According to the latest news, Watt's Train Shop and Garden Railways, Marklin Germany has had a minor setback with the Bankruptcy Protection Filings. This filing is in no way allowed to affect Marklin's US HQ in New Berlin, WI. It is confirmed Walthers will be the US Distributor and despite these setbacks, the 2009 Catalouges are coming. Estimated Projection some time this summer. Meanwhile, Marklin in Germany has discountinued and limited production of several models. Hang in there, LGB is coming, just been delayed a bit.
I think Marklin bit off more than they can chew. Lets look at this whole picture here, Marklin buys LGB who is in financial trouble and stopped making trains. So now all of the LGB distributors are selling only what they have until stock is gone, ebay is going nuts. So now Marklin buys LGB and they themselves has to file for bankruptcy protection and still no trains being produced. Then LGB of America is out in the cold and is not included in the buy out, so the guy who headed that division up starts Silvergate Distributors and starts selling Piko products which is available. In the mean time, Marklin announces only Walthers can sell LGB products, well what happens to all of the hobby shops that specialized in LGB only products for years, who backs them up? Now they have to change to survive as LGB old stock supplies run low. Walthers may be a distributor, but Walthers also sells directly which means even if hobby shops bought from Walthers they could never compete in price. So what do I think of this whole mess? I think Marklin and LGB has left a bad taste in the American model train buyers mouths and this assumption is due to how many LGB trains there are on ebay for sale, always around 1,800. I also think they hurt the American hobby stores who depended soley on LGB sales for years. So by the time Marklin gets to America, I don't think they will do well here and that maybe the diehard LGB train owners may buy them again, but it won't be enough to keep the Marklin American doorway open and Marklin for sure will go broke, then both Marklin and LGB will be gone forever because there is no one left in Germany to buy either one or both companies out. You have Piko, but they don't have the money to buy out these companies, so you might see Piko grow to become as big as LGB and sole supplier in Europe and American for German type trains, this is just a opinion of foresight of course. Don't laugh, everone did when this world depression was predicted in the late 80's and now no one is laughing because it happened.
I heard from friends in Europe where this is a bigger story because of Marklin's smaller scale stuff that Marklin's Owner, Kingsbridge Capitol, filed Marklin for Bankruptcy simply for some additional under the table cash. All they have been able to tell me is that Kingsbridge is being investigated for illegal business practices and Marklin just happened to be in the line of fire. Living here in the US and not being able to see first hand, still makes me question my friends information, but true or not, this stunt is sending a shockwave into the US Market that's starting to affect everyone's support of LGB.
I guess I should be glad that Walthers exsists,but does it bother anyone else that they will soon be the only distributor for model RR products? Now exclusive for LGB products? All the eggs are now in one basket,now pay Walther's prices!
Route 66 Walthers will be sole distributor for LGB and Marklin products only. You will still be able to buy G scale trains such as USA Trains, Aristocraft, Accucraft, Hartland, etc from many authorized hobby shop dealers. So just dump the LGB stuff and go another brand. Besides I don't remember you having any LGB products, don't you only have USA Trains products? Still plenty of USA Trains dealers around.
Ya know your right!! I am a USAT kind of a guy,I do have some LGB Reefers from the 90's that match up well(scale wise) with my USAT American series reefers.So really the only LGB stuff I look at is old stock & limited runs..Lets face it The LGB locos that are on the market price wise are out of line of what I would pay anyhow....So your correct I'm really not in the market for LGB if she rises from the ashes. I'm sticking with USAT!!!..never mind?
I understand the concern of Walther's being the only distributor of LGB, but I'm more happy about repair services. I have some older units in dire need of repair.
