I am interested in the new walthers gp15’s coming out soon. I have never actually seen or owned any of the proto 1000 items. Do they run well and are they quite. Are they model quality or toy like. Are they dcc ready. If anyone has answers to these questions please let me know. Thanks.
I have an FA and FB that run great, they are lacking a little in detail, but for the money they are good engines. The new GP15’s say they have new tooling but I’m not expecting much. If you want you could wait until 2010 for Athearn to do them in their Genesis line.
I have 3 of the old GP15s and they are smooth runners.
However,I will wait on the Athearns…
Does anyone out there know when the Athearn units are supposed to ship. Will there be a california northern version or and undec version available. Thanks for the help fellas.
I’ve operated a friend’s Proto 1000 RDC on my layout, and while most details were molded on the shell, it looks good and ran well too. Most Proto 1000 locomotives have the same mechanism as the Proto 2000 series, just a less detailed shells.
Previous Proto 1000 releases will have no bearing on this model. Based on all Walthers’ information this is a rehash of the previous Walthers GP15-1, which was developed many years before WKW acquired Life-Like and its Proto 2000 / Proto 1000 lines. I have a couple of them, and they’re pretty good runners, although weak on details.
If the revamp gets a similar drive to the original I’d expect a decent midrange model - but I’ve seen no reason to expect anything like the detailing and mechanism that we have seen from Athearn Genesis.
the drive is all new with the 14:1 gearing and helical cut gears like on their rsc-2 which is an excellent runner. and they have pics of the conrail one with the production paint job not the crappy temporary job walthers was showing so i think they arent as bad as people are making them out to be. i think ill get one in bn paint.
Actually, when I looked in the newest walthers sale book, I saw the GP15-1, and they were lacking much in detail, depending on what roadname your looking for, at trainland they have GP38-2s and an Undecorated GP9 for $50 each. I would wait for the Athearn Genisis, or buy a Proto 2000 engine.
I have a P1K RS-2. It is a smooth runner and was easy to convert to DC, I replaced the factory light board with a DH165AO. The detail is not bad, but is not in the same category as the P2K or Genesis locomotives.
I hope this helps.
Vernon