RIP. My Father had purchased an FM and the Aluminum passenger cars in the 70's or early 80's.
I bought my first FM with paper route money in the 80's. Of course you couldn't pass up the Brass Niagara, Cab Forward, GS4 and other steamers were the Best of their day.
Here's two later Williams models that I repainted:
What a loss! My condolences to friends and family. I have had quite a few Williams pieces over the years and they all operate flawlessly. He will be missed, but his mark is indelible.
May He Rest In Peace. My Condolences to his family.
Well his company had a big impact on the hobby.I do not think there any one in o gauge that does not have some williams rolling stock.I send my prays to his family.
We o gauge folks owe a large debt of gratitude to Jerry Williams. He took over where the original Lionel Corp. left off back in the 1970s and gave us Golden Memories and O Scale trains at great value and great quality. The rest as they say is history. And ... after all he gave a young Mike Wolf a job working for Williams Reproductions.
May Jerry rest in peace.
What a great contribution to the hobby.
Many of us are one of Jerry's Kids. 
I have always admired Jerry's products, and sincerely thank him for taking a young Mike Wolf under his wing.
Thanks for all your contributions, and may you rest in piece.
Joe Gozzo
Allan Miller posted:Our sincere condolences to Jerry's family and to his many friends. And our sincere thanks for his contributions to our great hobby...
Thank you Allan for a very apropos "eulogy", Jerry was a very instrumental cog in the machine of what is today the O gauge machine of Hi-rail / prototypical 3 rail operation & collection.
My deepest condolences to Jerry's family. It was through his efforts that so many great O gauge products re-entered the hobby. He pushed other manufacturers to expand their product lines.
Sad news, he started scale steam for the masses, still recall the first ones I saw at Rich's every Thursday get together. Standard gauge tinplate trains got a lot of folks into that who couldn't afford old stuff and the Williams Reproduction O gauge line seems bullet proof for operation.
There was one or two tin copies I never saw run and didn't have much interest in, but I can recall the first Williams O I saw , it was an undecorated E or F sent to my Grandfather for pre production testing. Actually there were two. One with a pitman and plate rectifier, the other an unknown alternate. Also the first or second brass I'd ever run. Impressed enough to ask the name, the tin was pointed out, but the O was what I remember most. I had thought about writing Jerry to ask more about about those, like were they Es or Fs, etc. Looks like I'll never know for sure now.
RIP Jerry, thanks for making history.
Very sad news. Jerry was the man who gave us a chance to buy some of the locomotives we wanted as kids. He produced great products.
Sorry to hear this. Condolences to the family.
Lots of accolades already mentioned but wanted to add kudos for the "Golden Memories Series." Some nice repros of Lionel classics at affordable prices.
Jerry Williams kept this hobby affordable for many of us with his outstanding line of Lionel O Gauge reproductions. His steam and diesel locomotives were artfully manufactured, perfectly painted and incredibly reliable. I still have every one I purchased and they all run smoothly; bulletproof is the word everyone uses. I lamented the day he retired and sold his business to Bachmann. This is not meant to be a criticism of WBB. The fact that WBB kept his name on their products is a testament to the influence he had on the toy and model train industry. I am sorry that he has passed to the other side.
RIP.
It was a Williams GP-9 that I bought when I got back into O-gauge.
When I was a high school student I really wanted an FM around 1981. There was no way I could afford a Lionel but I could afford a Williams. To this day my CP Williams FM is one of my favorite locomotives. Jerry may you rest in peace and my condolences to your family. You made a lot of people very happy and that is a great legacy.
Miketg
When I retired in 1990 my partners gave me a Williams UP Big Boy. It still sits proudly on our fireplace. Inasmuch as I am some kind of Luddite happily running my conventional trains without TMCC or DCS I have enjoyed collecting and operating Williams products. His Golden Memories F-3s are superb--better than what Lionel produced. I just checked my inventory and was surprised to see that I have more Williams units than I have Lionel!! The only fault in the traditional Williams offerings was the sound system. Imagine my pleasant surprise when I acquired an early Williams Missouri Pacific F7 and discovered it had an Ott sound system. Wish he had put them in all of the diesels.
The toy train business was and is dominated by amazing businessmen and visionaries and Williams was certainly one of the best.
Lew
I assume and hope there is a brick for Jerry Williams in the TCA HQ walk. I think there should be a bronze statue of him in front of the building. He touched all the bases. I laugh thinking he got his start recreating the "old Lionel" ,and then went to the opposite Pole and got my intense attention by being the first with hi-rail with his brass NMRA engines, including not more Pacific's and other "passenger" engines but an unheard of Mikado, which l went to a great deal of trouble to acquire. He was the instigator for the boom in variety in O 3 rail. My sincere thanks, Mr. Williams.
Williams Trains, back in the mid 1970's brought me back into model railroading. The prices and engines and cars were very affordable. His bringing back Post War Locomotives with can motors that would run and run and run was very interesting to many groups and clubs. Yes, Mr. Williams Contributions to Our Hobby will Live on for Many Years to Come.... It is so wonderful that he helped others continue his work.....We wish his family our sincere sympathy at this time. They will be in our Prayers....
I have always loved Jerry Williams brass engines and have never had a problem with any of the ones I own. He was Great!
Very sorry to hear about the news of Jerry Williams passing. We as hobbyists will always be grateful for the contributions he made to this hobby.
Thanks Mr. Williams! You made classics within the reach of us all.
Bruce
Thanks for a great write-up, Allan. Jerry deserves all your praise, and then some. Mike Wolf got his start in trains working for Jerry, I believe when he was still in high school, so Jerry's influence went beyond his own Williams-branded trains but also to Mike's Train House and what would become MTH Electric Trains. It's fair to say that O gauge wouldn't have had the growth it's seen since the '80s without Jerry Williams.
I have several Williams engines, including a PRR GG1 set -- a great bargain compared to what a postwar GG1 would've cost -- and some diesels, not to mention a couple of WBB trolleys (my wife loves traction items), and some rolling stock, too. I'll always be thankful for Jerry's role in expanding our options as O gauge railroaders.
Condolences to Jerry's family and friends.
Chris
Jerry Williams was a visionary in the model train market and came on the scene at a time when Lionel and only Lionel products (MPC) were available. He reproduced the expensive hard to get Lionel engines and passenger cars and made them affordable to the masses. His products were always of good quality, ran well and early on they were all American made. Condolences to the Williams family and they should be proud that Jerry's legacy lives on with Bachmann.
Rest in Peace Jerry, you done great things for our hobby. All I can say is thanks'!
RIP Jerry Williams. Thank you for all that you did for the hobby. My Williams trains are still the best that I own.
rest in peace, you left your mark on the hobby and its industry
Without Jerry Williams, THERE WOULD BE NO MTH TRAINS!!! This was Mike WOlf's MENTOR.Now think about how far his influence has reached into our hobby.
A man that brought so much enjoyment to many .
My condolences to his family.
My sincere condolences to his family. And for Jerry, although I've never met you, I've heard many a nice complement about what you have done for the hobby, Thank you. We always joke about "The light at the end of the tunnel" Well I'm sure the many engineers who are running that train will gladly stop that train and tell you to "Get On", because no matter how many engineers, conductors, brakeman etc, are on that beloved train, they will always have room for one more. Rest In peace.
My first O gauge locomotive, purchased in the mid-1980s, was a Conrail Mighty Mite, which of course became the Beep under RMT.
My first scale-sized O gauge steam locomotive was Williams' diecast scale Hudson when it was released in 1999.
Since then, I added a variety of Williams locomotives, purchased new and used, because they were affordable and nicely rendered.
It is sad to think that a modern-era pioneer us no longer with us, but at least his family should know how much he was appreciated for his efforts.
Sorry to hear that Jerry Williams, the founder of Williams Trains, passed away. I like what Jerry Williams did with the Crown Edition line.
Didn't know that he influenced Mike Wolf.
Just wish that Bachmann would do more with the Williams line. It seems that Bachmann wants to bankrupt the Williams train line, or why else almost no new production items. Along with a new engine we need a new caboose style for Williams trains.
Lee Fritz
I got my start in model railroading during the sparse times of the early to mid 80s, when there was little new product in 3 rail o gauge. Fortunately, there was Williams, whose expanding line of traditional and scale trains made the o gauge world affordable and exciting. It seems like everyone I knew in o gauge augmented their traditional Lionel postwar and mpc product with Williams traditional sized trains and postwar reproductions, often in more interesting paint schemes than the Lionel original.
I had some of the traditional Williams trains, but it was the Williams hi rail scale in the mid 80s that really got my attention and cemented my interest in scale hi rail trains. Indeed, without these I likely would have be pulled into the world of ho. The Williams scale brass camelback was my favorite o gauge train from when I recieved it in the mid 80s, through the 90s. I have since moved on to 2 rail o scale and my Williams products are sold, but I will always remember when I first was showed by Williams what realistic, ready to run and affordable o scale trains could be.
Thank you Williams.
My fleet wouldn't be the same without my Williams GG1s and Peter Witts...
(raises a glass)
RIP.
Has anyone seen his obituary?
Norm
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Thank you for the video and obituary. I did not know the man, but I bought a lot of his products. It is not all about the trains, right.
While I morn his Passing His LEGACY will live on, A tribute to a great Man. Gods speed........
Here are some early catalogs from Jerry Williams' early days 1969 with Standard Lines and his first independent catalog from1978?
his work in standard gauge certainly changed the collectors world ,offering the expensive classics to a wider audience of collectors and operators
Carey Williams
The first non-Lionel trains I bought (and that was in the 1970s) were made by Williams.
He was a true pioneer.
RIP.
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