This is the post I don’t want to make but the time has come. I just can’t do this without Lynda. Following is the notice I sent to all the magazines.
After 60 years in business, NWSL will cease operations effective August 30th, 2019. The company will continue to take orders for in-stock products until July 1st, 2019. Closure is for personal reasons and sale of the business is not anticipated, although reasonable proposals will be considered.
I don’t believe there is another business out there that has the expertise and broad-spectrum of drive line parts that NWSL has.
Good Luck, Ed
[edit] I don’t do the Book-in-a-Face thing, but if you do here is a link to the post:
That’s a big loss for all of us in the hobby. They have been consistantly there for us with great products and help as long as I can remember. I certainly wish them well and pray for someone to step in and take over the business. Leaving for personal reasons leaves a viable business to step in to for someone. Then again, Champ left for similar reasons and they never were purchased. Let’s just hope for the best.
My, that would be a blow, they are the go to supplier for a lot of driveline essentials. If it’s not RTR, they had your back. Increasingly, everything seems to be RTR. Even that needs hacking, though and NWSL could be counted on for that, too. A tragedy if this line ends.
That’s really too bad! I use their products all the time, and I hope someone picks up the business. There are too many models out there that need their products to work better or even at all.
Based on my own communications with them a few months back, I think I have an idea of what the personal reasons are, and their wanting to close/sell the business is perfectly understandable. I do wish them well!
Is there another company out there that can fill the void? Don’t take this as me being insensitive to their reasons. I just need to know if there are others out there.
We have to hope that someone will come along to keep the business going. I wonder how much of a hassle it would be to move the company to Canada? Jason??
I sure hope so. But there certainly would be a “learning curve” for the new owner/operator. Doing that kind of precision gear cutting is an art.
I wonder about the other excellent NWSL products, too, the Chopper, True Sander, pullers and quarterers?
I understand Dave Rygmyr’s wife Lynda passed away in late 2018 and the business is becoming burdensome for Dave in his present situation.
I’m still holding my breath for someone to step in for Jordan Model Products to continue the much needed vintage vehicle line. Still holding my breath [+o(]
Geezz, MB Klein just had a sell-out sale on lots of old-stock NWSL stuff, too. I passed on it thinking I can get what I need anytime. [:(]
You said it, Ed! It’s particularly bad news for us O-scalers, as we have so few suppliers for common 33" metal wheelsets. I know of NWSL, PSC, and InterMountain. PSC’s are pricey and InterMountain’s have only pointed axle ends. I also liked NWSL for 28" and 30" wheelsets for steam locomotive pilot trucks. I suppose I’ll have to try to come up with the price of some of these for “stock” before they’re gone–if I can afford them on a retiree’s income… (Maybe some of our Catholic bretheren will do a novena for finding a buyer?)
I never found the need to use NWSL products as I always bought replacement gears from the manufacturer.I still have a supply of Athearn BB gears,screws and coupler clips tucked away in a small Plano storage box in my tool box.
I have never bought any NWSL products either - [edit] oops, actually I have a NWSL True Sander - forgot about that. I always think wheels and gears with that brand.
It does sound like a loss to a segment of the hobby.
Anyone who really needs their products should order anything critical now as they have until August before they shut down. They are entertaining reasonable offers so they could live on under a new owner possibly.
Gear cutting is an art, especially the small gears that the hobby requires. I’ve never see the operation, but I would assume that Northwest employs many craftsmen to run their parts. Being in the tool & die trade for 50+ years, I feel that the only way would be to acquire the entire operation, real estate and all. That way you could keep the current employees. Finding new workers in another location would be close to impossible. One solution would be an employee buy out. I hope it could happen.
At this point, I wouldn’t be surprized to see the tool line (Choppers, Tru-Sander, Dupli-Cuter etc) get acquired by Micromark - don’t they already have some similar tools?
This is not good. Most of my friends and I run brass. Without NWSL things are going to be pretty tough. I have at least 10 projects that need parts from them to complete. I was thinking I had the luxury of time to figure this out – apparently not.
This will definitely affect the brass market for those of us who like to run them.
And like you couldnt see this coming? Lets face it the game is changing, it has been for a long time. I doubt there will be any hobby shops of the type we were used to in future, just bigger online suppliers. Now the train show may make a comeback to some extent as these big companys need to show off their products but that is after the last hobby shop has died. As imersion printing becomes mainstream and other printing systems improve, many of the gears will be made if there is a need and prices will come down.
Did you read the quoted message? Sounds more like the owner just wants to get out of the business, lost his wife etc.
Hobby shops close largely for similar reasons; owner gets old and retires or passes away.
Any single owner business is going to have an end-point unless there is a succession plan.
As for the loss of hobby shops, it isn’t just hobby shops closing, it’s all kinds of brick & mortar stores. Commerce has shifted to online in a major way. Many stores are closing as online shopping has taken over. Couple the loss of train shops because of single owners aging out, with the paradigm shift to online, and that’s pretty much the story. Not necessarily a doom and gloom scenario.
IIRC, at some point in time, Micro Mark designed their own knockoff versions of the NWSL tools. I had heard this happened after they could not get a better volume pricing deal from NWSL.
I have many of the tools and love them. I also used lots of their wheels on my old Athearn engines
The motors and gears have saved many engines over the years. I suspect the ‘replace it, rather than fix it’ trend has eaten into the business…