I have a Walthers low-nose GP30 shell, and am considering buying a Life-Like GP30 to use its chassis and drive. Does anyone know if there were any changes since Walthers bought Life-Like that would prevent me from doing so (like different screw positions). Thanks! Tim
Tim,My P2K(LL) GP9 and Walthers GP9 is identical…
Thanks for the vote of confidence. I didn’t want to pull the trigger and be stuck with a chassis and drive that I couldn’t make use of.
I think it’s going to depend on when each was manufactured. Walthers has made changes to the P2K line of products as newer models are released.
Well, we’ll find out the hard way once the locomotive arrives. Hopefully there’s no issue.
Did Walthers re-issue the GP30 since taking over the LL P2K line? If so, it should be based on the same tooling although there may have been some revisions to upgrade?
They did. The three GP30s that I currently have (two high hoods with sound and one low hood without) are all Walthers. They came assembled, in gray boxes with nary a Life-Like logo on them, and carry Walthers 920-series part numbers. This will be my first LL P2K since the late 90’s.
I wasn’t aware that Walthers has re-released the GP30’s after they took over the P2K line from LL. At the very least, I never saw any D&RGW re-issued or CB&Q - I have 11 GP30’s from those two road names and my spider sense would have tingled if they were re-released but maybe I missed it somehow?
I’m having trouble finding past releases on Walthers site but, I know they’ve done a couple of runs under the Walters name. I’ll snap some pics ASAP for ya.
I just went and did a search of Walthers site, much easier than LL’s old site, and it appears that Walthers has not yet shipped any GP30’s under their name yet - this may explain why I don’t recall seeing them. They are all listed as advanced reservation for Jan 2013.
Well, let me know what you turn up… It looks like Walthers SD45’s or GP60’s of P2k heritage are delayed too. I thought the SD45s were supposed to be out last spring but now they appear to be delayed a full year - adv res April 2013!!! May haps delayed by the same issues vexing Atlas, Athearn etc. Well, no biggy as I decided to buy SD45’s from Athearns line last winter and year, to the tune of 2 UP, 2 D&RGW, 2 SP for around $85 ea vs probably $150 discount for the as of yet shipped Walthers P2K, and Athearns are chock full of prototypical details - and more importantly here! Crack on Walthers!
If the GP30s that O’Ghoul has are indeed Walthers units, then they are listed here at the Walthers website: http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?category=Locomotive&scale=H&manu=Walthers&item=&keywords=gp30&words=restrict&instock=Q&showdisc=Y&split=30&Submit=Search. The ones that have not yet shipped are on page 6.
The previous Life-Like P2K units are listed here: http://www.walthers.com/exec/search?category=Locomotive&scale=H&manu=Life-Like&item=&keywords=gp30&words=restrict&instock=Q&showdisc=Y&split=30&Submit=Search.
I did not go through the lists to see if the roadnames you mentioned are on either list.
Thanks Maxman, I knew I wasn’t crazy. Riogrande, I see DRGW’s listed on page one. I want to get me some of the patched BNSF ones as well as a Southern.
I saw those sold out D&RGW also … my guess is those are warmed over re-runs of the units I have, nothing new and I doubt any upgrades or improvements, assuming those aren’t just cataloged versions of the ones I bought in the late 90’s. The numbers they listed are the same numbers I have, minus the phase II GP30’s which LL P2K offered first.
Most of the stuff being offered new like the GP60’s and SD45’s show significant upgrades plus sound etc over those older offerings.
I’ll bet that the non-sound shells are the same. There’s a possibility that the sound units may be different, as I know that some manufacturers have had to update older design chassis/shell interfaces to accommodate all the extra goodies, speakers, etc. I don’t know this is the case with the GP30s, however.