WEAVER MODELS is CLOSING

Like others it's sad to see Weaver go out of business. I have a few of their custom run beer cars and a couple other freight cars, maybe 11 in all. Don't have any engines as I wan not sure how Weaver trains performed.

 

Lee Fritz

Hope they can stick around under new ownership maybe?   Great resource for short line, small RR names that that MTH and Lionel would typically not do based on demand.   Sad to see them go.

 

Glad for his retirement,  well deserved..............

 

Mark

Its ashame, hopefully it gets purchased and continued

Oof!  A blow to the hobby's gut, for sure.

 

Joe...you deserve every restful...or exciting?...moment the Good Lord affords you in retirement!  Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.  Your employees are/were the best of this American industry, and I hope for them a safe 'landing' throughout this change.

 

The future of Weaver's products/legacy?  Why would anyone presume that someone as caring and astute in this business as Joe isn't working to find good and future 'homes' for the assets?  Of course they have value...to all of us.  He knows that. 

 

When Gary announced that he was leaving Weaver to pursue other passions/ambitions, I suspected that something more was afoot.  The demographics (read:aging) of our hobby and its iconic personnel/contributors has been well understood.  When a company is defined so much by the person at the helm or key personnel on the staff, and he/she/they yearn for the same long, healthy retirement that we all aspire to, these transitions/conclusions are bound to occur.  C'est la vie.

 

Finding a younger passionate soul to carry on a business of this sort for another 40 years in today's economic/market climate???....not easy.  And, not the stuff to be openly discussed and bandied about in a forum such as this, IMHO. 

 

About 6 months ago I came across the last of Weaver's past engines that had been on my wish list.  Although yet sealed in its original box, never having been run for the first time, it had a problem (old, dried gear lubricant and a funky board).  After a couple phone calls with Gary, and a 10-day round trip for the model to Weaver, it was as good as new...for a minimal charge.  I love everyone of my Weaver products.  I'm fortunate to have them all.

 

Joe Hayter... 

 

...stay healthy and happy, my friend!!

 

 

D

 

I wish the very best for the entire Weaver crew.

 

I loved dealing with you folks.

 

Please keep me in mind if you ever decide to sell that Consolidation. No rush....

visited these good folks on a couple of the o gage yearly trips. Good people and more. I wish you all the very,very best.

Good folks and Grade "A" service.  They will be missed.  Best of luck to all the employees.

This is for sure going to be a loss so hopefully the name and products will continue on in some manner or fashion.  The Weaver team, both past and current have always been leaders in the industry and supportive of the hobby.  We at OGR have been honored to have them aboard as advertisers and will miss them greatly.

 

On a personal note, when I caught the "scale bug" I snapped up hundreds of weaver freight cars and locomotives.  To date I own or have owned nearly all of Weaver's production of brass locomotives and have enjoyed every one of them.  Fantastic models!  So...here is a tip of my hat to Joe and his crew...All the Best to every one of you!

 

Thanks,

Alan

Any ideas floating about where to get Weaver steamers repaired in the future?

Mixed emotions for sure.  Mixed because like others have posted, I'm very happy for Joe for his decision to step into retirement,  but sad at the prospect of our hobby loosing yet another major player in the market.  I can only hope like others have conveyed that someone else will step in to take over the business.

 

When I began to transition away from "traditionally sized" trains back in my preteen years, Weaver was the big thing at the time who was offering more scale rolling stock apart the likes of do-it-yourself kits, the Pola-derived Lionel Standard O cars & the first-generation Atlas products.  I amassed a fairly decent amount of Weaver up until I went into the service.  Since then, I have amassed more scale cars from Atlas O, Lionel, MTH, K-Line and less so of Weaver apart from their 57' mechanical refrigerator cars, which I still think are far superior to Lionel's version, but even though my buying preferences were less in favor of Weaver to this time, I still very much credit them for further whetting my appetite for the scale/hi-rail segment of the hobby, to which I am grateful to them for even to this day.

Incredibly saddened. happy for Joe & his retirement. But, so sad to lose a high-quality (mostly American-made) model train company. Most of my "nice" engines came from Weaver. Just love them & Weaver's service too.

 

Hopefully, their offerings will carry on with another manufacturer. What about parts? I plan on running my engines for a long time to come (hopefully).

 

Ron W.

This is such disappointing news.  I just wish nothing but the best for Joe and the rest of the team.  This is not an easy business to be in these days.  I will cherish the Weaver and Quality Craft product I do have all that much more, but at the end of the day this hobby and the related businesses are about the people you have met along the way.  Joe has always been helpful, professional and friendly.  How many businesses can you name where you can call the owner and actually talk to them in person?  Just a great loss to our hobby as a whole.

Funny you should mention that.  The engine I purchased a York has some issues so two weeks ago via email I got a RA # to return the engine as this time of year I just don't have time to fix it myself and since it's under warranty let Weaver to do it.  Well I've been meaning to ship it and haven't.  Good thing to as I found this thread.  Now when I email Weaver over sending the suspected parts(which they first offered), I've gotten no reply.

 

So with that said, if it's a mechanical issue I think we are screwed, electronic there's always someone here that can help. As for my engine I might have missed the boat.

The impact of this is just starting to dawn on me!  I have used Weaver trucks, and couplers, Bettendorf and, before that when available, arch  bars, for years.  Nobody else made them, or made them easily available and relatively inexpensive.  I was lucky, recently, to pick up one of the unlettered Baldwin 2-8-0's.  Fortunate find as no more will be forthcoming, and...who else has offered unlettered locomotives? (Atlas has offered  unlettered cars)  I do need to put my decals on this 2-8-0.  I hope somebody carries on this line.

Really really sorry to see Weaver go. They make such great stuff, I own quite a few Weaver cars. Bought a few Tropicana reefers recently. Always very pleasant to deal with. The hobby will miss you. Good luck to all of the employees and owner.

Wow. Bummer. Weaver had multiple road numbers ... of the types of rolling stock I use .... of the roadnames on my layout. And, I knew when I would be getting them.

 

But, more importantly ..... I hope everything works out for all the nice folks at Weaver.

 

A very happy customer

Matt

So sad to see a business like Weaver closing.  Being from Northeast PA, they were within driving distance, which kinda saved on shipping costs.  (Haven't really weighed the difference in gas vs. shipping, but who cares).  They were great folks to deal with.  I also have the Masonic Train set, along with six of the Blue Coal hoppers.  I wish Joe all the best in his retirement.

Hopefully Weaver stays open a little longer to process all the orders we are going to give them. I have meant to buy some more Interstate RR hoppers to go with my MTH RS3s but kept putting it off. Now is the time to act and hopefully it's not too late now.

Quite a few years ago, I was trying to get an O scale manufacturer interested in making accurate railroad line (telephone) poles.  No one was interested until I spoke to Joe.  After tolerating an excessively long design process,  Joe was agreeable to marketing the poles for me.  As such, I had many business dealings with him and he was utterly honest and fair with me in all our interactions.  We became friends, and I assisted him with other projects, and he eventually bought the line pole tooling from me.

 

He was always great to deal with, and I have loads of Weaver products in my collection.  While the news did not surprise me based on our recent conversations, I will miss Joe, Weaver Models, and their employees that I had the pleasure to deal with.

 

Best of luck to you Joe, and enjoy your retirement...you've earned it!

 

Neal

Adios, Weaver Models.

 

Glad I did the Weaver Tour with OGR a few years ago. Joe was very friendly, showed me the machine they had handmade to put wheels on axles, and the paint room and more. it was cool to see an American toy train operation. Everyone was so friendly. The tour of Bob Weaver's home layout at the end, was the iceing on the cake.

 

I have nice Weaver boxcars, a nice Aluminum Pennsy passenger car set that I bought at the factory at a nice discount, and a Weaver Tour car and caboose to remember them.

 

Wondering if their tooling will be acquired by someone?

 

Thanks Weaver! You will be missed.

 

My thoughts, too. It seems very odd that nothing was heard prior to the announcement that they're closing, with no mention regarding any efforts to sell the company. Just all of a sudden, boom, we're closing in 19 days! One would think there would have been, at the very least, 90 days notice of closure.

Well, phooey. I had hopes that it was "just a rumor", but I didn't think so. 

 

If anyone out there is thinking about purchasing the company and running it as some version of what it has been, you will have some customers, I guarantee. Enough? I don't know - but I sure hate to lose 50% of my brass steamer suppliers (and the one I preferred, too).

 

I'm sure much of the tooling will live on elswhere(s), but Weaver's loss is greater than that of K-line, in some ways.

It is very sad to see Weaver close it's doors.  I was fortunate enough to visit there two years ago.  It was a great operation, small but looked efficient.  It is surprising that there is no follow on and/or no one in the wings to take over.  Probably just not profitable enough anymore with all the new federal regulations.  It was great to see a train manufacturer in Central PA!  I often wondered if Mike Wolf has a 'continuation' strategy if he decides to call it quits.  (I forget the technical term)

Well, think of it guys, who of you out there would come up with that much capital to buy a toy train manufacturing business in this day and age? Hobby shop after hobby shop has closed in the last few years, when the owner has decided "it's time to retire". The other two big players in the toy train arena have their stuff made overseas in China, and yet look at the list price of what they are asking in their catalogs. Try telling your wife you want to get (for you or the kids) a scale train engine that lists for $695.00 so they can play trains. Yeah, good luck with that.

No wonder it's hard to attract new comers in the young people who buy a tablet for $100 and sit there and play video games. We all know there are too few new ones coming into this hobby to support it much longer, if you don't, then you are just kidding yourself.

All the old timers, those of us who grew up in an era of when a toy train was the neatest thing you could be given on the holidays, are either dying off, or selling our collections so our widows won't have to deal with them. Many of my friends in their seventies are doing just that. Have you been to a local train show lately? Try selling anything over $150 and see if you don't take it home with you. Are the crowds still there or do the isles get wider each show? A true reflection on the state of the hobby.

No this is not "doom and gloom" prophesy,  this is reality.

I've met Joe in person more than once, and he is a great guy, considered one of the leaders in this hobby and rightfully so.  I'm sure he made this decision as the sharp business man he is, also considering other factors. He deserves to retire just as much as the rest of us do, and I wish him well.

Maybe the employees will buy the company, and that would be great, we could only hope so. They made a fine product for a long time, against much larger competition, and kept it in the USA, unlike others.

Kudos to Weaver, job well done!

Many thanks to Joe and to Bob Weaver before him.

 

Brad

Time marches on I suppose.  I probably have 20-25 or so Weaver freight cars and a super brass CNJ 0-6-0.  In fact these are the only freight cars on my second layout (2-rail).  Well detailed, affordable.  A loss to the hobby for sure.

You, better than most here, know the cost/value of plastic injection molds. Model car molds that were cut in the late 1950's and early 1960's are still in production today. They may have changed hands a number of times......some where even 'lost' for years only to be found at a tooling shop years later and put back into production. 

 

So good injection molds are worth lots of money.......and I hate to say it but sometimes worth more as scrap metal.....they are nickel steel. 

 

I say all this in hopes that something is going on behind the scenes to keep some or all of the Weaver product available. To me it's hard to believe that all this great tooling is not viable even in today's market. The tooling for the trucks alone are worth someone picking up.

 

I hope if there are dealings going on and it's the normal business situation that NOTHING can be said publicly until it's a done deal.....which could take as long as the Fall TCA meet....or longer.

 

So let's just hope it's not the last we see of the Weaver GREAT tooling.  

It's truly a sad day for all of us in O gauge. Weaver will be missed by all. I am with all the others here wishing that the company can be sold or someone takes over where others are leaving off. It would really be sad it Weaver just went away completely, surely someone will step up and take over the company, I sure hope s anyway. I wish the best to those that are retiring, may they have a long and happy retirement.

Some people don't get any notice when their company closes.  They show up and the locks are changed.

 

When a division of a mid-sized company I once worked for shut us down, we had two hours of rumors that morning and then we were shown the door.

 

Rusty

Joe wishing you and yours the very best in retirement. The Weaver line has been a big part of my RR. It is a sad day for the hobby but I believe in resurrection and the hope that some one will continue. And as a an added note we loose a great model builder and one more paint supplier in RRing as well with the Scalecoat line.

 

 

That's a shame when that happens, but it seems extremely doubtful that such happened at Weaver, especially considering it was a single individual owner who was well thought of with many long-time employees whom he apparently respected.

Ironically, the last Weaver car I purchased was an OGR Weaver Tour car from 2009.

 

 

Thanks Joe... and to Bob Weaver. Well done. You will be missed.

I never had any Weaver Engines but had a couple of freight cars.  But it is sad to see them close.

Joe wishing you and yours the very best in retirement.

 This is really sad news all around.

 I have a Weaver 2-8-0 that has run very well for eight years. A lot of my rolling stock was made by Weaver. 

 They will be missed.

 My thoughts are with the employees.

Douglas

"I say all this in hopes that something is going on behind the scenes to keep some or all of the Weaver product available. To me it's hard to believe that all this great tooling is not viable even in today's market. The tooling for the trucks alone are worth someone picking up.  I hope if there are dealings going on and it's the normal business situation that NOTHING can be said publicly until it's a done deal."

 

    Yeah, I hope they can keep the core of the company going under new owners. If they break it up and sell the molds piece meal the new owners will probably sit on them for way too long as they usually do. The retirement of the SHS owners was a similar situation and has not worked out well for the S scale modeler. I guess the Weaver decision will come down to who wants the molds more, new owners of Weaver or the other major O players would might try to get  them to block further competition? ...DaveB

it might be as simple as this...

you put your life's blood into a company.you build a great reputation in your field. The time comes where you're ready for retirement. Do you sell your life's work off to someone else, risk seeing your dream almost ruined, long time employee's, many you consider friends and family pushed out. This has happened before, at least once in our own hobby.

As many others have stated, I wish nothing but the best of luck and a happy and well deserved retirement! I have been a big fan of Weaver's rolling stock. Hopefully someone can revive/takeover the product line.

I just bought my first Weaver products this year, and was hoping to become a regular customer. Oh well, at least the owner gets to enjoy his retirement now.

I plan on going out to the sale on the 29th.

Jim at Weaver Models could sell all the O scale injection molds to Atlas O.

 

Atlas O can move them to New Jersey.

 

Atlas O will make the cars and do the graphics right in New Jersey.

 

Atlas O can make many short production runs, quicker release times, the most accurate schemes, and new road numbers each year.

 

Andrew