@BobbyD posted:I thought it was the Lionel lawsuit they lost.
The lionel lawsuit was the last straw, but it also was Klein was not the best of businessmen from what people have written. He loved the trains, made some really great stuff, but he always seemed to be on the edge during his years in business. It really was a shame, and Lionel put the final nail in the coffin winning that lawsuit--or at least that is my take on it.
I also would be careful about assessing the health of 3 rail O from WBB apparently dropping the ball. Big corporations don't always make wise decisions, they can be blind to opportunities (there are real reasons that most new things come from small companies, that big companies then gobble up; the EV revolution wasn't triggered by a big car company, wasn't that long ago they were saying EVs were golf carts). I think the Williams line could have done well, basically in the MTH rail king or Lionel Lionchief space, if they had offered some kind of command control. Yeah, would have been another system, but one of the advantages had they gone to a bluetooth implementation is that with a wireless system it is a lot easier then having to install yet another wired one, like DCS and Legacy (lot cheaper, too, just need a free phone app and/or a simple remote).
In the end this is just speculation anyway, it seems like WBB is basically living off their existing stuff until that becomes unprofitable, then pfft likely.
