Tune Up Detail
I was reading in one other forum about the numerous little 'triming' a fellow went thru to make his cars more reliable and less prone to derailing. Some of this triming had to do with both truck frame and wheel interference with car body parts. Interestingly another gentlement offered that the simple act of backing off those 'truck screw heads' that make contact with the metal plates on the car body underframe allowed the car to ride just a bit higher, while eliminating a lot of the wheel interference with portions of the car body underframe.I'll have to remember this when I get around to running my Walthers Santa Fe and B&O passenger cars.
Brian
My Layout Plan
Interesting new Plan Consideration
I just looked at mine, I have to agree with Wakthers.
The little screws on each side of the bolster is the contact for interior lighting. The heads make contact to a little metal plate on each side.
My experience with SOME of the Walthers cars, 22" radius or less could be trouble. Not all but some.
Mike.
EDIT: Antonio, sent you a PM.
My You Tube
Hi Brian.
This thread got my "instant attention" when I saw Atlantic Coast Line in the title. I'm currently paint stripping and metalizing several Walthers light weight Budd and Pullman Standard units into SCL and ACL.
Certainly would like to see some more photos of your units!
I'm wondering if these are the Walthers units, from the early 2000's, that were detailed? When they were introduced, the prices were affordable so a number of modelers got into upgrading and detailing them. A number of threads showed up on this and other forums featuring some of the impressive work.
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
Walthers Proto............if it has handrails/grab irons installed. Walthers Mainline if they were installed by customer, along with metal trucks, light bar, swing arm couplers. They both had the same shell/chassis.
Take Care!
Frank
I'll have to get some photos, but in the meantime this is what the bottom of my cars look like,..
Walthers did some ACL passenger and express cars back in 2001/02. I haven't seen anything since then.
ACL must be a "lesser known" road.
mbinsewiBut, you know how this stuff goes, never say never.
So true!
Walthers did market a "Deluxe" Proto passenger car series when they introduced certain name trains. Generally, when you "subscribed" to purchase the entire train in the Deluxe version you got some little extras such as Preiser figures and, in the case of the 20th Century Limited, you got a strip of the red carpet used on the station platform. For the Broadway Limited Deluxe set you got laser-cut train gates and departure boards patterned after the ones used in New York's Pennsylvania Station.
The "Deluxe" cars also had the car names or numbers already applied so you didn't have to mess with the supplied decals. Factory applied car names always looked better, IMHO.
In the case of the Capitol Limited and the second run of the Broadway, and some of the Amtrak Amfleet, there were cars that included about a dozen Preiser figures already glued in some of the seats. I have purchased several of these cars. I heard some grumbling about the roughly $100 street price! To me it was a real bargain. Many of the Preiser figure sets are going near $15-18. The cars also included the LED light bar so add another $15 or so for that. Some places were splitting the Deluxe sets up and selling individual cars.
The big advantage for me is that I didn't have to pry that roof off the body to get at the interior. That, to me, is one of the most aggravating jobs to do and I avoid it as often as possible.
Here's a photo of the underside of a Walthers streamlined car. Note how the contact strips on the car mate with the screws on the trucks to carry power to the interior lighting.
Proto_truck by Edmund, on Flickr
The coupler swing bracket with the two whisker springs and the truck bolster screws that feed rail current to the metal contact strips are giveaways. I believe Hornby manufactures the Proto line for Walthers.
I frequently watch for closeouts in the Walthers Flyer or Bargain Depot or at places like Trainworld for bargains in these cars. If you're not too choosy about road names you can get some real deals.
Good Luck, Ed
Brian, can you post some pictures? Sides, bottom, etc., etc.
I've never known of any body, especially Walthers, to sell a passenger car with people already in it.
But, you know how this stuff goes, never say never.
A couple of weeks ago I acquired some really nice 85' modern passenger cars that came from an estate sale. They had no markings on them as to manufacturer? They appear to be of a very high quality, and are already set up for lighting via their truck pic-ups.
I inquired with a few other modelers that seemed to be pretty sure they were Walthers brand, and that often Walters cars did not had a brand printed on their bottoms, as Walthers has many different manufacturers produce product for themselves??
3 of these cars have figures (passengers) in them. Did any of the 'stock' passenger cars have such?
Since these did NOT come in boxes, I'm unsure as to what exact subcategory of the Walthers line they might be from? I'm trying to determine a value as I may wish to sell them off due to my fondness for B&O, C&O, and Santa Fe.
Long ago I had some Concor passenger cars that had molded bottoms somewhat similar to these, and at first I thought they might be some 'upgraded' Concor cars. But they are far superior to those.