Am I the only one that thinks Walthers prices are getting too much. I mean like the new amtrak baggage car, $30.00 thats too much, if it was like $10. I bet more would be sold. I'd by a FEW @ 30.00 I'll by none.
Is that a G scale Amtrack bagage car ????? $30.00!!!! Your not the only one that thinks thats too much. I'll stick with Athearn passenger cars, and make them look just as good or better then the Walthers cars.....
<font color="336633">What I dont like is paying more for the ready to run items from walthers when they are put together poorly, i have only one of the centerbeam flats and it has loads of glue marks on it, The kits were far better quality and value.</font>
What I don't like is that you pay a high price for the thing and you still have to drill the holes for the grabs and handrails.
The price you are quoting may be the suggested retail price. I believe the 932 series is part of the new passenger car series. The passenger cars already behind schedule may be released May 24-01 at a suggested price of $31.98 Model Train Works,Finksburg Md, 1-800-852-2441 has advertizied all styles cars for $23.95 each plus $5.50 shipping.
In addition to my previous, you may wish to consider the new Con-Cor Smooth Side Full Baggage, in Amtrak Phase lV paint scheme, suggested retail $20.00, Con-Cor Tucson # 520-721-8939. Their web age be not be up to date,but here is address, www.all-trains.com
Also their building kits are expensive too. I too agree with the "ready to run" being of questionable quality. Seems to me if they want to improve sales, lower the cost some after all their not selling brass. I hardly buy Walthers anymore due to their inflated prices.
They're only inflated if you buy Walthers from Walthers. If you look around, you can get about 25% off of list. And who markets a good passenger car for $10 anymore? Most of the freight car KITS that I buy run around $15 list. And if you're good with weathering, you can clean up some of the RTR production mistakes. Besides, the most modelers will buy the model they want because they need it, and that's who Walthers is targeting. If you were thinking of buying it, they don't care. If you e-mailed them and said you wanted an Amtrak Baggage car, you wouldn't be complaining, you'd just be happy it was out. As for their kits, I've assembled their 5-unit articulated well cars (very nice set), and I have a couple of their N scale kits. I am very pleased with their products, and will continue to buy from them, provided they have what I need.
I have talked to hobby shops here to buy items from Walther's catalog, and the dealers tell me to just go ahead and order from Walthers direct because Walthers has been trying to govern the market for several years, by not giving the dealers hardly any discount to speak of. My main Hobby shop used to put out their own catalog with up dates twice a year or more, but they stopped because Walthers buys up available stock, warehouses it, and the shops can't supply unless they order from Walthers, see? Most of the time the people I know have had to wait for up to two years to receive an order from Walthers after they paid for it. Thank goodness I bought all my supplies back before Walthers took over the hobby.
I got a pretty decent deal one 20 Walthers car kits before Christmas this past year. I got the whole lot for 28.00!!!! I liked the price and got a few cars i've been wanting. I got 2 difco side dumps for my MOW train that I spoke of in another post, and a 75 foot dpressed center flat car with 4 trucks. I had little or not problems assembling the cars so far.... But it still can catch up to me because I got like 8 or 9 cars to assemble yet so... But the ones that I completed were decent, I just may have gotten lucky that time. The only complaint I have is the way their couplers are mounted onto the frames. That little coupler plate has a pin on it that is inserted to the poll that holds the coupler itself in place. My question is this, what happens if that car falls or derails and the coupler breaks??? How do you repair it? You go to remove the plate and that pin breaks and their you are and the coupler wasn't even removed to replace. I hate that system of junk they used on cars for the coupler so I took and seen that before assembling any of the couplers onto cars and drilled it for a 2-56 thread screw and mounted it that way and I can repair a broken coupler without breaking something else, when trying to repair a coupler. They should get better designers to design their rolling stock!!!!!! Because the ones that are doing it now seem not to have trains or a layout of their own!!!! They have no idea what type of run time or bad luck happens when you run cars or derailments happen all of us here that own layouts and actually run our trains know this like we know our own names!!!!!!!
Does anyone else notice that thier "new" flat buildings are exactally the same as their previous kits? Being only 1/16 as much, the best part is that they charge you $30! Its pretty funny sometimes watching some of the decisions these guys make, like coming out with the steel mill and bascule bridge in HO. They've had poor sales on the bridge especially. These would be perfect for N scale, but nope... Mike
I recently bot 2 Walthers ,trainline diesels at 40% off their catalog price plus shipping from standard hobby. It doesn't get any cheaper.
#1- Try scratchbuilding that Amtrak car! #2- I though everyone was like me-used the Walthers catalog for a reference tool, and purchased elsewhere. Lotsa purty pictures, but $$$$$$$$! #3- Someone actually found something SHS was IN STOCK on?
trainworld.com has a lot of 932 cars from $15.99 to $47.99, pg. 31 of their "HO-Scale 2000 Catalog No. 1". I don't model Walthers so can't compare with msrp, but they carry at least 20 brands at well below msrp on the others, and they are fast and fair. Herb in Hilo where eveything is flown in.
I bought a 12-car set of Walther ore cars, and they've been a headache. They have Kadees on the first and last car, and some special couplers in between the cars. The couplers are WAY too tight, and prevent the cars from any vertical movement. I've had to start trimming down the couplers so they can ride together and prevent derailments. It would have been so very easy to properly design their small couplers for the needed clearance, but did they? NO! Mark
