Scaletrains acquires Exactrail! Wow!

[BigDaddy]

Stix  thanks for posting that.  It's an improbable business model.  I have never joined but I do watch their free streaming on Youtube. 

[wjstix]

Although it's several years old, the U.P.'s website has a good article on Virtual Railfan Inc. and how it's set up:

UP: Virtual Railfan: The Birth of a Live Train Cam Site…and a Community

 

[BigDaddy]

I can go with "preening"

[Doughless]

I hope the merger puts some new blood into Scaletrains.  Peeve....everything I have ever bought from them has been painted with what looks like too many coats of the shiniest paint they could find.  I know that aluminum is a shiny silver, but when I can almost see my reflection in a train car, I think they need to blend some "dullcoat" into their paints.  

[IC_Tom]

BigDaddy

From an email today from VR

Virtual Railfan "We are thrilled to announce the addition of ScaleTrains, a renowned manufacturer of high-quality model trains, to our ownership team! This partnership represents a significant milestone for Virtual Railfan as it embarks on an exciting new phase of growth and innovation."

That's ambiguous.  Did Scale Trains buy into VR or vica versa.?

 

 

I don't think it's ambiguous, but almost preening, instead.  If you read closely and literally, it says that ScaleTrains is an "addition" to VR's "ownership team."  So VR is owned by a "team" of investors and ScaleTrains has become an investor, too.

All of that bothers me a bit because they've been so slow to utilize anything they purchased from MTH.  I thought perhaps an announcement was coming in June about their 611 release, especially since Delay In Block has been pumping out multiple videos of 611 on youtube for the last month, but only crickets since mentioning it at Amherst.

[angelob6660]

richhotrain

It is always good to see mergers and acquisitions as opposed to outright closures of model railroad manufacturers.

Interestingly though, I have been in scale modeling for nearly 20 years now and yet have never purchased a single item from either Scaletrains or Exactrail.

Rich

I only thing I got for them is N scale 50' Southern boxcar as delivered scheme and 80s repaint. Plus 2 or 3 UP ARMN reefer cars. I missed the chance to get their BNSF circle cross covered hoppers and something else.

[BigDaddy]

From an email today from VR

Virtual Railfan "We are thrilled to announce the addition of ScaleTrains, a renowned manufacturer of high-quality model trains, to our ownership team! This partnership represents a significant milestone for Virtual Railfan as it embarks on an exciting new phase of growth and innovation."

That's ambiguous.  Did Scale Trains buy into VR or vica versa.?

 

[xboxtravis7992]

PennCentral99

That's good news for the executive staff and employees of both organizations. Also, this should benefit the model railroad community.

Unfortunately only one ExactRail employee (former president of ExactRail, Chris Brimley) was retained through the merger. While ScaleTrains did offer new jobs to the other former ExactRail employees, the relocation costs to move from Utah to Tennessee didn't make the offers really viable and their positions weren't able to be converteted to remote work either. Chris was able to accept a remote work position though since his focus is in product design. 

I know Chris and several of the ExactRail staff since they were my "local" brand, and while I celebrate Chris's new position it comes with the bittersweet knowledge that my other friends who worked there lost their jobs with the ER-ScaleTrains merger and closure of sister-company TrainLife. I think Chris will do a great job though with ScaleTrains, he has lots of good design experience and he will ensure the ER tooling catalog is integrated faster into the ScaleTrains brand since he was part of the design of much of the tooling they bought (unlike the MTH buy-out where ScaleTrains has struggled to reverse engineer and inspect the condition of the tooling to get product back out on store shelves). I hope for the best for my other friends I knew at ExactRail in their job search now, and it also means that other than some small "mom and pop" companies in the area the closest "local" manufacturer's now to me are Soundtraxx/Blackstone all the way in Durango, and Arrowhead up in Wyoming so there is a sense of loss to the local area in both terms of model railroading expertise and the great retail store TrainLife operated. 

[PennCentral99]

That's good news for the executive staff and employees of both organizations. Also, this should benefit the model railroad community.

I was introduced to ScaleTrains years ago at the St Louis RPM in Collinsville, Ill. I won a Rivet Counter 31,000 gallon tank car as a door prize. Needless to say, I was impressed with the quality and details. Over the years, I purchased several more items from them. Some items had minor issues, but their customer service dept handled them immediately and professionally.

Terry

[richhotrain]

It is always good to see mergers and acquisitions as opposed to outright closures of model railroad manufacturers.

Interestingly though, I have been in scale modeling for nearly 20 years now and yet have never purchased a single item from either Scaletrains or Exactrail.

Rich

[Track fiddler]

Yep, even better, ain't been screwing around over here

Missed out in the first run, but certainly didn't miss the second

 

TF

[tstage]

I also appreciate that ScaleTrains is offering kits for a few pieces of their rolling stock.  I picked up a couple of the 70-ton 4-bay hoppers this evening off their website.  I look forward to seeing how the paint quality and detailing compares to kits from Accurail.

Tom

[bmtrainmaster]

I got an email from scale trains earlier today. Doesn't suprise me because they have bought other companys. I talked to the owner at a train show and he was very nice. Definitely going to buy more from them because they have a good value in the operator line.

[ricktrains4824]

I like this news.

ScaleTrains has always been a class act, and they both have put out very fine models. 

[tstage]

Thanks, Neal.  That's great news!

I've been wondering about Exactrail, since I haven't seen/heard much from them lately.  I only own four pieces of their rolling stock: (3) MILW "Hiawatha" or "Olympian" ribside boxcars and a M-53 wagon top boxcar - all very fine models.  I'm particularly fond of the early ribside boxcars.

I've had my eye out for their "CTSE" version of the ribside, as I believe they only produced it in one road number.  Maybe sometime down the road Scaletrains will re-release it.

Wishing all parties great success for the future...

Tom

[BigDaddy]

Sounds like a good thing.

[nealknows]

Here's the announcement from Scaletrains that was sent via email a short time ago...

https://www.scaletrains.com/exactrail-acquisition?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&_kx=4zJTnNjuKvaGg1WFpM2Og7QH8Vck3LX63ZHwaxIy_Mg%3D.hnq4B2

Neal