ATSFGuy,
When were Walthers passenger cars $20/30? In 2003, the Super Cheif cars were $40 ea. ($54 in today’s money) with plastic couplers and no grabirons installed.
Today’s Walthers cars are $70 to $85, just $16 to $31 more than they were 15 years ago in today’s money. Yet the ATSF cars today are now plated, have metal knuckle couplers and have all the grabs installed. How much would you charge someone to install grabs and couplers on their cars? I don’t think $16 to $31 is unreasonable for that job.
Why do you think it’s “completely ridiculous” to spend $100 for an entire passenger train? Even at your incredible low-ball price of $20 per car, a decent 10-car train would still cost $200. It doesn’t make any sense unless all one does is short commuter runs.
That’s a pretty good shout, and I’m always up for an Espee train. There are the ALCO PA’s in the Mainline series, so possibly we could see a Daylight PA or E8 (as you brought up) in the coming years. Maybe an SP train or two, of which will be welcomed with open arms, will follow.
You can easily get a smooth running PFM Ps-4 unpainted in good or better condition for under $300. You would have to spend more on sound, DC, and a good paint job, but by the time you get there, you’re probably not too far past what Rapido is asking for a Royal Hudson.
I’ll 2nd the Prospector, preferrably a '64-'67 version. It’s a fun train, and IIRC, not too long, and I’m sure Walthers would paint some trailers to go with it.
I think that the Prospector would be a great choice- it’s short enough that even people like me who don’t model the D&RGW might consider it, because it’s “neat.”
Since I’m in N, the Walther trains don’t mean that much to me.
However, this train is special and Kato’s CZ cars offer a good start for producing it. So would like to see this done especially since it is relativly short and so better to model. (not to mention Cool)
After pondering on this for about a few months, I came up with a list that I want to see potentially become a reality:
-1938/40 “Broadway Limited” (the ones with the heavyweight and streamlined diners)
-1938 “Super Chief”
-1960’s "Commodore Vanderbilt/20th Century Limited (Proto treatment w/ window gaskets and plated cars where applicable. Maybe reissues of the cars released in 2008 for a 1948-1960’s train??)
-“Prospector”
-“Panama Limited”
-“Southern Cresent”
-“North Coast Limited” (maybe with some SP&S scheme cars for later trains)
-“Sunset Limited”
-“Bluebird”
-“Hummingbird”
-“Golden State”
-“Texas Special” (That’s one I haven’t heard of in a while)
A few days ago Walthers sent out a survey. In it they asked about interest in the following trains and individual cars:
How likely would you be to purchase the following HO scale WalthersProto name trains, if offered at a price similar to our current name trains and (unless noted) modeled as they appeared in the streamlined era?
