Model Railroading > Shinohara Shutting down the track Business?

Hey Folks,

I was just watching Ken Patterson's "What's Neat This Week Video Podcast #35 May 12th 2018" and he mentioned that Shinohara is closing down it's track business on account that the family want's to retire and has no current "heirs" to pass on the business. I went looking for a website but found none and a search of the various forums I lurk (including this one) have nothing on it either.

Anyone have any more information on this? Thanks.

Best regards,
Mark G.
NVN #40

My local hobby store sent out an email 2weeks ago, with his Shinohara switch inventory as the subject, and when
these switches are gone, there are no more.

Walthers sent an email the other day that they were experiencing problems getting
track and they would take backorders and fill them as product became available.

Wouldn't this be a business that somebody would want to take over, somebody
with superb quality control!

Frank30

Well, back to scratchbuilding switches.

That leaves Peco, Atlas, Micro Engineering and Bachman. Is that enough?

I thought Walthers was pretty tied up with this mob anyhow.Couldnt they just take it on 100%.
Regards,DK

Rapido tried to introduce a line of track but they could not find anyone to produce it for them so purchasing the Shinohara production capacity might be to their benefit. That would assume Walthers is unwilling or unable to make that purchase.

I was just assured by my local dealer that Walthers/Shinohara just signed a new contract and business will go on as usual.

SuperChiefDon

Shinohara's Japanese website states they are closed and retired so this is hard to believe to be true.

Bruce


ATSFSuperChief Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was just assured by my local dealer that
> Walthers/Shinohara just signed a new contract and
> business will go on as usual.
>
> SuperChiefDon

Just because they retired doesn't mean that they won't sell their assets and rights to the name to someone else. I can't see any reason that someone would retire and not sell off the assets of their company. It would be their retirement nest egg.

For the record, I had to replace several curved switches of other brands. Years of experience proves that curved Shinohara switches are the best. As for straight switches, Micro Engineering’s are also great. Sounds like Shinohara will remain around, which is good news for the future of our hobby.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/18 10:40 by Westbound.

Westbound Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> For the record, I had to replace several curved
> switches of other brands. Years of experience
> proves that curved Shinohara switches are the
> best. As for straight switches, Micro
> Engineering’s are also great. Sounds like
> Shinohara will remain around, which is good news
> for the future of our hobby.

Hope so, thanks god I've stock piled dozens & dozens over the past 30 years. It will be interesting to see who picks up the Shinohara line & expect a #6 @ $40 bucks a pop and life goes on. Botta bing batta boom

Posted from iPhone

wingomann Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just because they retired doesn't mean that they
> won't sell their assets and rights to the name to
> someone else. I can't see any reason that someone
> would retire and not sell off the assets of their
> company. It would be their retirement nest egg.

Don't count on it.

My guess is that the Shinohara owners already have a sufficient retirement nest egg, where the sale of their business/assets is not a necessity, and that's based on the cultural differences between here and Japan. They are probably looking for someone to continue the tradition, and it's difficult to convince someone outside the immediate family to do that.

I watched an NHK documentary on the process of how descendants take over businesses of their parents/grandparents few months ago, and my opinion is based from that. Here's an example of a smooth transition to have the heirs continue the tradition:

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?3,4185102

Wasn't there some sort of article on the Shinohara product line a few years ago before Walthers added their name to the product line? Very similar to the above mentioned Kato family story but it was about making track and switches.

There was something about the molds for the tie sub-assembly, emphasis on being low volume, hand made and trimmed by hand, general theme of craftsmanship and family tradition. The overall story at the time was about retiring from the family business. Obviously something extended the product line and we're back at the same crisis.