Proto 2000 0-6-0: Life-Like & Walthers Same?

[JimL]

I wish to buy a decently detailed HO 0-6-0 switcher.

I have found some Proto 2000 "Heritage Steam Collection From Walthers" 0-6-0 models for sale. But, I searched Model Railroader, and I found a review from 2002, and it is stating that the Steam Heritage Collection 0-6-0 is from Life-Like.

Did Walthers buy the Proto 2000 model line from Life-Like? Is one or the other of better quality? Or, can I assume these two 0-6-0's are the same?

As a side note, has anyone renamed and renumbered a Proto 2000 0-6-0 steam locomotive? Is there a recommended way to remove the factory painted road name and number? Or, just carefully try the usual methods/chemicals? (which I've never done)

Thanks

[gmpullman]

JimL

Did Walthers buy the Proto 2000 model line from Life-Like?

Yes, Walthers bought the Life-Like model railroad line. They gradually made changes, mostly improvements, in many of the early Life-Like designs.

I have the Heritage 0-8-0 both "pre-Walthers" but the later one has been improved with the addition of tender truck electrical pickup. This is a major consideration, especially for a switcher.

If you are specifically looking at an 0-6-0 or 0-8-0 from Life-Like/Walthers try to ascertain if the tender has electrical pickup. I'm pretty sure all the later Walthers releases do.

IMG_7348 by Edmund, on Flickr

IMG_7640 by Edmund, on Flickr

Hope that helps, Ed

[doctorwayne]

Ed has pretty-well covered your query about the history of those switchers.  I have one of the earlier 0-8-0s with no tender pick-up, and have had no issues of it stuttering or stalling on my #6 Atlas turnouts with dead frogs.

JimL

I wish to buy a decently detailed HO 0-6-0 switcher.....

While the Heritage line of locomotives was well-detailed (quantity-wise) almost all of the piping on the 0-6-0, 0-8-0, and Berkshire was undersize.  I'm unfamiliar with the other locos from that line, so can't say if they suffer from the same issue or not. 
I believe that the problem was caused because drawings for prototype locomotives show pipe sizes which represent the inside diameter, while die makers for the models mistook them for outside diameters.  From my own locomotive, the piping appeared to be correctly done with regards to its placement and connections, but the diameter of all piping was noticeably undersize.

Since I intended to modify mine to represent a particular prototype, I simply removed the lettering (and perhaps some paint) by wiping it off using a rag and methyl hydrate. 
I then removed all of the piping and after modifying the running boards and a few other details, re-piped it using soft brass and phosphor-bronze wire in sizes more in keeping with prototype practices.  I also removed the tiny flywheel and some electronic stuff (not needed for '30s-era operation on a DC layout) in order to add more weight (the new air reservoirs are lead-filled brass tubing, and there's more lead in both the loco and tender).

The locomotive is a smooth runner, and now, with the additional weight, a decent puller, too.

Wayne

[rrinker]

 Those probably had to be a first - a model loco with the piping too SMALL instead of grossly oversized like so many models.

                               --Randy

[selector]

I have the Proto 2000 Life Like version acquired about a year prior to Walthers purchasing Life Like.  Mine is the 0-6-0, and it is a truly lovely little locomotive.  I think you will enjoy it very much.  It's light.  My greatest grief has come from the connector/drawbar assembly.  It's not a terribly positive connection, it relying on two tiny tabs on the top and bottom surfaces of the engine's half of it. Over time it loosens up.

That aside, I just love watcing this small beastie trundle across my yard.  It is poetry in motion.