"How Bachmann Ruined Williams Trains"

I just watched it the other day. I'm going to watch again so I can form an opinion.

I love williams trains but when Bachmann bought Williams in 2007 what they did was nothing to advance Williams sales. What they did was a omission, they added nothing to the Williams product line, it seems to me they just let it rot on the vine. Oh they still release a few items every now and then but nothing worthwhile.

I have quite a bit of williams that I bought in the 90's and early 2000's. I am now running them as I have tired of the other mfgs who think we are made of money and asking absurd amounts for them. Yes I still have some of the modern marvels but for now they sit on the side while the smooth running and quiet Williams run. We all know they run in conventional only but do we really need all the electronics that are used into trains and one day will not run for lack of parts.
I like the F7's which btw are old Kusan molds, why not use them or if Bachmann was smart sell them to a party who will make the trains some people want, well built, less expensive, rugged, conventional trains.
I may be wrong in my opinion but I think the market is out there, just look at what Menards has done with their line of freight cars, buildings, and many other things.

Dave

The bottom line to this whole thing was Jerry Williams wanted to sell
the train business for medical reasons. Plus he had a TON of commercial
warehouse properties he was selling also. He was VERY big in commercial
real estate as well as trains.

Bachmann had a sudden need for warehouse space due to a huge fire that
did theirs in.

Bachmann and Williams got together and a "deal" was struck where Bachmann
bought Williams Electric Trains as part of a real estate deal for the
warehouses as well. Sort of a "lock, stock and barrel" thing.

Bachmann thought they might want to get into the "O" Gauge market and saw
this as an avenue to do it quickly, but the corporate wonks at Bachmann
then decided not to and let the "O" Gauge stuff just die off. They sold
existing stock and ran a few small production runs of older items and that
was basically it. They are pretty much just running existing stuff and that is
less and less each time. Soon it will all be gone.

I guess at the time there were too many people at the table trying to a
slice of an ever smaller pie. Now there aren't as many manufacturers and
those that are still around are asking an arm and a leg for their trains.

Bachmann is well established with their HO Gauge market and isn't really
interested in breaking new ground, especially in these economic times.

Would be nice if Bachmann sold some of their molds and tooling to someone
like Menards who is interested in selling affordable, simple rugged trains
to people who are interested in the hobby.