I was doing some work on my layout last night and noticed something I guess I have missed for a while now. I have a 6 pack of Walthers USRA 34’ hoppers that I bought new a while back from Walthers. One of the cars was derailing when it wnt thru a switch so I figured it was time to check the wheels etc… When I was checking the wheels I noticed that the car I was working on was an Accurail hopper not a Walthers one. I did not think too much of it at the time, fixed the problem and went to bed. sometimne durring the night I woke up and realized that I don’t have any 34’ Accurail hoppers. Anyway, to make a long story short, I checked all 6 of them this morning and they all are Accurail hoppers. The box they come in does not say anything about this. Has anybody else noticed this??
Dan, I noticed the same thing. I bought a 6 pack at the last train show that I attended. When I got home and took a look at the hoppers, there was no mistaking that they were Accurail since it was printed on the bottom. So I went out to Walthers site to compare road numbers, and they all matched.
Actually,Walthers Has Been A Manufacturer Since The Late '90s.Chances Are That Walthers May Have Subcontracted To accurail For some Models For A Special Run.
If Walthers has been a manufactur since the late 90’s. who made those enclosed auto racks in the early 90’s?? I have several of them in boxes with “Walthers” marked all over them? These were all RTR.
Walthers contracts this work out. Just like your local grocery store has various types of foods with their label on them, but they are made by other companies. Here is an example of that (scroll down to the last paragraph). The Walthers autocarriers made in the early 1990s were kits. They were made in Denmark, like many of Walther’s structures are.
The MTH vs. Lionel lawsuit stemmed from these companies have a third party manufacture their products.
Ever hear of Walthers/Rocco? Atlas/Kato? Stewart/Athearn? This is called jobbing or farming out production work…Nothing new under the sun about that…Corparations been doing it for years…The food industry is one of the biggest jobbers that includes generic brands.
I understand all of that. Usually when the parts are job shopped out they remove the manufacturers name and badges and replace it with their own. There is nothing on these cars indicating they are “Walthers” as most of their products do. I am not upset at this, I just found it kind off odd that they are selling a car that was already available as something new. It actually makes my job as a load supplier a little easier as I only have to change the labeling on my packages and not have to make a whole new set of molds.
Dan,Walthers been doing that off and on for years…I won’t pretend to understand why…Back in the 60s Lioel had a line of HO engines and cars…One was a “NEW” GP7…New? Not likey as it was a Athearn GP7 body and drive.I had a Atlas RS-3 that said Kato on the bottom…
Maybe Accurail used the wrong dies?