Walthers PS-1: Originally W/Sprung Trucks or Not?

[maxman]

I have several assembled Walthers 40' PS-1 box cars, item 932-3717, shown here http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/932-3717.

I am trying to determine if these were originally sold with sprung trucks.  Anyone have a clue?

Thanks

[dti406]

All the one's I bought back in the 90's had sprung trucks, these were the PRR cars and the NYC Pacemaker.  I quit buying Walthers when the Intermountain PS-1 cars came out.

Rick J

[wp8thsub]

A lot of Walthers' freight car kits had sprung trucks, plastic with plastic wheels and springs that looked like Kadee coupler springs.  I think most of their plastic cars from the 1980s started with them, as the tooling was obtained when Walthers picked up the Train Miniature line of cars.  All the ones I've seen were cast in a rust color.  They weren't necessarily the easiest to assemble, and the springs didn't look very realistic.  Walthers went through several changes to the trucks, with some cars being sold for a time with Athearn trucks, and cars that should have had 100-ton roller bearing types with 50-ton solid bearing trucks.  

I was given an old Walthers Airslide hopper kit some time ago that dated from the transition in product.  It retained the original roller bearing sprung trucks, but also had a separate pair of rigid solid bearing trucks like those being used on the steam era boxcar kits.  The same kits later got Athearn trucks, then the Walthers versions that were essentially the old sprung truck tooling reconfigured into a one-piece rigid casting.  I found all three in kits bought new from hobby shops.

[maxman]

Thanks for the responses.  The trucks on the cars I have are black.  They also have Kadee couplers and what appear to be Kadee wheels.  With those changes, I wasn't sure if the original owner might have changed out the trucks also.

[G Paine]

SOme Kadee trucks have springs; if you bought the car at a used table, maybe someone repalced the original trucks with Kadees. My guess since the wheels and couplers are Kadee as well.

[maxman]

G Paine

SOme Kadee trucks have springs; if you bought the car at a used table, maybe someone repalced the original trucks with Kadees. My guess since the wheels and couplers are Kadee as well.

 

 

Thanks for the info.  Cars are not mine.  I'm trying to dispose of them for a friend and want to be sure of what I was going to put in the description.  That fact that the Walthers car may/did come with sprung trucks complicates the issue.  I suppose I could take one of the trucks off and see if it says Kadee anywhere on it.

[wp8thsub]

maxman

I suppose I could take one of the trucks off and see if it says Kadee anywhere on it.

Kadee sprung trucks are metal.  If they're plastic, they could be original kit parts.  Since you say they're black, look for someplace the paint may have worn off, or where you could scrape off some paint unobtrusively.  If the base plastic color is rust, I'd say they're almost certainly the original Walthers trucks.  Kadee wheelsets fit in the Walthers trucks, so a previous owner may have replaced the stock wheels.  The underbody parts on the kits of this vintage were cast in the same rust colored plastic, which could be another giveaway.

To complicte matters, Walthers now sells pre-assembled versions of the old sprung trucks cast in black, but they have Walthers own machined metal wheels.  There are multiple brands of other plastic and metal sprung trucks that could be on the cars, as numerous types would fit.  The prospective buyer likely won't care too much.

[riogrande5761]

I bought 4 of the original Walthers 2-bay airslide kits back in the late 1980's (BN, D&RGW, SSW and SP).  I can still remember building a couple of them at my ex's "camp" up on Lake Ontario and still have them - they are the old Walthers "white box" kits.  I think at least 3, maybe all 4 of them came with the light reddish brown sprung trucks with the Kaddee looking springs; they had a shock absorber effect if you pushed down on the model.  I tossed them in the train tool box - might till have them but don't plan to use them on any models - only as maybe a static display at most.

I didn't really care for those sprung trucks and swapped them all out for either the later Walthers or Athearn one piece 100-ton roller bearing trucks and a set of metal wheels.