Williams Trains - Great Prices - Buy now!

Yeah - I went and bought FOUR Williams E7's (B&O, ACL, and two SOUTHERN - one for my grandson!)

Wife is being awfully quiet.

All the Williams engines are a great buy.  I have a great deal of respect for Williams trains.  Back in the  70s, I credit Williams for getting me back to an active roll in the hobby.  Growing up as a kid, I worshiped the Lionel Trainmasters.  Williams now made Trainmasters available at a great price with something called a can motor.  The Williams can motored Trainmastrer was a mind blower.  It was a fantastic running locomotive then and is a great runner today. 

I do DCS conversions and many people bring me Williams engines to convert.  I consider Williams the best bang for your buck in the hobby.  With Larry Harrington at WBB, things keep getting better.

I just ordered another BL2, this one a GM Demonstrator, and a PA-1 AA pair, D&RGW from Pat's trains.  I've been considering for a while, and decided to purchase now before they are gone. 

I agree with the suggestion that WbB will be rolling-out their revised O line, probably all with sound over the next few years.  The going is slow, so many Williams units will be unavailable during the extended interim.

Here's my new WBB Southern E7 AA set pulling my new MTH 20-65194 Southern 70" Passenger set ( just got that yesterday!) I know this is a Williams thread, but I just have to say that the MTH Southern passenger set is absolutely the best quality I have yet seen in a passenger set. After you start the video, make sure you select the little gear in the lower right of the screen and choose 720p for high def!

Great looking layout.

Thanks Marty!  As long as the trains go around in circles and don't fall off it's a keeper!

John - actually, I noticed that the headlight was indeed "flashing" on and off - not prototypically "pulsating" right and left as it should (and as my other Williams E7s do) - so I opened 'er up and saw a blue wire had come loose from the "MARS" pulse controller board.

Now she pulses - which is even cooler than the flashing!

I have the Pennsy version of that WBB locomotive.

Is that Johnny Cash music playing in the background?

Actually, that's a CD called "Bluegrass Railroad", by Ronnie McCourey, that I picked up a while back at my Local Cracker Barrel.

Marty - do you install Electric RR for TMCC? If so, I'd be interested in sening you one of my Southern E7s - what is your email?

I am guessing that there is still some profit margin or at least selling at cost in these blow out prices. Gives us some idea what these items are costing the suppliers. RMT is selling traditional size boxcars for $20, Lionel lists the traditional size Presidential boxcars for $65, huge difference in pricing.

I have done them all and right now have been working to catch up.  I was down for a while with health issues earlier this year.  My time has been stretched as I also do repairs for Charles Ro.  Good thing I am retired.

Marty - so, I guess that means you;re not taking on new installations at this time?

A chat at the Bachmann booth left me feeling they plan more upgrades to the Williams engines. Now is the time to buy those $99.00 ones you've been thinking about.

Lyle, I need about 2 months to catch up.  I do have a MTH premier Hudson to do for my good friend LocoLawyer.  In past years when the warm weather arives trains slow down.  Not so anymore.  Our hobby is a year round situation. 

Lyle:  Please correct me if I am wrong.  On my WBB E-7 I should see side-to-side lights for the one headlight, not just 'flashing' like yours does in the video?

Jim 1939:  The pricing is up to the distributor.  I think that Bachmann limits direct sales to retailers.  I know of 2 that have bought some of this in large lots directly from Bachmann.  Most, I believe, are buying from a distributor, so the pricing is in a black box and inconsistent among retailers since some buy from different distributors.  Not a criticism, just that the supply chain is very complex and clear as mud.

Thanks.

John - well, side to side, top to bottom, depends on how the light bulb is oriented in the socket.  If you take the shell off, you can easily rotate the bulb so that it appears more side to side.

It is a very subtle pulsating, but definitely different than just blinking on and off. It's only one bulb, but the MARS controller board somehow sends varying electronic pulses to the bulb to make it look like a pulsating motion.

Here it is just blinking....

And here it is after I fixed the loose connection on the MARS controller board (the second time around the track shows the best view)...

It was VERY hard to capture the pulsating effect on video, but it IS much different than a simple blinking on and off.  I'll try to post a better video of it Friday night.  Hope this helped!

Williams has great quality and value when discounted like that. However you need to want to buy the engine, I say that because most retailers don't have the railroad that I want(need to be interested in that railroad) on a great sale.

I am not trying to put down Williams but here in southeast Florida, if you buy a Williams consider it yours permantly. I have talked with a couple of store owners or assistant store owners about the re-sale of Williams or even the initial sale of Williams, they say people are interested in the product until they see the box it comes in and then the sale comes to a complete stop.

Lee Fritz

That's unfortunate

My first Williams engine will be arriving early next week, and I can't wait to rail it to see what all the hubbub is about!

Assuming I'm happy with it, I also plan to pick up the Chessie GP-38 when I can find it for ~$100-$125.  It doesn't seem to be getting the deep discounts some of these other Williams models are getting.

I've often entertained this very same thought.  And with 2012 very much being a banner year for blow-outs in general, it's hard to take MSRP's seriously.  Gotta let things settle and pay accordingly.  Nobody's losing money though... EXCEPT for the shop that bought product earlier (at a higher internal cost) and didn't move it before the price-adjusted, blowout product (with much lower internal cost) hit the street -- leaving the shop pressured to discount.  Few, if any, of these items are THAT much of a "must have" to the point where folks will pay MSRP for it even when the blow-outs are all gone.

David

Anyone with the technical ability of a model railroader can easily wire a conventional layout with block sections....and by including decoupler tracks and other cool conventional track items, can come very close to the freedom of DCS for a fraction of the cost.

Now throw in the fact that Williams is now making scale detailed locomotives that meet or exceed the higher priced offerings of the competition, including SOUNDS...

Man oh man...as a former DCS user, all I can say is that I can now buy more locos and cars for them, track, buildings, all kinds of stuff by the TON, all due to saving anywhere from $200-$900 per loco just by buying Williams trains.

I run DCS on my middle level and conventional on my upper level...and let me tell you, as much as I love DCS, I am more addicted to conventional...because with just a little elbow grease, you can wire that conventional layout to do whatever you need.

Big deal, so I cannot uncouple and couple anywhere on the layout...as far as I am concerned, both my DCS and conventional layouts have places where my trains are supposed to perform such actions. Thus, there is no need for that ability on my conventional layout, i.e. to uncouple anywhere. ok, so I dont get the air hose sound when they decouple or a clink when they couple. Not worth the extra money for that LOL!

I estimate, that i was able to buy a few extra thousand of dollars of extra stuff for my conventional layout with the savings I get by avoiding $500-$1,000 locos and instead buying $139-$250 locos. Same with the cars for them. And now with the added details and sound on Williams conventional locos....I am set for the next 20 years for total buying bliss, extra money, and no "guilt hangover" that I bought a $700 toy that will probably break, cost even more to fix at a service center or shop...all for a toy made in CHINA.

BAH! I am a technology guy, I love technology, I worked in technology, but when it comes to my trains....they can keep it at the prices being asked for. I am sick of model trains being a rich mans hobby.

Williams have great quality, however I have enough trains for now!

Also Western Depot has some really good prices and more selection from what I can see then Pat's Trains has. Just my opion.

Like others have mentioned, who needs all the newest electronic gizmo's that will just fail sooner or later?

Lee Fritz

I keep saying and thinking the same thing...but somehow around Sept thru January, new trains keep appearing in my house. Not sure how or why, but there is no way to stop them.

Kind of like Tribbles in Star Trek.

Check out our web site also

Charlie....I see only Bachmann accessories on your site (9).  Nothing as far as some of the great deals mentioned above....am I missing something?

Alan

Charlie....I see only Bachmann accessories on your site (9).  Nothing as far as some of the great deals mentioned above....am I missing something?

Alan

Thats how I get in trouble, I just looked up over to Adam's desk (our IT guy) and asked about this and he didn't get it up since we got back from York. We had to see what we had left after the show. It will be up in the next day or two. Sorry!

You can always call them and ask them if they can cut you a deal on them.  Worst case scenario is that they will say they can't.  Just don't call them on Mondays as they're closed that day.