Walthers 2006 catalog


Larry

Long Winded Old Fart
Has anyone noticed that the new Walthers catalog doesn't have any Athearn stuff in it this time. Do you think it has anything to do w/Horizon Hobbies owning it now? There's a bunch of other items missing too. I did notice that since Walthers bought out Life Like hobbies there's a bunch of pages covering Life Like. Oh well, that's business, I guess.

Larry
 
Oh well, that's business, I guess.
Right on Larry, I guess I'll start buying up old Athearns just for parts for my fleet. I think I'd better do an inventory check first. I was looking at my pictures on Rail Images and seen locos I didn't know I had. Guess I'd forgotten what's in the train room drawers. Funny how buisness works so hard to encompass all to capture the market, then closes in on itself excluding those it doesn't own, then forgets it's opening a niche that another company will capitalize on thus creating a major competitor to the previous company. It's the name of the game I guess. I still haven't heard where Horizon Hobbies will fit into this yet. They are/were the distributer for the Canadian PK LifeLike models, I take it that that decision hasn't been decided yet. Oh! well I'll build my own out of what's available (including junk)
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Willis
 
I bought the catalog to see "all" the new products, especially Athearn. I buy some Walthers products, but, not from Walthers. They don't give hardly any discounts. They say they do in their monthly sales flyers, but if you look at the other mailorder hobby houses they don't even come close. I usually buy Athearn, kato, Stewart & some Trainline.
I think I'm going to go completely modern next year & get rid of a lot of my older engines. some of my older stuff is Kato & Stewart. I guess that's why I keep holding onto it. I think I'm going to try to put that running gear under some of my newer dummy's, but I never get around to it.
Since I'm putting larger radius track in the layout, now, I can run a lot of the 6 axle loco's which I already have in Athearn & Kato.
Sometimes I wonder why I buy all these loco's, don't have enough track to run all of them. When You leave them sitting around for long periods of time it's not good on the motors. I use to run mine every month no matter what. Now it seems like it's about every 6 months & a lot of them are very tempermental about running for short stints.
Oh Well, that's model railroading. Seems like we just can't stop buying those engines. I need a 10 track main line. Guess I'll have to ADD ON later.

Larry
 
In all fairness to Walthers...
I needed some O scale track pieces for an Exhibit I'm putting together for a historical society. I couldn't find them locally and checking the web found them to be rather expensive. Walthers had them and the price was better than any of the other places that I checked. The delivery was fast as well.

I don't normally buy anything on the Internet that I can get locally, but Walthers came through for me. As far as Athearn no longer being in the catalog, that is the result of Horizon's policy, not Walthers.
 
http://www.walthers.com/
Larry said:
I buy some Walthers products, but, not from Walthers. They don't give hardly any discounts.
That's odd. I bought a CP GP9u from them on sale for $31 (it's $39 regularly) a couple months ago and when checking recently they had a CN caboose on sale for $5 ($8 regularly)! Too bad for them I got a close-up look at a CP version of that caboose at a recent trainshow, with its owner and I agreing that it was basically a really crappy look alike.

I have a small fleet of bayview cabooses (2), so until I can find an Athearn cupola caboose or better, they're trailing my trains!

PS. I buy all the stuff through that catalog. It's great!
 
I agree with the general lack of discounts. I think almost every mail-order or online store you can find has better prices than Walthers. Walthers sticks with, or pretty close to, MSRP 99% of the time. Their "sales" aren't much of a sale either, at least IMO. (Then again, a dealer's perspective is probably a little different than most). I sell Bowser and Stewart items at 30%-50% off. I think Walthers would have a heart attack if someone ever slipped prices like that into their catalog :rolleyes:

Although, as Mr. Hensley said, they do have items that can be difficult to find elsewhere. (I'd love to see their warehouse...I know what it takes just to keep track of the relatively small supply I have on hand). I ordered some detail parts and decals I wasn't able to get through my normal supplier. Unfortunately they didn't have the quantity I requested (I think I ordered 12 of the one item), but what they did have arrived within the week.
 
Hi Roman. I'm kind of curious, did you order from Walther's direct or through a hobby shop?

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Willis
 
CBCNSfan said:
Hi Roman. I'm kind of curious, did you order from Walther's direct or through a hobby shop?

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Willis
Through a hobby shop (they also give a discount of the standard Walthers price). Going through Walthers would requite crossing the US border and me don't like customs!:p

Funny thing, I was just thinking about that today. When I visit Halifax I'll go see the hobby shop there, but what will I look for?...
 
I just recently ordered direct from the Walthers site for items that were either out or not stocked at my normal internet sites. The service was very quick and I got my order in only 3 working days and a weekend. Yes, the prices are MSRP unless a sale item, but if you are in a hurry or can't get them otherwise... As far as the shipping cost goes, if I buy at least $80 then I have covered the shipping by not having a sales tax of 9%.
 
I've bought a few things from Walthers & the service was quick. But, after I bought the item, found it about 10 to 15% cheaper some place else. I had already bought it & had to keep it, but, I'm real careful about buying an item now w/out checking Toy Train Heaven or Standard for pricing.
I buy a lot of stuff from a mailorder house in Miami, Fl. that is quick to ship & has an internet site. They handle Faller, Preiser, Vollmer, Trix & a few others
& give deep discounts. Anyway, Walthers is a good company & I'm sure has great prices for some. That's why I started this thread to get some comments
about why they didn't put Athearn in their new catalog. I remember when Walthers only had their own products listed. Now adays it's probably easier to go on line to see what's new.

Larry
 
Hi All, the reason I asked Roman if he ordered direct from Walther's, is that orders to Walther's from Canada had some serious issues in the past. I was hoping things might have changed. The last I heard of Walther's requirements from a forign country is orders have to amount to $2000. Walther's ships by UPS, a dirty word across the border. (Actually it's not UPS that is the problem but their Brokerage agents and their extra charges, like a $5 item could cost you $40 to get it). Also Walther's would only sell to an authorized dealer. We used to have a hobby shop here close by, he only ever put one order in to Walther's (he couldn't believe what his first order cost him). Like Roman I buy from close by hobby shops by mail, using the Walther's catalog for item descriptions and numbers. This can be a slow process if the item isn't in stock. At this time I've been waiting more than a month for a couple of items. I get them at a decent price, helps keep the shop in buisness so I won't complain about it, if it takes a couple more months. :rolleyes:
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Willis
 
CBCNSfan said:
Like Roman I buy from close by hobby shops by mail, using the Walther's catalog for item descriptions and numbers. This can be a slow process if the item isn't in stock. At this time I've been waiting more than a month for a couple of items. I get them at a decent price, helps keep the shop in buisness so I won't complain about it, if it takes a couple more months. :rolleyes:
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Willis
That's exactly what I do. Got to support a local hobby shop even if its not that local (about 100-200km from me).

Wonder the VIA cars are... In a Walthers warehouse somewhere I'm guessing. LOL.:p
 
Larry;

I'm surprised that no one has answered your original question yet. The reason you won't find Athearn, nor MDC/Roundhouse BTW, in the Walthers catalog is they are owned by Horison, who is another distributor like Walthers is.

There has been a great deal of howling and gnashing of teeth in the other forums about the whole Athearn/Horizon deal. But Horizon, being in direct competition to Walthers will not "advertize" in Walthers, and visa-versa. Like you said: "Oh well, that's business, I guess". It sure is.
 
Another little tidbit I wanted to bring up is; The cost of engines & rolling stock. It seems like in the past year & a half that these items have almost doubled in price & some trippled. Do you think it's labor cost or imports?
An engine about a year ago that was $45.00 has gone up to $98.00 or more.
Doesn't this seem strange to some? It's the same materials & basically the same paint jobs, etc.
 
Labor costs haven't gone up for the companies who have everything made in China and Korea :mad: But it does cost more for the US loyal companies to manufacturer their products. On a side note, the price of plastic has shot up significantly over the past 6 months (a lot of people forget that plastic is oil-based, and when gas prices jump, plastic prices are doing the same). I really don't think that's much of a factor though. The engines (and most rolling stock for that matter) that are made today are generally more detailed and of a better mechanical quality than the products of yesterday/year. There simply isn't a market for cheaper "junk" items anymore...for the most part once a modeler gets a higher-quality item they look for all their subsequent purchases to be just as good or better. Companies aren't going to make any money on $45 locos, so they're naturally not going to bother to produce them.
 



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