I called my LHS the other day to see if he had sold this one Atlas BNSF Dash-8. Unfortunately he had. But being the great salesman that he is, he tells me about the Special Deal that Walther’s has on Proto 2K E8’s with Sound and DCC onboard. Well, I ask about the numbers they have and the Roadnames he can get me and he comes up with the same numbers in NYC that I already have. I tell em I’ll pass on them because I’ll just wait and put the QSI Solutions decoder in them and be all done. That is when he lays the price of these on me. $109 bucks! By the time I spend the gas to and then the time to put the decoders in these, i would almost be at the same price point. I asked him if he had the price right! Yep, was the reply.
So, taking a quick breath I tell him to get me two in. For that price, I could re-number the other ones, pull the electrics out of them and run em as dummys if I wanted too. I have such a soft spot in my heart (my wife would say my Head!) for F Units and E Units, that I just can’t pass em up. Maybe the shells will get stripped and I’ll try a cigar-band treatment on these. Or then again, I could just leave em alone and pass them on to someone else too.
Well, he got a P2K E8 with sound for less thant he cost of a good sound decoder and speakers. So that’s a pretty good point.
Shame on Walthers/LL for not doing different numbers for the sound units like Atlas did. Because Atlas did different numbers, my LHS was offering to allow people to swap shells if they wanted all 4 numbers with sound. Of course this means somewhere there will be Atlas Trainmasters with the sound numbers but no sound boards in them.
Me, I’m just waiting for a similar deal on the GP9 with sound so I can swap on my GP7 shells.
And some folks wonder why more people don’t post here.
My .02 cents. It was a GREAT Deal that I thought I would pass along. There are a number of newer modelers around this forum that I thought might want to know about this good deal. Do the MATH! If you have one of the first runs of these E8’s like I do, you will know that the light board needs to come out and the decoder you do p[ut in needs to be hard wired in. I can do that and I probably will before I GIVE these E8’s away. I did have the idea that I was going to install the QSI Solutions DCC and Sound on these units, but after seeing this price, decided it was a better idea to BUY these units and pass these other along. The were used, and I got them at a fair price. There are any number of Clubs that I could donate these too.
Sir, YOUR attitude is just another reason that I don’t post much here.
I have a related question. I bought an older(though “new”–i.e. never used) P2K E-8 off ebay a couple of months ago. Got it because it’s in my roadname(Frisco) that P2K doesn’t produce any more. Haven’t converted it to DCC yet, and looks like it would be difficult to put sound in(having read about it, might have to cut some of the weight out to get a speaker in). So, I wondered if I might not be better off buying a new E8 and swapping out the shell; I really thought about this a week or two ago when that Walther’s sales catalogue came out that listed the sale you mentioned.
My question is, has anyone done this? I asked this question on another thread a couple of months ago and no one had done it that I recall. So, I guess I’m just asking if they’ve changed the tabs on the chassis/shell interface with the newer E8’s that this idea wouldn’t work. With as good a deal as this is, would be a lot simpler than having to convert the old circuit board.
OMG, I think I have a twin. I just bought the same pair of NYC E-8s simply because the price for sound equipped locos was just too good to pass up. I don’t know if I could get the decoders and speakers for what I paid for the locos. I too have a love affair with F units because they were the diesels that were most common when I was growing up. To this day, when someone says diesel, I immediately picture an F-unit. I’ll bet over the years I have bought 30 F units by various manufacturers, both powered and dummy. I just bought a sweet NYC A/B set from BLI in black and gray livery. F-units will always run over my layout along side lat
Remember, fellow railroaders, this is a low-volume hobby. Production runs are small, except for all those 55 Chevies. So, if you see something you want, you might want to grab it, because it won’t necessarily be around tomorrow. And if you see something for a good price, definitely go for it, because they won’t last long.
Thanks for pointing out this bargain. I’m sure more than one of us will end up with one or two of these, and their layouts will be happier, if noisier, places to hang out.
The chassis and shell on the new ones are different, but could be milled to accept the old shells.
The main difference is that the new shells do not have the operating side doors like the older models, and so the chassis does not have the channels to allow the door frame to fit. The channels could be milled into the sides though, or you could make the doors in-operable by removing the frames and gluing them in place.
the other difference is that the new shell has the pilot mounted to it instead of the frame, even though the chassis has the right shape to accept the pilot, the “ears” are too thick for the pilot to slide on,
again the shell on the older one could be modified to attach the pilot, or the frame can be milled thinner to accept the pilot
the only other issue is very minor in that there are some internal alignment tabs on the old shell that will need t
“Maybe I’ll paint them in the Cigar Band paint…” (how do I post only a portion of a quote??)
Anyway, I bought a pair of the Central E-8s and they’re numbers that I don’t have (I have four other E8s and two E7s) the sound units from Wally are 4066 and 4068. I’ve got 4044, 4076, 4070 and 4090
If you do repaint them in Cigar Band Black why don’t you try to show the two-tone zebra stripe paint bleeding through the black! I remember a lot of E’s that had the black paint quickly applied and after a few years the two-tone paint was bleeding through the hastily applied black!
That would make for a pretty unique and prototypical paint job!
Yes sir, I had thought of doing it just that way. Saw many a Cigar band E8’s running through Rochester, NY at various point in my youth and no matter, I loved seeing them. It is one of those memories buried deep inside of me. I always loved going to my Uncles house as a kid, because it took us over many crossings and had many more chances to see these big beasts.
My preference is the Lightning Stripe, which may mean I just re-number the other two that I have.
I pick these up hopefully on Wednesday. If I can remember, I’ll try and post some pics side by side of the shells and the chassis. I did not know there were that many changes in the shell and the chassis. It’s still going to be fun though!
ED, you click on “Quote” at upper right of the text box to which you would like to respond. Note that some browsers or their versions don’t seem to allow all the bells and whistles to show up on some people’s screens…so I hope you see it.
When the reply text box opens, wait a bit for the software and server to configure the contents…you will soon see the text that you wish to quote bracketed by square brackets and the word “quote” and the user name. The text you can safely manipulate, including deleting what you don’t want to appear in the quote, is what is between the two brackets.
So, I opened a response, but I clicked “quote”, and not “reply”. When that text box opened, I hi-lited and deleted all the text except your question. When I post this response, the server will dutifully prevent all except what I wanted to include in the quote from appearing.
Thanks! Now I got it… I was highlighting, copy & pasting. A more complicated route…
AND I meant to say that the old two-tone paint was bleeding through the cigar band DARK GRAY… not black! I’ve been tempted to do an A-B-A set of the “Century Green” E units but they’re just TOO ugly! I do have a set of decals with the gold stripe. That might be nice but I’ve never personally seen it, only in photos.