies seems to be hoping folk will tire of waiting for N and got to HO. Over here, my experience is that folk go from N to larger scales only because of failing eyesight. Regards, Pete Davies
The same seems to hold a good amount of truth here. Also, On30 has gained great popularity and a good number of folks are going that way these days.
I think you give them too much credit. If they are thinking this, then they are even dumber than if they are just too focused on HO to notice N. Their website is atrocious: difficult to navigate, and their prices are not competitive with other e-tailers. In other words, their website is not bringing in any new customers, in any scale. Their entire clientele must be oldtimers who are loyal to them from the old catalog days. I bet a majority of their sales still come from mail-order and through hobby-shops, not online. No, the real reason they are dogging N-scale is because they are behind-the-times business people who don't know how to market through the e-tailers and forums where more N-scalers find out about things now. So through their own fault they don't get the pre-orders they expect or could get, and then they blame the market for being too small. The real problem is that they have enough business in HO to keep them busy and are too lazy to pay attention to N, where they could grow their business if they tried.
If they are going to be this way, maybe they should at least have the consideration to spin off Life-Like, again, so another manufacture could produce their products.
Well, I cannot find anything stated above here as any point of disagreement. I feel pretty much the same way. But I would add one comment. Back years ago, Walthers was an industry leader in promoting the hobby. Very overtly so. Which made them a huge name and very popular. (Yes. I know they have a big page ad in magazines. These days it takes a lot more noise than just that.) Nowadays, their leadership simply does not make it obvious, if actually an agenda to push the hobby itself. There are so many folks out here with sour opinions of them, from eternal backorders, to not keeping their stock situation clear to the public, prices which make too many of us yawn, to? I've bought just one catalog of theirs in years and tend to just ignore them any more. I guess that is what they desire from us. Sad situation. Although some might attempt, assigning any blame to the public just won't fly. Climbing the mountain is hard to do, but once atop, you cannot just sit on your hands, you must work even harder to stay up there. Otherwise you will quickly get pushed off! Which is exactly they are allowing to happen to them.
That's a bias N scaler's misnomer, passed on for generations, and a stupid business model. No. Just, no. And what is wrong with that??? They did that for years before, why not now??? Yeah. N scale is a threat to them making more money......better shut it down...... Oy. Catalog is just as big as it was last year, and the year before. Perhaps your confusing companies folding from the economy, and no longer in stock for them leaving one of the two biggest distributors. This. This. This.
