Where are all the Walthers Life Like Diesels?

[Nato]

        My posting in the Kato New Passenger Train Thread about Milwaukee Road FM Erie Built Diesels got me thinking. I own an A-B-B-A Milwaukee Erie Built set from Life Like, they lack the chrome nose trim and are pailted in the Maroon and Orange scheme that these locos were later painted in. Life Like released a number of very nice locomotives in many attractive paint schemes. Walthers so far (and maybe forever?) has chosen to offer very few of these. We get the constant rerun of the GP20/18 in mostly the same road names, the GP60's in even fewer roads,the FM C Liner in mostly undec and another road,and a very limited run of the       SW 8 switcher. The tooling for all the Life Like line is not lost forever somewhere in China. I wish they would realize what a good thing they have going and bring back the Erie Builts, FA 1's ,FA 2's ,Alco PA's ,all of the E Units,8/9,7.6's,and even upgrade the drive train for the unique BL 2's . Oh well I guess it ain't going to happen? The one suprise was their tooling up the new Alco RS 2. Nate Goodman (Nato).Salt Lake, Utah.

[wm3798]

Didn't you hear?  HO customers don't buy N scale equipment, so apparently there's no need for it to exist.

Lee

[inkaneer]

Maybe Walthers realized that they cannot put out the same LifeLike engines that people were buying for around $16.00US and up the price by a factor of 5 or 6.  At $16.00 the FA/B 1's and the GP 20's were a great buy but at $90.00 they are a good bye [pun intended]. 

Also the Bachmann NE caboose coming so close to the Walthers/LifeLike release has to be sending some shock waves through Walthers.  I would not be surprised if they withdrew from N scale all together. 

[wm3798]

I'm totally good with that, provided Walthers sells the tooling to someone who will update it and use it.  We had it really good there for a while...  The quality LL gave us was worth what we were paying for Atlas.  I'd have no problem paying comparable top tier prices for those engines with a few modest upgrades like DCC compatibility and some refined details.  (and that assumes that I have the ability to pay for anything!)

Lee

[Alwyn Cutmore]

My Life Like split frame FA2 and FA1 are great runners and will out pull most other models I have. But my Erie Builts the two A-B set that were released are now collectable as they have not been made again. Whenever the Erie Builts come up on eBay, and that is very few and far inbetween they always fetch top dollar. I even have two A-B-B-A V Line shells that I will not get rid of.

Regards

Al

[jmlaboda]

"At $16.00 the FA/B 1's and the GP 20's were a great buy but at $90.00 they are a good bye [pun intended]."

I don't know... anything is possible, just look at the stunt that they have pulled with the NE caboose...

[MichaelWinicki]

I have one of the new, DCC-ready GP20's and it's a gem.  Runs as well as an Atlas, Kato or IM.

I like getting discounts on my loco buys, but I don't think this is anywhere near a $16 loco.

If someone is going to drop $90 for an Atlas or Kato, well...

[sirenwerks]

For FA A/B sets with updated frames, DCC-ready & body-mounts I'd pay $90. Now if they upgraded the detail, that would be a different story, but the likelihood of that is nil anyway. I'd like to see the Centuries again and the E units. I need a couple DL109s, but can find those on show tables.

[Wardie]

I have one of the new, DCC-ready GP20's and it's a gem.  Runs as well as an Atlas, Kato or IM.

I like getting discounts on my loco buys, but I don't think this is anywhere near a $16 loco.

If someone is going to drop $90 for an Atlas or Kato, well...

The reason $16 is mentioned is right before Life-Like sold everything to Walthers they had over produced a bunch of UP GP-20's and the FA/FB sets and they ended up being put on sale at $16-$20 a locomotive, I myself bought several of the GP-20's at something like $16.32 and used the mechanisms for various GP-7/9 projects.

The FA/FB sets were going for aorund $39 a set which is $19.50 per A and B unit.

I would love to see the C-424's, and FA/FB's again myself, as well as the BL-2's and E-7A's.

[Mark5]

I likes Walthers for their N scale structures (they really rule in this area) and their passenger cars, but anyone remember this?

some lagging news ...

According to this, Although no specific details were available at the NTS event, a senior Walthers executive dispelled rumors that the company was softening its support of N scale by confirming to MRH reporter Jeff Shultz that two new N scale locomotives would be announced before the end of the year.

http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/mrh_news_online/aug-2010-p3

Now, is a senior Walther's executive some old senile guy? Does "two new" mean re-releases of Lifelike stuff or  really new?

Not much movement from Wally in the loco area since then ...

Mark

[MichaelWinicki]

I'm not sure when the GP20 and the SW8 were announced, but they were new "insides", so maybe those are the two that are referred to in the article.

The GP20 was released.

The SW has been delayed until Jan. 2013 according to Walthers.

[S Class]

I likes Walthers for their N scale structures (they really rule in this area) and their passenger cars, but anyone remember this?

Not much movement from Wally in the loco area since then ...

Mark

They're having trouble sourcing the new jewel case 

[sirenwerks]

They're having trouble sourcing the new jewel case 

Damn, now I have to go watch Vollmer's Walthers parody series.

[sizemore]

The reason $16 is mentioned is right before Life-Like sold everything to Walthers they had over produced a bunch of UP GP-20's...

I worked for a LHS/Life-Like distributor, that was a short 20min ride from their main warehouse. What I can tell you, it wasn't just GP-20's or FA's. They overproduced everything, both N and HO. We'd have a our upstairs warehouse filled, and our shipping floor filled with P2K HO stuff on every release. Locomotives...freight cars...you name it. Same thing would occur with the N scale to a lesser degree only because N jewel case size vs the pretty HO boxes. Everyone loathed the LL releases we couldn't move between stacks of cases, UPS hated doing the evening pickups.

Before the next major release, 1600 Union Ave would have a firesale and sure enough the warehouse and shipping floors were filled again.

As a customer if you had a problem with a locomotive or a broken part, they'd walk right into the warehouse and bring you a brand new locomotive free of charge and let you keep the broken one to boot. Even their dumpster was a goldmine. Because of Jacque Cousteau's brother, the dumpster diver...eventually led to a revised policy where they'd take the warranty pieces and destroy it before dumping it.

The largest problem with the GP-20 and the FA-1's, even at fire sale prices, no one wanted them. A few got wise to shell swaps on the 20's. The FA's were just a burden.

The S.

[Nato]

              I must agree with what has been discussed here so far and the Walthers (Wally) executive who made the anouncement of two new items was a woman. Nate Goodman (Nato).