Hi all,
I just placed an order for 3 of the Walthers N scale Five-Unit Articulated Double Stack Well Cars that were on sale for 1/2 price. Yesterday the Walthers site said the cars were in stock, and now it says they are out of stock. Is there any hope of me getting these items? Thanks for any replies.
I’ve had good luck with Walthers mail order for HO. If an item was back ordered, it would be shipped in a reasonable amount of time.
Were they in stock when you made the order? If they were then you don’t have to worry. Or maybe you got one in stock but the rest were on order.
I ordered one of each (new TTX and old TTX) at the end of last month 
Finally got both of them with MT couplers, ran them on the layout this weekend…
At $17 a pop, Doesn’t surprise me they’re Out of Stock
Do you plan to change the car numbers?
It depends on the manufacturer. I once backordered a NWSL motor and it took almost a year to get it. To be fair the darn Sagami factory had burned down, so I am sure that was the reason for the long wait. I also backordered a Timewell flywheel and got it in a couple of weeks.
Jim
Depends on the item. I ordered a couple of foam-lined carrying cases for my locos a couple of months ago since they were in the Walthers sales catalog–back ordered and no info. on when/if they’ll be shipped. Their code 83 HO turnouts are notorious for being back-ordered for months, as I believe they’re only produced at one run per year(? around October?).
Jim
It depends on what Walthers plans are for that model. Last month I got the Jan sales flyer in the mail. It had their Proto 2000 0-8-0’s (non-DCC, no sound) on “sale” for 89.99. I immediately ordered one of the Undecorated one’s. Out of stock, back ordered. 2 weeks later I got a post card in the mail telling me that Walthers had no intentions of making this model again and that my back order was being cancelled. Turnes out the “sale” was to blow out the last of their inventory.
Isn’t that rather common? I would guess that alot of what retailers have on sale is actually items they want to get rid of and clear out of there stock. I’m somewhat surprised that you seems to find this weird or even wrong.(I might have missunderstood you though) [:)]
Lillen
Yes! I backordered a few Kato N AC4400 and I thought I’ll just try my luck and now I got all 3! To pull the TTX articulated double-stackers! Hehehe…
I think what’s weird here is that they’re on “Backorder.”
That’s what I’m afraid of. I heard somewhere that they were coming out with a model with new tooling. There’re probably just trying to get rid of these by selling them at a ridiculously low price. I’m gonna beat myself into a pulp if it turns out I ordered a day late.[banghead]
No I don’t think I’ll change the numbers because this will be a mainline freight that won’t require any switching. I’d probably just ruin the paint anyway. Since you already have the cars how do you like them?
Thanks for the replies everyone. I guess I’ll just wait and see.
Well, yes and no. If you ordered Walthers items through Walthers and they are out of stock, the chances of getting them on back-order are pretty good. If you ordered a NON-Walthers item through Walthers and they were out of stock, I’d cancel. I had a rather large order of Accurail freight cars submitted to Walthers, and after about three months, I got a notice saying that my back-order was cancelled. However, when I ordered a couple of the Walther’s water tanks, the back-order was filled within about two weeks. So it pretty much depends on what you want from the catalogue. Mainly, Walthers products.
For myself, I use the Walther’s catalogue pretty much as a guide to what is currently available, and do my ordering through my local LHS’s. And believe me, I know that not all LHS’s in particular areas are very good at getting what you want, I just happen to live in an area with two great ones.
Case in point: The Walthers catalogue showed all of the PSC castings I needed to turn my Spectrum USRA Heavy Mountain into a reasonable facsimile of an SP MT-2. I went into the LHS and asked if they could order them from Walthers. The owner grinned at me and said, “I’ll order them from PSC.” They were mine in a week, the Spectrum was an SP clone three days later.
Re-ordered the Accurail freight cars from Walthers. Still waiting. Picked some of them up in stock at my LHS’s. If Walthers doesn’t come through in another week, I’ll just fill the rest of the order through Bruce’s or Railroad Hobbies.&nb
I really need one of their #8 right curved turnouts but it is backordered and if I understand their website, they are looking at an April delivery.
I think they’re cool. My complaints are they ride a bit high but I like the fact that they can be easily separated (what I don’t like about the deLuxe Innovations doublestack cars!) and otherwise have good detail. I’d like to lower them sometime.
When you get them, pull out the A and B car trucks and replace them with MT 1035s (1035-1s if you’re a lo pro type). I’m a lo profile kinda dude so I took off the pizzacutter wheels and replaced them with some MT lo pro wheels that came off of cars where I replaced them with Intermountain metal lo pro wheels. These cars are die-cast metal and don’t need any special weighting so plastic wheels will do just fine on them. Whether they have lo-pros or the stock pizzacutters, the sideframes are spaced just apart where the axles roll smooooooothly.
My next endavor: Collect more containers and weather the cars!
One time I was looking at a few Walthers sales fliers. I noticed that there were a few items that would be in there for a couple of months, then disappear from the fliers for several months, only to reappear. So it appears as thought it is common for Walthers to have items list in its fliers in stock for a while, or produce more, after they have appeared in their sales fliers.
I ordered a Bachmann GP35 DCC Onboard loco in Sept of last year, thinking it would be in before Christmas. It was marked as in stock when it was ordered. It hasn’t come in yet! I’m starting to get really ticked off.
If you think Walthers is bad, try HISTORIC RAILROAD or HISTORIC AVIATION.
I even KNOW the guy who owns Historic Aviation personally!!!
Get a special flyer from him last September, everything advertised as ready for shipment.
So I oreder a bunch of stuff.
Then get an email saying it ALL backordered!
Haven’t seen any of it since, doubt I ever will!
But that’s life!
Did you E mail them the question? They have been quite responsive to my polite inquiries about back orderd items as well as new items. I E mailed them friday concerning their flexi-vans that they announced quite awhile ago. They delayed the project and the informed me that they were having problems getting the prototype data, and that they would be released in Nov 2007. I received the response on Monday, so I can’t knock them for that! I would rather have a correct delayed model than a incorrect one now.
As far as back orders they are usually responsive to e mail on those questiions as well. They do want your business. No I am in not in any way connected to them, just a satisfied customer. I bought parts from them when the Terminal Hobby Shop was their outlet and Walthers per say did not sell direct to the public. They were in the same building but different companies. That was when their O scale catalog was thicker than their HO Scale catalog. Sometimes you must be patient, especially in the modeling hobbies.
Paul
Dayton and Mad River Railroad
I am really getting fed up with Walthers. They keep sending me sales catalogues every month or so, and whenever I order from them 80% or more is “Sorry, out of stock!” Yesterday I got a reply on an order for three items…all three were out of stock! Same thing when ordering from their general catalogue. What a really dumb way to run a business! Old man Walthers must be spinning in his grave. jc5729 John Colley, Port Townsend, WA