I have never seen a Walthers Proto 1000 locomotive, nor operated one. But right now Walthers has Proto1000 Seaboard F3s on sale, so I am highly tempted.
How does Proto1000 compare to other brand locomotives, such as Athearn, Atlas, or Stewart, in terms of:
detailing and finish
running performance.
I realize there may be some differences between individual units of these brands, I’m just looking for general impressions of the brands. I just want to know if Proto 1000 is worth spending money on.
I wouldn’t say the detail is mediocre - sparse may be more appropriate, because they have little or no added on details. Basically a nice shell with decent paint ready for your details if desired.
I have both Athearn and Proto 1000 locomotives. The Proto 1000’s run fine as locomotives. I would agree with the above comment that they are lacking in detail.
I recently acquired a Proto1000 RS2. It is stamped with the Walthers name on the underside of the fuel tank, so I guess that makes it a recent run.
The detail is OK. When I get around to adding grabs it’ll look a whole lot better. Lettering and paint job are crisp.The headlight is the brightest I’ve ever seen, and makes for enjoyable night operations. It runs VERY smoothly, and draws less current at startup than my Proto 2000s which are all pre-Walthers.
The only Proto 1000 I’ve seen are the F3’s. The shells and paint looked about as good as Stewart F units and I’ve heard the drives are pretty good too. For the money they are very decent. They do have molded on grab irons etc, but nice otherwise. I never got them as they didn’t represent any Rio Grande phase F units correctly, but they probably do some others.
The only difference between the P1K & P2K is the detailing & in a couple of smaller P1K loco’s such as the RS11, the weight.
I have several of each & to me, these are the only differences I can see.
I don’t have a problem buying either Athearn or Proto. I have a bunch of Athearn BB’s & RTR as well as P1K & P2k loco’s.
Yes the newer loco’s are a whole lot quieter than the BB’s, but to me, there is no better sound on my layout than a couple of BB SD40-2’s hauling a long freight up a grade as you can hear them working.
Another reason why I love BB’s. There is no detailing to them. My 2 year old son has been mauling a non-powered BB GP38-2 for over a week now & nothing had broken off.
Why is it hard for you to accept Walthers stamped on Proto 2000? Lets look at the how Life Like ran the Proto 2000 line in recent years. Many of the diesels have had gearing all over the map so you couldn’t MU them with other brands very well. The SD60 wide cab had a large unsightly gap between the cab and the body. The SD50/60 series had weirdly proportioned truck side frames. Prices shot thru the roof during the last couple years. Life Likes philosophy of listening to customer concerns and making improvements on their diesel models evaporated over the last few years.
If you ask me, Proto 2000 going to Walthers is the best thing that could have happened to the diesel line. At least there is hope that the prices would moderate a bit and other issues would be addressed in runs after the take over. From what I understand, things have improved. So if anything, you should be glad of the stamp of Walthers name on Proto 2000.
Its just like how Athearn has taken less than good models like Rail Power, Details West, Model Die Casting etc, and improved them greatly. I love what Athearn did to the upgraded MDC Thrall gondola’s and 5-bay rapid discharge Ortners.
A hearty amen to that, with possibly the exception to the drives. I’ve heard the latest Athearn drives are still noisy and Proto’s are generally alot quieter.
Probably for the money, certainly more detail, but if Proto 2000’s F7’s are any indication, then they are going to push above Athearns latest. The Rio Gra
Horizon beats Walthers hands down when it comes to marketing. Horizon has a separate web site for Athearn products. Walthers does not. The Walthers buyout of Life-Like ended the production of Life-Like diesels for the Canadian market, so no new runs of ‘Proto’ diesels in Canadian road names. Athearn diesels continue to be offered in Canadian road names.
I also don’t like the Walthers ‘Railroad Mall’. I think it’s a poorly designed web site, and I refuse to go there to look for anything.
I had a P1K Pennsy F3A (Life-like era). It ran very smoothly and very quietly. The grille and fan detailing was good, but the side door grabs were molded on and it had little plastic nubs on the roof where the lift rings would go. IIRC (it’s been awhile since I had it), it also needs a close-coupling kit in the rear.
To be honest, Athearns website had never been all the that user friendly either. However, I didn’t mean to make this into an Athearn vs Walthers argument. Rather, I think Proto 2000 is in better shape now that Walthers has taken over vs before. I already stated the reasons and they were good ones. As for foreign countries, thats another topic! [:P]
Oh, and also, again it not one company vs another. I need products from both. I buy from both. End of story.
