Using our history of hobby shop purchases from Walthers we create product/hobby shop links on The Model Railroad Mall^®. These links list selected hobby shops as possible sources for hard to find items.

We consider any item that we do not have in stock at the time an inquiry is made to be “hard to find.”

Because listings in the Product Locator^tm are currently based on hobby shop purchases in the past, and because these items could have been sold by the time a modeler makes an inquiry, not all items will be found at the shops listed. Our experience has shown that you can expect a successful search 1 in 4 times from any one shop. We are currently working on ways of making the Product Locator^tm information more “real time.” The accuracy is probably highest for the listings of newly released products. For limited run items this service can be especially valuable to hobbyists.

We know that one of the biggest problems that modelers have is finding the exact item(s) they need to satisfy a particular modeling situation. As the number of limited run locomotives, cars and kits increase it is becoming more and more difficult for hobby shops to stock all of the things that modelers want at the time that they want them. This service is designed to help modelers find the many unique products that are located at hobby shops around the country. We have also included ways of updating the Product Locator^tm so that it will become more accurate as time goes on.

Walthers has always been committed to helping hobbyists find the products that they need to enjoy their hobby. Using the power of the Internet we are now able to tell hobbyists where they can find all sorts of discontinued, limited run, batch run and hard to find items. We believe that by creating a “national registry” of hard to find items we will encourage modeling and expand the size of our industry.

If a shop orders an item from us AND we can’t ship that item to them, we will remove the item from the Product Locator^tm system.