Guys,
I was at the trainshop in Santa Clara, CA. on Friday and saw that they had the right and left hand curved DCC friendly # 8 turnouts that have been out of stock for months. I have needed one for several months and snapped one up. Not sure what this means for the rest of the line, but at least there are some curved turnouts around. Check with your dealer!!! Could be the drought is a least temporarily over.
Quite a few of the turnouts are listed as expected 12-Oct-2005. It has to do with manufacturing schedules. They don’t (can’t) make every turnout at the same time. When they machine up for a given turnout, they produce several thousand. Shut down production and retool for another turnout. Trouble is demand seems to be exceeding production for a lot of the Walthers stuff… [:D]
I use these turnouts and have been very pleased with their performance, but I learned quickly to always order more than I need at the moment. They do go very fast and then you are back to waiting 3-4 months. When Walthers says they are out you can always find some at hobby shops around the country.
REX
I guess I should have been more specific. These were new stock recieved in the last couple of weeks. Evidently a new shipment has come into the US as this store was out of these turnouts for months. Staff confirmed that it was a new shipment. I called shops across the US in May and was unable to locate them anywhere (#8 curved turnouts). It bodes well that they have more in stock now and Walthers seems to be bringing product to market.
Guy, that sounds promising. With the success that Walthers has had with this line of turnouts, I have never understood why they don’t make more at a time. But, thinking about all the back orders that we have to deal with, I guess it makes sense.
REX
I finally canceled my order and went with Peco. I’m happy with the results.