N scale lobbyists at Walthers

[peteski]

This is something I learned about at the Amherst model trains show in Springfield, MA last January, and I kept forgetting to mention it here.

While at the show, I had a conversation with the Walthers sales rep (there weren't many, if any N scale items on his tables) about Walthers and their apparent aversion to N scale. He did tell me that few new items were coming, but what I found most interesting was that he mentioned that he was an N scaler himself.  I think his name was Keith Schmidt.  He also told me that quite a few of Walthers employees are also N scalers, and that they are trying to get Walthers to produce more N scale items. While it doesn't appear that this internal lobbying is working well, it is good to know that there are people inside the company pushing for more N scale items.  While he could have just been "blowing smoke" to appease a customer, I hope that his statements were true.

[ednadolski]

Did he say anything about what sort of items?   (structures, ...?)

Ed

[peteski]

Did he say anything about what sort of items?   (structures, ...?)

Ed

It was the structures they officially announced in the beginning of 2019.  I don't remember which ones (he didn't have any samples on hand).

[mplsjct]

I sure would like to see them bring their brewery to N scale, and the whole series of grain handling buildings.

[EmdFan]

Walthers featured quite a bit of N at the NMRA in Salt Lake this summer. They are working towards getting more youth in the hobby, and in their booth they had an N scale layout that slid under a (mockup of a) bed, and had two pizza box layouts, one of which was done by Keith.

In my talks with the Walthers folks I get the feeling that they may start paying more attention to N. They did take note of some of their former products in our (Atlas) booth.

Walthers is staffed by some great people, and while I admit that I too have gotten frustrated over the lack of attention to N I think if we give them some time we may be pleasantly surprised.

In the meantime as a rubber gauger  I'll be content either way between HO and N.

Steve W

[learmoia]

They did take note of some of their former products in our (Atlas) booth.

Did you let them know its selling quite well.. 

~Ian

[James Costello]

déjà vu back to 2015

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=35612.msg419965#msg419965

Keith is a member here.

[peteski]

déjà vu back to 2015

https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=35612.msg419965#msg419965

Keith is a member here.

Interesting  . . .   N-scale sure is a small world. Um, 1:160th   And he has visited fairly recently (Oct. 9th).

[muktown128]

I'll make sure to stop by the Walthers booth at Trainfest and spend some time chatting with the folks there.  I'm planning to be there Saturday and possibly Sunday also.

[asarge]

When I was in the retail side of the hobby, we had a bunch of conversations with manufacturers, WKW and others, about N scale and the comments were generally not all that positive. They all have their reasons but it's a tough sell out their in all scales, not just N. I applaud Walthers fro letting someone else take over the N scale loco's and rolling stock and I really didn;t see Atlas suddenly growing a very strong showing in structures. Walthers has developed that niche and in HO at least, is moving beyond Model Railroading.

I expect we will get some more out of them, but they didn't seem like they want to go back in the past to start new tooling for N. I personally wish they would do the grain series in N but oh well. I do think that the large structure series like the steel mill, ethanol and auto plant series is a tough sell and would be expensive as the run would be smaller. Most modelers, but not all, tend to model in small parcels and not give up a lot of layout space for large industry sets.

[diezmon]

Don't let them talk to Ken Patterson.  He'll talk them out of it.   

[EmdFan]

Did you let them know its selling quite well.. 

~Ian

Yes I did!

[Point353]

Did you let them know its selling quite well.. 

As an Atlas distributor WKW should be directly aware of how well those products are selling.

[OldEastRR]

Wonder if Walthers is going to keep track of how much of the old LL stuff Atlas produces and sells ..."Gee, that could've been us!" wait til the FAs start rolling out in more road names...

[peteski]

Wonder if Walthers is going to keep track of how much of the old LL stuff Atlas produces and sells ..."Gee, that could've been us!" wait til the FAs start rolling out in more road names...

I highly doubt it.  They still make profit as a distributor of those now-Atlas models.