Supply and Demand. Simple as

Supply and Demand. Simple as that. Once demand falls below a certain level. Then it is'nt viable to keep producing. No if buts maybes.

Phil

Not sure you should be

Not sure you should be advertising your business on this site. Maybe a moderator will look a this??

Neil, I believe he has just

Neil, I believe he has just posted an e-mail he received from a small dealer regarding the discontinuation of a product. I also received the same email from them. I believe in this case it is no more than discussing the discontinued product and providing a heads up to folks that may have liked this product in the past. Mr and Mrs Harris are nice folks that travel to various train shows selling their products. I know they go to several shows in Texas and I am unsure if they travel to other states.

It's my understanding from

It's my understanding from the info I've received that the owner is retiring. Shinohara supplied to such players as Walthers and Scenery Unlimited, as well as their own line of code 70 and 100 products, so they had a good market spread.

It's my understanding the Peco is developing a "USA" type code 70 line, so hopefully the code 70 (std gauge) niche will have a source besides hand laying. but Peco's code 70 products are a ways off.

Model Railroading has sure had some shake-downs of late.

Andre

I see what your saying Rob.

I see what your saying Rob. Usually, when someone post like that they add the "no affiliation" note at the start of the post. Just trying to keep folks honest.

It's not my business.  That

It's not my business.  That was the email I received from Harris Hobbies.

We made it clear this isn’t advertising

We made it clear this post is not advertising by editing your original post. Best to always let us know you’re just a third party modeler and not the owner.

Well this is not good news

Well this is not good news since I have a new railroad to build and a large selection of Walthers Shinohara turnouts and I wanted to keep using them.  I don't like the Atlas turnouts as I just don't like the looks of them.  I am running code 83 so I guess my options are Fastracks or maybe look at Peco.   I just loved the looks of the Walthers Shinohara turnouts and the only thing that might be close now is the Fastracks option.

Tom

Sorry to see tham go.

I started my layout hand laying code 70 track and turnouts until my Kadee spike gun dies for the 6th and last time and used Shinohara flex track and turnouts to complete the track work. Over the years I have had no problems and am quite satisfied with Shinohara.

There's always Micro

There's always Micro Engineering.

Or if you have demands for more elaborate turnouts; Railway engineering.

Thank you.

Thank you, Joe.

I pretty much only bought

I pretty much only bought Shinohara or Walthers/Shinorhara (code 83) for the large #8 curved turnouts, 3-way turnouts and double slips etc.

Being that I have about 3 of each of the #8 curved in code 100 and 3 in code 83, that is about the most I have ever needed; I bought those about 20 years ago and have remained static since then.

A weird thing I found on my last layout is my Athearn Genesis Rio Grande Zephyr F9A almost always de-railed on one of the W/S #8 code 100 curved turnouts - I never did figure out why and no other diesel had that issue when entering from the single track.  I can't remember if I checked the wheel gauge at the time.  Here is the turnout in question:

My tendency on the next layout, for better reliability, is to minimize specialty turnouts as much as possible.

I used a couple in staging to get capacity to a maximum:

Still, I hope someone takes over the Shinohara line of turnouts and continues to manufacture them.  For now, if I need any more, I suppose I'll have to treasure hunt them, but I'm planning on using mostly ME or Peco when adding turnouts to my next layout, and supplementing those where needed with the W/S turnouts that I still have from past layouts.

Curved turnouts

One reason your Genesis model details on the curved turnouts is the extreme gap at the frog. Narrow treads, especially code 88 wheels do not like turnouts with excessive gaps around the frog and will tend to pick them and derail. 

I actually prefer to use code 88 wheels because I like the narrow look which appears more prototypical. The same reason why I prefer Code 83 or Code 70 Track over Code 100. For this reason I only use Micro Engineering. Their turnouts are made with tighter tolerances and so far I haven’t had any problems using equipment with narrow wheel treads.

Tim Garland

Code 88 wheels and standard code 110 turnouts

Walthers Shinohara track is no more

Just so I and others are clear, does this affect all of the Walthers Code 83 components, including the more common items like the #5s, #6s, etc?

If so, I find it hard to believe Walthers won't pick this up. Wasn't this basically their track line?

Brian B.

AV&LE RR

I just looked at Walthers'

I just looked at Walthers' web site.  The Walthers Code 83 switches: some are in stock and others out of stock.  The Shinohara Code 100 is out of stock.

@ Brian B

Brian:

From what I can gather on the various forums, yes, this will affect the Walthers line, for I'm under the understanding Shinohara supplied their product.

I'm sure that if I'm incorrect, someone with more accurate information will step in.

For now, though, it's let the frenzied bidding wars begin!

Andre

Thanks Andre

Curved turnout problems

Everyone wants to blame the frog.  Shinohara/Walthers code 83 #8 curved turnouts tend to be out of gauge at the points, and also at the ends of the routes diverging from the frog.  The frogs themselves tend to be more or less in gauge.  The gauge is sufficiently wide at the points for code 88 wheelsets to fall off the rail.  Code 88 wheels should operate reliably if the turnout is in gauge.

Slice the plastic spike off in the affected areas and re-spike the turnout using new holes drilled in the plastic ties.  

Shinohara

I've also been looking for Shinohara track to gobble up too. I've got a few turnouts & switches from Walther old orders myself to use on the layout when I build it. Will be ordering what Walthers has left in stock as well to hoard for me. Also will be looking at others to get track for the layout. There's a few code 100 in stock from looking at Walthers site earlier today.

Time for

MRH to go the extra mile, and implement an obsolete component exchange.  You send me a Peco Code 83 #7 RH Insulfrog, I'll send you that #8 LH Walthers that's been aging on my shelf for ten years.... Sounds fair, no? 

I've got  a layout plan with significant unpurchased Walthers inventory, that's now history.  I refuse to compete for 'relic' switches.

Oh well.  Thought it was a good idea, anyway.  I expect my pile of old (Shin!) and Walthers C83 that I don't plan to used is...garbage.

Blair

Time marches on, sometimes right on over us, jackboots and all.

I think there will be a market for your old obsolete turnouts.

I think your obsolete track will be like Athearn blue box kits.  They have been out of kit production for years, but you still find sellers at train shows selling left over kits.  You can sell turnouts on Ebay, maybe even get a profit since they will not be available from other sources.

Walthers is only an importer of the Shinohara track components.  Shinohara has been producing track components since the 1950's I think if I remember correctly.  If the owner wants to retire and has no one to take over the business, they go out of business.  If Walthers is not interested in buying the business and producing the track themselves, they may just end up selling Peco or Atlas instead.  The only thing that Walthers manufactures are products made by companies that they have bought like Lifelike and Cox.

I received this notice in my inbox

Received this notice from Scenery Unlimited, seems that someone will continue production for the Japanese market. For us in S scale the market just shrank in half.

=======================================================================

Got this email about Shinohara

Shinohara to end production
Shinohara, a brand leader of track and turnouts in many scales—including S— for three decades or more, has announced it will stop production of its products, although a Japanese company has plans to take over the Japanese market at last report. The brand has been known world-wide for precision and quality for a long time. Its North American distributor for the S and Sn3 scale line, Scenery Unlimited, expects to have only a small amount of stock on hand when the firm finally closes its doors, largely because the announcement came so suddenly. “This is a very unfortunate circumstance,” says Don Heimburger, president of Scenery Unlimited, “but Shinohara is planning to retire and there appears no recourse.” 

Nature abhors a vacuum...and entrepreneurs love one.

I think somebody will step up to either take over the brand or improve and/or expand their own. I do wonder however, with Oak Hill and Fast Tracks gaining steam if modelers will at least get back to making their own switches again...if not handlaying their whole railroad altogether.