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 Posted - May 29 2013 : 9:14:45 PM
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It had to be asked.
What is your opinion on Walthers buying Life-Like Trains and Racing back in 2005?
For me, it's kind of variable.
Unlike Walthers, or Bachmann and Tyco (except Tyco's origins go back to Mantua), Life-Like never started out with model trains. It was a spinoff of Lifoam, and since their famous foam ice chests were more of a seasonal item, they needed to also make something that could be bought year round. Then they saw that model railroading was getting popular after World War II, so they decided to use their foam mastering to offer tunnels as well, before expanding to offer a variety of scenery products in the 1950s and 1960s (sort of like how Bachmann started out with building kits before evolving to what they are today.) Then they began to expand, offering rolling stock and building kits (this led to their infamous McDonald's building kit as well!) Then they purchased the old Varney line, began offering more accessories, and soon by the mid-1980s they became a worthy competitor of Bachmann, Tyco and AHM (during the 1970s and early 1980s, Bachmann and Tyco were the two really popular HO manufacturers in the industry.)
So in 2005, Lifoam went and sold their Life-Like line, which had all started from an idea to keep their Lifoam company in business during the non-summer seasons, to Walthers, as they seemed like a more dedicated model railroad manufacturer. Some good stuff did come out of this...
There are still Life-Like HO train sets being offered, and are often great for model railroad beginners.
Many Life-Like building kits that have been made since the 1970s are still being made today. Their classic KFC building kit (endorsed by Colonel Sanders himself back in the 1970s!) is also still offered, too.
Walthers has the Life-Like SceneMaster line, which helps make them a good competitor to Bachmann, along with Woodland Scenics and their product line.
They have their "Scene Essentials" sets, somewhat reminiscent of their "Build-a-Scene" products of the 1980s and 1990s (but without the landscaping.)
They offer SceneMaster knuckle couplers that, with careful fitting/adjusting, can also be installed in older Tyco rolling stock and certain locomotives.
Their Tyco-esque crossing gate is still offered (it looks even more like Tyco's version than the Bachmann version does!)
The Proto 2000 line is still offered under the WalthersProto banner.
The bad stuff...
They do not offer any conventional track in nickel-silver, only steel. They are also planning on discontinuing their nickel-silver Power-Loc track.
They discontinued their high-quality N-gauge locomotives and rolling stock.
The Proto 1000 line was discontinued.
The "regular" Life-Like locomotives still use dated technology and mechanics from the 1970s and 1980s.
Their "regular" train sets come with horn-hook couplers. I don't know any other companies that still use horn-hooks. For a while, they did offer the train sets with SceneMaster knuckle couplers already installed, but stopped doing so. (When I got my Freight Runner train set back in 2010, it had the horn-hook couplers, but I have since replaced them with knuckle couplers :D )
If anything, Walthers is for some reason keeping Life-Like totally separate from their Trainllne series of products (Walthers could at least offer Power-Loc track with their Trainline sets! But then again, that may conflict with the "World's Greatest Hobby: Building Your First Model Railroad" instructional DVD included with their Trainline sets.)
Any comments/opinions?
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Posted - May 29 2013 : 10:09:30 PM
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Well, buy-outs are almost always problematical for the company being bought. Some things survive, other's don't. I love the BL-2 engine, and Walthers kept the parts for it in the Proto series, I have several, one had cracked axles, and Walthers replaced them for free. So I do support Walthers for supporting the Life-like line. Can't say I buy much new very often, but I did buy some Train Miniature stuff that Walthers also supported, I had an old engine shell I needed a chassis for, and Walthers still sold the T-M F7 diesel, so I was able to get an upgraded unit I could DCC but would fit the older T-M shell. Awesome! I think Walthers has done well supporting it's bought-up company's products so far. Again, not everything will be supported, but for me, they've been wonderful so far.
Jerry
" When life throws you bananas...it's easy to slip up"
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Posted - May 29 2013 : 11:14:59 PM
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Proto 1000 engines still exist, I have an upgraded Walthers GP15-1 that was sold as Proto 1000.
Train Miniature's engine was an Alco FA who's shell survived to be the Trainline FA. Trainline's branding seems to have been dropped in favor of the Life-Like name and lower-end items.
Some Life-Like items went to Atlas, some items are currently out of production but with Wathers you never know what could come of it.
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Posted - October 24 2013 : 06:55:36 AM
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| I like my Lifelike N-scale diesels. Walthers doubled the price so I haven't purchased any since the buyout.
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Posted - October 24 2013 : 06:57:32 AM
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quote:Proto 1000 engines still exist, I have an upgraded Walthers GP15-1 that was sold as Proto 1000.
Train Miniature's engine was an Alco FA who's shell survived to be the Trainline FA. Trainline's branding seems to have been dropped in favor of the Life-Like name and lower-end items.
Some Life-Like items went to Atlas, some items are currently out of production but with Wathers you never know what could come of it.
Originally posted by lvrr325Â -Â May 29 2013Â :Â 11:14:59 PM
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What Life-Like items went to Atlas????? I've not seen ANYTHING by Atlas from the old Life-Like brand!
~John
Many have tried to, and failed, ya just can't repair stupid... 
Do NOT try to Idiot-Proof anything!!!! God, will simply create a better......IDIOT!
Edited by - EM-1 on October 24 2013 06:57:57 AM
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Posted - October 25 2013 : 11:31:17 PM
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I posted elsewhere in the forum, a number of structures once sold by Life-Like were recently released by Atlas. The modern car wash, a bank and some other things.
I suspect that they were actually made overseas by Pola or a similar company, which is why they didn't go to Walthers. Atlas also did a run of the snap-kit structures AHM and IHC have offered, including the Suburban Station that resembles a DL&W standard station.
The original post is incorrect. Life-Like is the decendant of Varney, and many of it's items dated to the 1950s - some of them Varney, some of them Penn Line, which were purchsased by Varney in 1964. They purchased basically the entire company in 1968. I suspect at some point they simply decided their other lines were more profitable and left the train business.
Edited by - lvrr325 on October 25 2013 11:34:04 PM
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Posted - October 27 2013 : 11:07:00 AM
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I picked up a Proto 1000 F7A/B set, both powered, at an antique store for what I considered a pretty good price. The vendor told me that they had little use but that they had sat a long time and would probably need cleaned/lubed. Brought them home and they sat another year before I tried them out - I had talked myself into the idea by that time that they were likely going to be a headache to get running right.
What a great surprise though - they turned out to be the best pulling, best running and best matched set of power that I own, right out of the box. The detail isn't quite at the level of P2K, but still very good.
http://tycodepot.com/
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waw47
Hudson
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Posted - October 27 2013 : 12:58:05 PM
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This may add some clarity to the history of LifeLike.
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2008-12-27/news/0812260269_1_jay-kramer
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-05-02/news/bs-md-ob-sol-kramer-20130502_1_kits-hobby-airplane
Greenberg's Varney book has May of 1957 as the time Gordon Varney sold his company to Sol Kramer the owner of LifeLike.
Edited by - waw47 on October 27 2013 1:40:36 PM
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