Got the new Walthers sale flyer in the mail yesterday. Usually this
is nothing to write home (or post) about, but this time there is a
possible exception.
As you probably know, when Atlas stopped marketing the A1G releases,
Rivarossi kept making the ones that they did for Atlas. A couple of
these were offered in non-A1G paint schemes, but most are still what
was done in the late 1960's and early 1970's-- perhaps making these
the longest running N Scale cars ever?
Eventually these all wound up in the Arnold stable when Arnold took
over Rivarossi.
The most recent iteration of these is a set of seven cars of various
types, one of which is an 86 foot high cub box car (in Santa Fe if I
recall correctly, not an original A1G paint scheme but nice!).
There is also an eight car set. All of these are freight cars.
The punch line: In this Walthers flyer each set is marked down to
just $13.97! That's less in 2004 dollars than they originally cost
when I bought them.
There are also sale prices on the Riva/Arnold iterations of the "cow
and calf" switchers and some passenger cars. The passenger car
prices, while good for Walthers, are still beaten by some other
venues (like Train World in New York that has selected sets for
$14.99).
My flyer has a code that enables free shipping with $100 minimum
order.
No, they aren't true A1G's, but "stand ins". Considering how old
the tooling is they really don't hold up too badly. I'd take these
as "entry level cars" before some other stuff, that's for sure.
Perhaps some early holiday shopping for gifts for new entrants, kids
in the scale, et cetera...
Cheers,
Your list owner
P.S. If anyone does go for this, please report back to the gang...
