The end of the Walthers N scale referance book?

[jmarley76]

I don't think you have to be too tech savvy to visit a website, or do a search on it.

That's easily verified by reading comments on Facebook posts that are political in nature... 

[EspeeGoldenState]

And another thing I didn't think of in my previous post, maybe this might actually help out N and Z scales putting it in the same book as the popular HO. I know I used to think that if you can do one book on one scale, then the smaller second book has two scales and less pages, that its not exactly worth the time and effort, especially when they both I believe were the same price regardless of which book you bought.

Now granted the HO will still outweigh those two in page count for the most part, but for beginners in the hobby, it might just help out us N and Z scalers with more eyeballs.

Chris

[pmpexpress]

But they did run full-page ads in Model Railroader.  At least that is what I seem to recall.

Yep...

Wound up ordering a copy of  the utilitarian, newsprint catalog that George has described after purchasing several items from the Model Railroader ads (which were extracted from sections of the AHC catalog).

Purchasing items from either the ads or the catalog was often "a pig in a poke" transaction, because, as I recall, there were no (or there were very rudimentary) product descriptions and many of the black and white photos were not of the actual model being sold.

[pmpexpress]

Now granted the HO will still outweigh those two in page count for the most part, but for beginners in the hobby, it might just help out us N and Z scalers with more eyeballs.

Chris

Or, drive them over to HO because of the vast selection of products available in 1:87.

[Bluford Craig]

And another thing I didn't think of in my previous post, maybe this might actually help out N and Z scales putting it in the same book as the popular HO. I know I used to think that if you can do one book on one scale, then the smaller second book has two scales and less pages, that its not exactly worth the time and effort, especially when they both I believe were the same price regardless of which book you bought.

Now granted the HO will still outweigh those two in page count for the most part, but for beginners in the hobby, it might just help out us N and Z scalers with more eyeballs.

Chris

We got our copy a bit early because we have a listing. I can tell you the amount of overlap between the HO edition and the N scale edition was enormous. Think about it. Books, tools, electronics, scenery - all now funneled into an All Scales section of the catalog. As a result, the new HO/N/Z catalog is only 76 pages longer than last years HO catalog. Absolutely a wise move on Walthers part...

Craig
www.bluford-shops.com

[jmarley76]

Or, drive them over to HO because of the vast selection of products available in 1:87.

There might be more products, but they also take up more space. A compelling argument for the non-believers... 

[sirenwerks]

Walters needs to focus on its website, it is one of the worse retail spaces I have ever encountered in terms of images and searchability.

[peteski]

Walters needs to focus on its website, it is one of the worse retail spaces I have ever encountered in terms of images and searchability.

I didn't think it was bad at all. You must have not seen BLW website.    As a long-time customer (back in the newsletter days) I love Pete, his service and prices, but the website is a schizophrenic Hodge-podge of random bits of info.

[jmarley76]

It's gotten better, I do remember the spreadsheet thing they used to have. It had tiny pictures and you have to scroll back to the top each time to see the column headings.

[Rich_S]

In my younger days, my mail order purchases primarily came from the America's Hobby Center (in mid-town Manhattan) black and white catalog and Model Railroader ads, the Hobbies For Men (Beacon N.Y.) Model Railroader ads

You can add my name to the list of people who've ordered COD from AHC and Hobbies for Men. My first Atlas HO GP38 and SD35 models (Atlas / Roco) came from Hobbies for Men, $12.99 each 

 

[sirenwerks]

I didn't think it was bad at all. You must have not seen BLW website.    As a long-time customer (back in the newsletter days) I love Pete, his service and prices, but the website is a schizophrenic Hodge-podge of random bits of info.

My hobby is not Boolean searches, it's model railroads.  Someone who sells model railroad products should not insist a prospective customer be proficient in the database arts to buy from them.

[jmarley76]

You can add my name to the list of people who've ordered COD from AHC and Hobbies for Men. My first Atlas HO GP38 and SD35 models (Atlas / Roco) came from Hobbies for Men, $12.99 each 

COD from AHC? I remember ordering a few things in the 90's like that... I think it was some HO freight cars and buildings.

[SkipGear]

Back to the topic at hand. Being that I manage a shop and have first hand experience, the Walthers book is still very useful to many people. We usually go through at least 20 copies before the Holidays are over and have people crying for the next one when we sell out. Honestly the one they need to print again is an O scale catalog, that is the client group that needs a paper catalog the most.

 I'm quite happy that they combined them because the part of each catalog that made them unique to HO or N&Z was the equipment that was most time sensitive and out of date by they time the catalogs arrived. The price for this combined catalog is the same as the price for the individual versions before. If you did need both, half the catalog was crossover items that had to be printed in both the HO, and N&Z versions.

 The main reason for owning a Walthers catalog is the scenery, structures and detail items that don't seem to vary much through the year. Most of these items are shared between the scales anyhow so why bother with two different catalogs. I have found many items looking through the catalog that I would have never found using a web search, simply because I wasn't looking for them at the time. Scrolling through the pages leads to discoveries of items that you didn't know existed.

As to the comment about them not carrying detail items, since when? We reorder GMM weekly from them. We keep Ngineering, Gold Medal Models, A-Line, and many others on the wall because they are accessible from Walthers.

[OldEastRR]

I didn't think it was bad at all. You must have not seen BLW website.    As a long-time customer (back in the newsletter days) I love Pete, his service and prices, but the website is a schizophrenic Hodge-podge of random bits of info.

Peteski -- do you like anybody?

[peteski]

Peteski -- do you like anybody?

What brought this on? 

I love (in a platonic way) Pete at BLW and I like you!  How's that for an answer?