WEAVER MODELS is CLOSING

If you have Excel, do a select all, copy and then paste special in Excel. Paste as HTML and adjust column & row sizes to fit (or paste as your preference).

 

Or if you have a PDF printer like Bullzip (or others), do a select all and then print to a PDF file. You can do a print preview and 'print as laid out on page' or 'print as selected on page'.

My only Weaver piece.  Sad to see them go.  Wish another MFG'R or Capital Group would buy them and continue the operation.

Hopefully someone grabs the molds for the wood ship cars that Weaver came with a year or so ago.

 

  Bill T.

I hope someone takes over the whole operation, and keeps manufacturing in the US. Joe was my best customer for wood chip loads.

Don

Never bought anything from Weaver, I'm sorry.  If they had only made some Scrapple reefers. 

 

I hope the undecorated cars will be sold to several hobby shops like Petersen Supply. I can not buy all of the ones I planned to get this June.

 

Andrew

The owner of Weaver commented on the Citizens Voice site a while back that the graying of America and collectors slowing down their buying has effected their sales, at the time dropping from 30 employees to 12.  He also noted, as in so many other hobbies, kids focusing on computers and their offerings occupies their free time.  I had many interests I included my kids in years ago, ham radio, trains, live steam, fishing, shooting sports, and several others, but when the video games came on the scene and then computers, that was the end of that.  I guess when all your friends jump off the gaming/computer bridge, now-a-days, you jump with them.  The only hope is that, now that they have kids, they will remember their roots and at least buy a set of Lionel.  If they don't, they will be getting a set for Christmas.

The core of this hobby is getting older with not many younger people coming in.  The market is shrinking and unfortunately this is the result.  

 

The quote of 8 employees in one of the recent posts/announcements did seem much lower to me than what it seemed to be back when I was on the OGR tours about 10 years ago.  (we saw enough people doing their thing, it certainly must have been more than 8 or 12 at the time)

 

Sad, but makes sense. 

 

-Dave

 

Even more to the point, the vast majority of kids today no longer actually "play" with stuff, i.e. girls don't "play" with dolls and/or doll houses, and boys don't "play" with trucks in the dirt, planes, trains, etc..

 

Everything now is instant gratification with video games and handheld computer devices. In fact, try visiting a fast food place, and watch the "young folks"; they are not even TALKING to each other, but texting each other!

Whose fault is that?

Maybe some of the people doing all this complaining?

I disagree with that 100%. There are still plenty of younger people interested in this hobby, think about it, you guys complain about $100 box cars and $2700 big boys and most of you by your age should be established, have "good jobs" houses cars boat planes or what ever. Many baby boomers waited longer to have their children, so many of their children are only in 20s and 30s and still establishing theirselves, starting families and mortgages etc... Think back when you were that age, how much disposable income did you have? The hobby isnt going anywhere, chill out and go play with your choo choos. And the bottom line are you in this hobby because other people are or to make yourself happy? So at the end of the day, i dont care if im the last guy in the hobby!



       

I also involved my kids in varied interests .... shooting sports, athletics, mechanics, dirt bikes .... along with helping me with various railroading.

 

Now, all of them into their 20's .... the only "train time" together I can get out of them is doing some switching with the old man, maybe with a couple of beers. Nothing else about model railroading interests them.

 

Have you ever played Call of Duty, etc? Its hard to compete with that stuff ... as far as indoor activities go.

 

As far as Weaver's assets, I'm waiting for a return call from a person in KATO's customer service department in Illinois that I have a friendly relationship with. I'm going to suggest that they expand into O.

 

I am 40 years old & love this hobby but sadly, most of the people in the hobby (I have met are typically 20 years older or so). I share my "hobby" with plenty of kids and hope that will rub off on them too. Yes, it sucks that video games, etc. take the place of "doing" hobbies like this.

 

Yes, the hobby is pretty expensive (in this scale) but I still love it. Doesn't help though for attracting newbies (even my age). Lionel & MTH List prices can scare people off real quick.....

My granddaughter played with dolls and lots of animal figures, horses, cats, dogs, wolves, etc. She loves to make things out of wood blocks, scrap wood or anything she can find. Several years ago (she was about 7 or 8 I think) she designed a house for her favorite stuffed cat, measured the cat and sized the house accordingly and then had me build it for her. She is a little older now (almost 14) and has mostly outgrown the dolls, she does have an iphone, but she still likes the animals and has quite a collection. She loves to draw animals too, and is getting pretty good at it. My son-in-law (her father) can draw like a cartoonist (amazing) and fortunately I think she has gotten some of that talent from him.

 

My grandson loves to play with trucks and any kind of dirt moving equipment in the dirt. He is also getting a little older now, and has a ipad mini, but he still likes the construction vehicles. When he was 3 or 4 he lived in a new development still under construction. I would take him for walks. When we came to a construction area that had dirt moving equipment he would just sit down on the grass and watch. There were a few times it was hard to get him to leave. Then when he got home out came the equipment he had and off he went to imitate what he had just seen the real stuff doing. He is almost 10 now and I still take him to construction sites to watch the equipment and he still likes to watch it.

 

I have gotten a bunch of the construction equipment he likes for my layout and he usually plays with that more than the trains. He also like emergency vehicles, fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, etc. (he has a ton of Hot Wheels vehicles too). When visiting here, he gets a couple of trains running and then off to the vehicles he goes. He likes to stop the trains and load stuff in them with the equipment. I find all kinds of stuff in box cars after he leaves. He has a good imagination. He also has a small HO layout at home. He also likes to take videos of the trains running (and does a much more creative job of that than I do). I have some electronic kits that he was interested in that I hope I can show him how to solder and put together this summer. He did some electrical experiments/projects in school he was telling me about and that's how we got on to the electronic kits.

 

They both play with computer games and i-devices, but they also both still like similar stuff to what we had as kids to play with. They both like Legos too. They are interested in lots of stuff other than computer games. Maybe all is not lost just yet on the younger folks. There are still some out there that like to play with stuff like we had as kids, including trains. However, I do think the numbers of them may be a bit smaller than when we were kids and many do seem to prefer the i-devices over anything else.

 

Costs of O gauge trains, as others have said, may be a deterrent for kids in our chosen hobby size. My grandson's HO stuff (DC only, no DCC) is probably 1/4 to 1/3 the cost of the stuff I have. Especially track and switches, that is one big area that HO really costs a lot less. Engines around $100 or less, rolling stock around $20-$25 each and everything else to go along with those items is also quite a bit less. That is more in line with a kid's budget. The HO DCC engines are getting up to our levels in pricing, probably comparable to RailKing pricing, but they are still a little less for the most part. The Lion Chief sets may get O gauge back in the kids market, I think that was a good idea on Lionel's part to help get kids into O gauge and even parents too.

The thought of an HO/N scale company getting into O gauge by purchasing Weaver had entered my thoughts earlier. I think this would be great if one of them did expand into O gauge.  

Isn't all of Kato's manufacturing done in Japan? 

 

As far as I know their Schaumburg facility is only offices and warehouse.

 

Rusty

 

 

 

They text each other when they don't want others hearing their conversation. I do the same thing. Utilizing technology doesn't necessarily mean the world is going to end. Relax.

 

 

“The world is passing through troublous times. The young people of today think of nothing but themselves. They have no reverence for parents or old age. They are impatient of all restraint. They talk as if they knew everything, and what passes for wisdom with us is foolishness with them.”
— Attributed to Peter the Hermit, A.D. 1274

I like Kato, too, they made the only affordable E5, although in N Scale.

 

But, I don't think anyone's is going to ride in on their white locomotive and save Weaver at the 11th hour.  Pretty sure retiring wasn't an overnight decision.  If there was any interest in Weaver's assets by the other manufacturers, it would pretty much be a done deal by now.

 

A more realistic scenario is all the machinery and tooling goes up for auction.

 

Rusty

Wow, best of luck. I have about 25 cars that I purchased over the past few year and I absolutely love them. They have become the car of choice for my nephews - decently priced and durable. 

 

 

I just received three NYC 50' Flat Car's with 35' Trailers - they are awesome. We worth the investment. One the TCA convention car offering and the other 2 offered by METCA. 

My nephew shared my interest in trains so much he had a 4x8 HO layout and went railfanning with me at age 11 three years ago,but then someone gave him a "Call of Duty" video game for the family PS3 player. Now at age 13 the trains are gone and he has zero interest in anything train related. Him and his neighborhood friends play with each other but all from their own homes on the online warfare games.My nephew can stay in his bedroom playing all day with quick bathroom breaks and runs to the kitchen. All the money he can get goes to downloads and new weapons for the games.  I have watched him and was even distressed that him and his friends were playing as Russians against the U.S.,even talking to each other in Russian accent.  I can't relate to this younger generation who can be having "fun" and conversations with lots of people at the same time without leaving their bed all day. There was an Army general who recently said American kids were getting too fat for service,this is why.

And these video games are mainstream and make more money than movies for the under 21 crowd.

CALNNC,

The article in the CV was written by my friend Paul Golias. He was with me today on the trip down this afternoon. He had previously done a few interviews with Joe. He wanted to interview Joe on this, our farewell tour, but Joe declined. Paul does have an article submitted to the CV about Weaver's closing, but it was written a few days ago, when the news first broke. It was supposed to be in the Sunday edition, but hasn't made it yet. Also along for the final trip, was Clem Benson, and friend from work who had also been down with me several times.

Dave,

There are now eight employees remaining. In the first photo, Todd is holding the shell for Weaver's final project, the Moxie boxcar. The second photo is yours truly with Joe, Todd, painter extraordinaire, Suzy, currently in shipping, formerly assembly and printing, Peg project relations. Peg has been a great help to our club car program over the years, Gaye, in the back row, electronics wizzard. She worked with Gary installing and repairing electronics, and assembly, Corrine I believe is head of customer service, Joe's wife is next, and Cathy, master pad printer. Anything that left her station was either perfect and ready for assembly, or discarded into the scrap box due to defects. 

This was one of the toughest days spent at Weaver, saying good bye to friends I have known for over eight years. 

There was some mention of some establishments that may be interested, but I'll let speculation remain anonymous at this point. 

Look for an announcement coming soon to the Weaver web site regarding product availability and other news shortly. I mentioned to Joe that there may be a large number of folks attending the June 29th cash and carry sale, and the posting on the web site will focus on this. 

For those of you who are kit-bashers and weather masters, the rolling stock scrap box may be of interest. Our best guess is that there are about 100 pieces in the two boxes we looked through. Contact Weaver customer service for more info. 

Don

I like the Moxie car, I have lots of Weaver cars. I still hope that someone buys the company and keeps production here in the USA.

I was slow out the gate getting into O three rail (I used to be in G gauge). Nevertheless, I've accumulated a respectable-sized collection of Weaver freight cars (and some passenger cars) for running.

 

Weaver had some very nice hi-rail models very well suited for the late steam/transition era/first generation diesel days.

 

They will be greatly missed.

I'm going to post the inventory because once the weaver web site is gone the info might be lost.

 

link to web site

weaver inventory

 

 clink weaver trains.xls link below for file.

Be aware that this list will change, as Joe told me folks are ordering daily.

Don

Hi All,

 

I'm very sorry to hear of this, as I've always enjoyed Weaver products and have quite a bit of their rolling stock, including some club cars from local clubs. I'll always remember when my wife and I went on the OGR tour of the their facility and met some of their employees as they painted and decorated the cars right here in the good ol' USA.

 

Another loss for the hobby.

 

Good luck to their employees in the future.

 

Happy training and God bless America.

Chris

It really shouldn't change much, as it's not really an inventory of items available, but more of a "what has been made in the past" list.

 

-Dave

 

This is the leader & owner, that made it all happen.

Thank-you

Yes, thanks & BEST wishes to Joe and the final members of the Weaver team.  You are all in my PRAYERS for a positive future.   

We at Stockyard Express LLC are saddened to hear that Weaver Models is closing their doors at the end of June.  We have enjoyed a long and successful business venture with them and wish everyone at Weaver good luck with all of their future endeavors!!!

 

guess inventory was not the correct word as I did take it as a list of what was made. while not complete it would be a good start for anyone who would want to make a list of every weaver item ever made.

I remember when k-line went away lots of people were looking for such a list and the web site that has k-line stuff seems to come and go.

I don't suppose anyone has access to a list of what IS still in inventory and available to order?

Maybe it's just the gear under the product locater page -- which is fairly meager.  But you would think they'd have much more stuff lying about.

I, for one, poured through that 67 page list today and made all kinds of decisions before i realized it is just a table of what has already been made and presumably sold long ago.

I ordered three 57' reefers online last Monday, they were listed as "Buy Now" on the Website and still are.  

 

I called today to see if the order would be filled because I did not see any emails other than the order was received.  I was told they did not know if these items would ship because they are overloaded with orders.

 

I'm going to call again tommarrow

Due to this unwelcome news, I took time to check my stash of Weaver trucks and

couplers, #711, #702, and a few archbars.  Luckily, I had stocked up when I saw

them in a show or shop.  Cancel panic.  (but shoulda bought more arch bars)

It's probably best to call rather than try to guess if the web-site is up to date and take your chances.

 

I called on Friday to inquire about some items, but sadly all were sold out.  (each was listed as available on the web-site, but it's not updated real time).

 

I had the catalog numbers handy (I did search using the product locator since I had an idea what I was interested in) and found out within probably less than 2 minutes that my 3 cars and one paint item weren't available. 

 

I suspect the computer the person on the other end of the phone is using is up to date a lot more than the web-site at this point.

 

-Dave