Wm. K. Walthers
| Wm. K. Walthers, Inc.
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|---|---|
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| legal form | Inc. |
| founding | 1932 |
| Seat | Milwaukee |
| Branch | Model railway manufacturer |
| Website | www.walthers.com |
Wm. K. Walthers, Inc. ( Walthers for short ) is an American dealer and manufacturer of model trains and accessories. The company describes itself as the largest model railway dealer in the world. The over 1000 page catalog with over 100,000 products is considered the "bible" of American model railroaders.
history
The company was founded in May 1932 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin by Bill Walthers, who was then unemployed. He began with the manufacture and sale of model rails, couplings and other accessories for the nominal size 0 . Despite the Great Depression , his first year sales reached $ 500. The first major expansion took place just five years later: the company moved into new commercial buildings and began in 1938 to enter the developing H0 size market.
During the Second World War, production had to be largely stopped because of the associated shortage of materials for production that was not essential to the war effort. Bill Walthers tried with newspaper advertisements to acquire residual stocks of raw materials in order to maintain marginal production.
Business recovered in the post-war period and in 1958 Bill's son Bruce took over the business. In 1960 he began to sell items from other manufacturers in addition to his own products, thereby expanding his company into a specialist dealer for model railways. This had become necessary because many toy dealers took model railways out of their range because of the low sales. With the general decline in demand for model railways in the 1960s, Walthers' business also declined, but the successful return came in the 1970s. At the same time, products for the nominal size N were also offered . In 1984 Phil Walthers, Bruce Walther's son, took over the business.
range
In addition to the offers from US producers, Walthers now also offers products from foreign manufacturers such as Märklin (since 1979), Fleischmann , Busch and KATO . In 2005, the purchase of Life-Like was the first acquisition of a large, well-known model railway manufacturer.