Saw an announcement yesterday the Atlas has purchased Walther's N Gauge trains, namely Walther's N Gauge locos and cars as well as Lifelike's. Walthers is retaining the buildings. What does this mean for Atlas O scale?
DIck
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CBQer posted:What does this mean for Atlas O scale?
DIck
Hopefully, it means atlas O will keep chugging along....
IMO. Purchase of market, they may discontinue, either their own line, or the Walther's Lifelike line, market one product line to a larger number of customers, and probably at a higher price. IMO.
CBQer posted:Saw an announcement yesterday the Atlas has purchased Walther's N Gauge trains, namely Walther's N Gauge locos and cars as well as Lifelike's. Walthers is retaining the buildings. What does this mean for Atlas O scale?
DIck
What does your question have to do with the price of coffee? What was your thought on Atlas O Scale?
Both valid points,maybe the purchase means something to O Scale,maybe nothing at all. 1 thing it tells me, Atlas is working in other scales,not O Scale. Would've been nice to see headlines like "Atlas has purchased the outstanding Weaver Line and is updating the tooling," or "Atlas is expanding their Master Series as well as their Trainman Series. New additions to the Master Series,will include a 3281 2 bay ACF type covered hopper as well as a 72 foot centerbeam flatcar. In the Trainman Series,Atlas is expanding their 4750 covered hopper car line, to include more car numbers for most offerings in addition to the number of offerings of more car lines. Also,for the 1st time,Atlas will be offering an upper/lower safety shelf coupler for their line of Master Series tank cars,as well as a lower safety shelf coupler for their modern cars built with these couplers,or in recent years,modernized,with this type coupler installed". That would,IMO of course,be GREAT news for O Scale,a sign it's moving forward in sales and offerings.
Lets face it,at least this ways heavy in my mind,O has to stay reasonably competitive with other scales to hold the interest. I know it will at best,never be able to compete with HO as far as the offerings. At my age,well it don't matter much,but it is disheartening to in recent months,to see so many closings of businesses in O Scale.
All of this is just my thoughts that never amount to much.
As Always,
Al Hummel
Funny - the same question came up on the Atlas forum but that fellow was worried about the future of HO.
Sean
Oh HO will always be alive. True N&Z scales have knocked serious wind out of it,but with 3 manufactures I know of making the 4750 cvd hopper,I have no worries there.
As Always,
Al Hummel
PRRHORSESHECURVE,
My sentence "What does this mean for Atlas O?" is exactly what it asks. We don't know the answer and Atlas certainly won't tell us. Like all of who like and enjoy Atlas products, we hope for the best, many times to be disappointed by them. It seems the HO line, as well as N scale, runs well and on time but the poor brother O is left in the lurch. I am a semi-retired widower and as such do not have an unlimited income so I must plan my purchases with care. An example is the latest release of the Trainman GE unit. Home long did it take? Long enough that the loco I had tagged for me had to be released because money was needed elsewhere because it just took too long. We will never know the real answer.
Dick
I guess this is a thread of speculation and educated scenarios. With that being said we can try to be optimistic. I read what everyone has said thus far and it sounds like this has been the experience of modelers in "our" scale for years. In my time, I believe the growth in offerings has grown but not at the rate of some of our brother scales, specifically HO. There's strength in numbers and when HO is leading the way in model railroading that is where manufacturers will prioritize. A sad but true fact of life.
This clearly is and will be a determining factor when newcomers enter the hobby because affordability and limitation will come into play. I think it's important to continue to support all of the sponsors on this site and others who give us quality product and hopefully they will continue on and hear our cry.
One positive thing is this allows O scale modelers to continue being leaders in the area of creativity and skill set. When you see an outstanding and extraordinary O scale layout you know that it was not an "off the shelf" product but that the owner has went out of his or her way to make that layout second to none because there was no other choice. It makes one appreciate it much more and the "wow" factor carries a little more weight IMO.
Dave
I’m sure that Atlasxspent all the money they were going to use for O Scale to buy this tooling
I think a better question may be what does this sale mean for Walthers? The fact that they are keeping the Cornerstone N scale structure line could simply mean that they can’t find a buyer at this time, maybe because they have too much inventory on hand for a prospective buyer to be attracted. Or, is it possible that their sales figures actually indicate a better market exists for N scale structures than for locos & rolling stock?
Bill in FtL
Walthers N scale line is basically a low end line that doesn’t compare to Kato & Atlas. I can’t imagine they were turning a large or any profit from the line. I never bought them because the detail was low and they didn’t run very well. I wouldn’t worry too much about this as Atlas has acquired a couple of other lines as well.
The company to watch us ScaleTrains. With any luck, they may see the need to do O scale as their current HO and N scale offerings are fantastic
Matt Makens posted:Walthers N scale line is basically a low end line that doesn’t compare to Kato & Atlas. I can’t imagine they were turning a large or any profit from the line. I never bought them because the detail was low and they didn’t run very well. I wouldn’t worry too much about this as Atlas has acquired a couple of other lines as well.
The company to watch us ScaleTrains. With any luck, they may see the need to do O scale as their current HO and N scale offerings are fantastic
If what Matt M is true, then All Atlas did was add additional product to their n scale Trainman line. So any funds reserved for "new tooling" has been depleted with this purchase. Brace for more reissues. At least Atlas O has aquired the "foreign Weaver line" to include in their O scale product mix.
Scale Trains doing one of their GE EVOs in O scale would be fantastic. unfortunately I would not see them offering a 3 rail version and 2 rail only would probably not generate sufficient reservations to make a project like this feasible. JMO
I've discussed O scale with Shane Wilson from ScaleTrains, and our conversation suggests that other people have too. My take is that they are open to the idea. It's just not practical at the moment as a new-ish company with limited human and financial capital that's already allocated to developing and marketing product for HO and N. It's also clear that they recognize that the O scale/gauge environment and culture is very distinct from HO and N, and that they don't have the necessary insight into the market like they do with the smaller scales.
Now if I wanted to step up and bankroll the development of an O scale product, in whole and up front, Shane would gladly take my call. 
I'd love to see ScaleTrains get involved with O scale, especially with a modern project. I like what they are doing, and I like their commitment to detail and getting their models right.
Jim
I suspect that the purchase of the Walthers N scale line by Atlas will not mean much if anything for Atlas O. Walthers got started in N by purchasing Life-Like and never really developed the line to the level needed to compete in the large and competitive N marketplace. It seems like it may have been simply an opportunity for Atlas to get some new tooling at a fair price. Walthers has always been much more competitive in HO scale and has been for along time.
PRRHORSESHOECURVE,
When did Atlas acquire Weaver? The wife says I'm lost most of the time so I guess I seem to have missed this too. I thought it was Lionel that got some Weaver hoppers and boxcars.
As Always,
Al Hummel
Alan Hummel posted:PRRHORSESHOECURVE,
When did Atlas acquire Weaver? The wife says I'm lost most of the time so I guess I seem to have missed this too. I thought it was Lionel that got some Weaver hoppers and boxcars.
As Always,
Al Hummel
Not long after Weaver "closed", much of their product line was acquired by both Atlas O and Lionel. Lionel acquired the "U.S. based/manufactured" products, while Atlas O acquired those products that were tooled/made overseas.
Atlas was in to n before 0 they probably want the best Walthers engines and will most likely junk, Life Like smart move to buy the competition and junk it.
