As a newbie its difficult enough to learn all the different brand names of the train products and their quality ratings. Many of the same products it seems have been made by multiple brand name companies where the products are the same or very similar. This may be because of company bankruptcy, acquisition, or simply one company that makes a product or product line for another companys name brand. Here are a few I’ve stumbled across. I’m hoping some more experienced modelers can help clarify these and add more of their own to help eliviate confusion from the new comers.
Life-Like / Proto / Walthers: From my understanding Life-Like made low quality engines until they started the higher quality Proto 2000 line (for Walther exclusively?), which is still sold by Walthers who purchased Life-Like and sells them as Proto 2000 (P2K), but the trains say Life-Like on them (not P2K or Walthers).
Con-cor and Kato RDC engines (n-scale only?) seem similar. Is there any relationship here? Con-cor used to make these, but it seems Kato is only manufacturer of these now.
Rivarossi and IHC passenger cars - These two company names seem to be used almost interchangably with their passenger cars, but quality and actual products may differ? (red box better than blue box?).
What other products are really the same or what other company mergers, acquisitions, etc. are there?
This is pretty complex and your question has no real simple answer.
Lifelike used to be an independant company and when they lost money they were sold off to Walthers. They are not going to go to the expense of changing all the tooling so they still say Lifelike. The paperwork does not.
Kato did contract work for Concor,Atlas,Stewart, and maybe some others. They have retreated into their own lines now.
Stewart is now owned by Bowser.
IHC was at one time the importer of Rivarossi but Rivarossi was an Italian company which went bankrupt and is now owned by Hornby. IHC imports Mehano from the Czech Republic. The cars are not the old Rivarossi.
Athearn and Roundhouse used to be independant but are now owned by Horixon Hobbies.
Model Power is only an importer, but they now market the old Mantua line as well as other stuff from several factories around the world.
Athearn is still a indepentent operation under Horizon.Life Like sold their model interest to Walthers and no longer produces models…The correct name for the former Life Like P1K and P2K is Walthers P1K and P2K.
A small correction, Mehano is from Slovenia part of the former Yugoslavia.
I’m not sure that it was ever divulged that Life Like was losing money on the MRR side of the business. If my memory serves me correctly Life Like sold the hobby business to Walthers to focus on its main business which was something to do with industrial foam packaging. For what it is worth, this is the original parent http://www.lifoam.com/
I just notice this last night. I was looking at Walthers Cornerstone Merchants row II for $25 at one web site and then saw it on a different site under another mfg’s name for $50. Same exact model. Both called Merchants Row II. Big $$ difference. Probably another Co. that Walthers bought.
The IHC passenger cars are really not like the Rivarossi cars at all. IHC is much lower quality in my opinion. Now the AHM passenger cars in the blue and yellow boxes (true to blueprint) were all made by Rivarossi.
Now that brings up the issue of tooling for a specific product being sold from company to company. I believe that for years Con-cor was buying up old tooling from Atlas, MRC, Kato, etc.
The same products have been sold under Revell and AHM brand names. I don’t know who actually manufactured them.
Walthers is also a big one for buying up companies. Other than the Lifelike previously discussed, Walthers got Train Minatures, and I believe Red-Ball, Silver Streak, and Ulrich.
The MDC Roundhouse line was recently purchased by Horizon hobbies and their slightly upgraded toolings are now being sold under both the Roundhouse and Athearn names.
Then there is the big Bowser who bought Stewart and English. English who had previously aquired Varney or at least the Varney tooling.
Then there is Bear Locomotive works who purchase the old Hobby Town line. This was recently discussed in its own thread.
Then one has to mention the Mantua → Tyco → Mantua → Model Power transition (this topic also had its own thread a few weeks ago).
And these are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I am certain one could write a 1000 page book on the history of all the company starts, aquistions, and tooling sales/sharing. There has been a discu
Walthers acquired Life-Like for one reason and one reason only; they simply could not stand-by and run the risk that Horizon Hobbies would gobble-up Life-Like as they had ole’ Uncle Irv and MDC.
I am pretty sure that Model Power had Harriman type cars many years ago. They are 67’ long while the Roundhouse/MDC cars are only 60’ long. Model Power also has Budd cars. I think they are 67’ as well.
If you compare theses 2 cars you can see the Model Power has 10 windows and the Roundhouse only has 9 windows.
The Mechant’s Row series used to be part of the resin kit line of Magnuson Models. Walthers became the exclusive distributor for them back in the mid 1980s. I’m not sure if they actually owned it as well. This was back in the era when walthers actually made their own stuff in Milwaukee.
Walthers liberated their design and made injection molded versions.
Many of the Magnuson line kits are now sold by JAKS Industries under their Scale Structure LTD line which was at one time owned by Walthers. They don’t sell this particular structures but they very well might own the resin tooling for it. It wouldn’t make much sense to make a resin kit for a injection molded lit. It would not be cost effective.
Some products that have been sold by different companies include:
Mehano FP45, which has been sold by AHM, Life-Like, I believe Model Power, and now IHC.
Kader GP30, sold by Lionel and Bachmann, and is still being made for Bachmann.
Kader FTA, sold by AHM and Bachmann, and is still made for Bachmann.
Rivarossi C-LINER, sold by AHM, and then later made by Mehano with a Rivarossi-ish drive and still sold by AHM, and then sold by IHC with all wheel drive.
Roco FP7A, sold by Atlas, and later E-R Models.
And there are probably hundreds of others out there, and I know a few more, but that would take a while to write.
An interesting book could be written about the history and current resting places of the various HO models over the years.
Here are some more:
Roco GP 38, GP 40, SD24, SD35 were first sold by Atlas, then by Con-Cor. Lately the GP 40 looks like it is being used by Bachmann.
Roco Sharks were first sold by Model Power, then ER Models. Lately the rumors are Bachmann is going to begin selling them.
Tyco Consolidated Foods era models went to IHC, the SD 24, Alco 430, Alco 630, F7, Sharknose, Brill Trolley, E7 and GG1. Some have been released, others have not as yet.
Proto or P2K are not brand names, they are a product line made by Life-Like. When I turn one of my ‘Proto’ locos upside down and look at the name stamped on the bottom it says ‘Life-Like’. So it is a Life-Like loco. I haven’t seen any of the recently released Life-Like locos, but if the Walthers name is not stamped on the loco than it is still a Life-Like loco despite the change in ownership of the company.
As another pointed out, the Walthers line is a cheaper styrene version of the more expensive resin kits originally produced by Magnuson. A lot of the early Walthers structure kits are copies of Magnuson resin kits. The resin kits had much thicker walls are therefore were much sturdier but with a stationary structure kit, I don’t know that there is much benefit to that. With painting and weathering, they are going to look the same in the end. Merchant Rows I an II styrene versions of Magnuson. Merchant’s Row III I believe is just an old Heljan kit now being sold under the Walthers name. Both were styrene kits so I’m guessing they are using the same molds and probably are still produced at the same European factory. I recently bought Walthers two stall brick enginehouse and it still has the Pola stamp on the bottom of the foundation. When Walthers first started selling structure kits under their brand name, most were recycled kits made by other manufacturers. Most of their new product line are original designs.
It has long been common to see the same structure kits appearing under 3 or 4 different brand names, sometimes even being offered simultaneiously by two companies at the same time. I’m sure they are all being produced at the same factory on a contract basis for the company that puts their brand name on the box. In other cases, a company will go belly up and sell off their assets to another company which will include the molds for structure kits. Some of the old Tyco line of structures are now being sold by Model Power.
If you look at the Walthers web site, in particular the 2006/7 product guide http://www.walthers.com/exec/page/wkw_06_07#2klocos the Walthers and Life Like names are linked in the heading. Look at any of the models under the different product lines and the name LifeLike is not mentioned at all. It seems clear to me from the way that the products are presented on the web and in print advertising that the use of “Life-Like” as the manufacturer or brand is being phased out. Walthers are clearly trying to build the Proto 2000, and Proto 1000 names as strong brands in their own right.
Veteran modelers associate the Life-Like name with low end merchandise so it is no wonder Walthers would want to disassociate their P1K and P2K product lines from their former company. Both are quality lines that bear no resemblence to the original Like-Like brand. Life-Like was a notch above Model Power which isn’t saying much. Walthers continues to offer structures and scenic materials under the Life-Like name but again, I don’t think they want these associated with their Cornerstone series.
With freight cars and such it is much easier to trace who did what, been trying to reserch wood building kits and it gets even more convoluted as a they more sold the rights, rather than the tooling and sometimes slight changes were made!
Some structure kits have been offered by a number of different labels. Many kits were developed/ sold by Pola, Heljan etc, all fine european mfrs. From time to time, Walthers, ConCor, Bachmann, MP, LL could offer the same kit under a different label. Sometimes you get different decals/labels in the box. Minitrix used to be a fine West German maketr of NA trains. THey were imported by Aurora, ConCor, MP, etc. Some of their cars are now made by MP.
