Model Railroading > Walthers vs Athearn

I believe if you were to comb through the archives of the model railroad forums here, it would quickly become apparent that Athearn is the most talked about model manufacture here by a great margin. Every new model gets a thorough going over here by a variety of members. The shortcomings are pointed out and some also get corrected over time. It's really a great benefit to the hobby and leads to continuously improving models. Athearn is far from alone in this scrutiny, as BLMA, Exactrail, Tangent, Fox Valley, Bowser and others also get regular reviews. But the one company that I believes needs this spot light more than the others is Walthers. Walthers prices their models like they are gold plated, but they often fall short of their brethren in a variety of ways. Walthers has gotten into taking what used to be economy models from their own line, or from the Life-Like Proto2000 line, and then assembling them for a premium price. In most cases, little or no upgrades are made to the models. The latest item to "grind my gears" is the "Scene Master" 45' and 48' trailers. they are now jacked up to $28 per pair, but still feature the same wholly unrealistic wheels. Kind of a 2D version of a Budd 2-hole wheel with only a very shallow depth of detail. For that price, you should be getting A-line quality wheels, mud flaps, and landing gear crank. Further more, most of the prototype stroughton trailers had spoke type wheels.
Last year I upgraded a bunch of old Athearn and Walthers trailer kits in assembly line fashion, and the whole process went very quick. I replaced the wheels, and added the mudflaps and landing gear cranks. I also painted the roofs and bare metal frame parts, along with the marker lights, brake lights and bumper pads. I know these upgrades could be easily applied to the recent Walthers releases, but they seem to be happy to sell the same old outdated models for an exorbitant price.

Walthers link
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/949-2203

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/19/15 21:53 by funnelfan.

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I have often wondered about any relationship between Klambake and Walthers. Both date back to at least WW2. Both have always been based in the Milwaukee area...I wonder if they share some of the same board members as well?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/19/15 22:00 by railwaybaron.

Wow, what a great improvement!  Do you have any pics of them standing upright?
Walthers is like Kato.   They do things their way and march to their own beat.   I long gave up on such recommendations to Walthers at trade shows decades ago.   Their motto is quantity over quality, which makes them money.   So can't argue with that as far as business goes.

 

Walthers may be going for the close enough and it's cheaper market.  Athearn announced a trailer last June (due next May) for $26.98 each.  It features 

• Separate etched metal hazmat placards (where applicable)
• Separate painted mud flaps
• Painted roof, lights, conspicuity stripes, door closure rods, and more
• Three different numbers
• Six piece landing gear assembly
• Sand shoes applied with removable glue
• Sliding tandem
• Five hole wheel unless noted
• Eight rubber tires
• Etched metal mud flaps
• Fully assembled
• Highly-detailed, injection-molded body
• Window packaging for easy viewing plus interior plastic blister safely holds the model for convenient storage

So it seems that with more money many things are included on one trailer, or for less money you can receive two trailers that are not super detailed. 

Larry

I wouldn't jump too high for Athearn.. quality control wise, my landing gears on all the 40 footers broke

It's all a balance.  I usually vote with my dollars to hopefully get the message to the manufacturers.  That sometimes means purchasing a "lower" quality item and upgrading it as opposed to buying the overpriced inaccurate stuff.  Unfortunately, sometimes I bite the bullet because I want certain previously unavailable items "in my lifetime" and am willing to use my modeling skills.  Even some mediocre stuff has been on our wish list for many years.

Walthers is a mixed bag for me. They are far and away the leading manufacturer when it comes to model railroad structures. Without them, we would all have old wooden building kits or European architecture decorating our layouts. It would also be nearly impossible to model Amtrak or most other passenger lines. But the prices of their locomotive and freight car lines have far exceeded their level of quality. They reached the $300 (sound/DCC) / $200 (DC) milestone with their locomotives long before most other manufacturers, for models that started under Life-Like for 1/4 the price. While their intermodal flats are nice, I would be fine without most of their other freight cars.

Dave

Yes, Walthers has disappointed me lately with their price/qualtiy spectrum. To put another way, they are trying to sell Chevy's at Lexus prices. Either Walthers is getting ripped off by their manufacturers charging too much for less detailed models, or Walthers is ripping off the modelers by paying their manufacturers lower prices for less detailed models yet charging moldelers the higher detailed model prices. Either way, it appears that Walthers has lost its way and not kept up with the competition over the past decade.

Seems that Walthers has never fully overcome Horizon taking the Athearn line out of the Walthers distribution channel.

However, in the "even a broken clock is correct twice a day" realm of things, Walthers passenger cars are nice. And their pulpwood and aggregate cars are accurate for the southeastern modelers.

Jay

 

There's a lot of thing's I check Walthers for first, but not for Loco's, my LHS loaded his shelve's with Proto 2000 all Western roads, nothing against Western roads, but need some SE roads here, I better quit now.

Ed Stewart
Jacksonville, FL

Years ago in the 1970s, Walthers sent out a survey and asked modelers what they wanted in structures. Even as a teenager back then I told them we needed North American type structures rather than the European stuff then available. I'm glad they listened,  though I've been scratch-building most of my models both as a cost savings and the fun of creating unique models.  I find the window detail on most of their industrial structures way oversize.

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

drolsen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Walthers is a mixed bag for me. They are far and
> away the leading manufacturer when it comes to
> model railroad structures. Without them, we would
> all have old wooden building kits or European
> architecture decorating our layouts.

I have been generally satisfied with most Walthers stuff that I have gotten lately.  I admit that I haven't bought a lot of their locos lately becuase they don't make the ones that I am after (I am only seeking a few specific locos in UP, BNSF or CB&Q).  Last year I followed an impulse about bought a GP60 patched for UP and it has run long and hard for me with almost no problems.  I look to Walthers as my primary source for plastic structures to build or kitbash and they are the only ones who make plastic passenger cars in the roads that I need.  The freight cars can run from excellent to mediocre.  Trailers and containers might not be quite as nice as Athearn, but they are generally more easy to obtain.  So I have few problems with WKW.  As far as the relationship between Walthers and Kalmbach, it makes sense that two long-standing players in our small hobby would (hopefully) have a friendly relationship.  I haven't perceived WKW getting any special treatment, except that they are a big advertiser in a magazine with limited circulation.  

Gary B.
Waverly, NE

garr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes, Walthers has disappointed me lately with
> their price/qualtiy spectrum. To put another way,
> they are trying to sell Chevy's at Lexus prices.
> Either Walthers is getting ripped off by their
> manufacturers charging too much for less detailed
> models, or Walthers is ripping off the modelers by
> paying their manufacturers lower prices for less
> detailed models yet charging moldelers the higher
> detailed model prices. Either way, it appears that
> Walthers has lost its way and not kept up with the
> competition over the past decade.
>
>I think that Walthers are simply re-using their "Chevy" molds for most of their product line and just having China put new "Lexus window dressing" paint and graphics then charging the Lexus price to the consumer.  Only when a Walthers mold is upgraded might you see true "Lexus" quality as fitting the higher price.  I've purchased many 45' and 48' trailers like Ted above and have noticed that only the paint and some graphics are newer. The basic trailer details are as old as Ted: only the price has increased without an increase in model quality.  For me, if I'm going to pay top dollar for model car, I certainly don't consider Walthers anymore.

drolsen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> While their intermodal flats are nice,
> I would be fine without most of their other
> freight cars.
>
> Dave

I see it the same way.  For some reason, they did a very nice model with their 89' Miss Piggies.

Rick