Williams by Bachmann O Gauge trains

Yes, a real regret is not having purchased a few of their steam locos when they were still available. I have a couple of the diesels and a GG1, all of which are bullet-proof.

I hate to say it, but I believe it has to do with all the electronics most want now days. it use to be a decent deal back when Jerry Williams still owned them. Bachmann said they weren't going to raise the prices, within 6 months they did. ERR was sold and the prices of that has gone through the roof also. So now it is not really a deal to buy a Williams and convert it to TMCC. You use to be able to do that including cost of the engine for $300 - $400 Now you might just as well buy MTH or Lionel Lionchief engine. 

Me I still like the conventional engines. I have Legacy lite system and 2 TPC-300 and 1 TPC-400 and don't even have them hooked up. What engines have TMCC/Legacey at present I run in conventional mode, I will probably hook up the Legacy Lite at some point, but probably not the TPC's. 

There is just not enough wanting conventional engine to keep it going due to cost and profit margin they want is my guess. 

I have 3 scale GG1's and a southern steam engine, and they all run great and pull great, My Tuscan GG1 I converted with ERR before prices went through the roof. 

I have some Williams and Williams by Bachmann. They are great running engines.Two of the Williams diesels I installed ERR (Electric Railroad) boards the rest are steamers. Maybe some day I'll put ERR boards in the steam engines too. 

It certainly looks like Williams by Bachmann has exited the O gauge market BUT at their Amherst booth they may have displayed some O gauge items. Just saw their booth quickly on video so I'm not sure about that. Williams has always been a fine high quality and reliable product. I have several of their engines and still run them regularly. I even have one of their early FM diesels that is powered by two instrument grade Pittman Motors, a set of Pennsylvania Madison cars, a GG1, Alco and other items. I can imagine that the withdrawal from the O gauge market may have to do with the current size of the conventional segment that may be small. It may be that profitability of the Kader Corp is much better served by their HO line

That is probably why I have been going Standard gauge, new okay as long as it don't have proto in it. Won't buy and don't want it. All mine are fully conventional.

I think part of the problem is that Kader/Williams by Bachmann raised the prices of their locomotives close to what Lionel and MTH and Atlas were charging. Without command control in the Williams engines that wasn't going to, and didn’t, fly. Atlas O went through something similar. They made beautifully detailed engines in conventional but buyers wanted command control. Then they finally contracted TMCC and now MTH DCS.

A real tragedy is the K-Line aluminum passenger car tooling being held hostage by Kader. They say they are too costly to produce. Judging by what plastic Lionel 21” passenger cars sell for and aluminum Golden Gate Depot sell for, they’d probably be somewhere around $400 per car, maybe more. Not likely to be successful in this economy.