i plan on buying a couple of Walthers’ mainline series EMD SW1s when they come out in 2013. is there any difference between walthers proto and mainline series locomotives? basically i just need to need if you can run say proto 2000 and 1000 locomotives with mainline series RS2 or SW1? i figure getting a couple of the walthers new SW1s at $99.98 each is better than say $169 for some of their bigger engines.
I think all of this is just ‘re-branding’ of several Walthers lines. It appears that the Walthers Trainline & Life-Like Proto 1000 line of cars/engines are now being folded into the Walthers Mainline series. The Walthers Gold/Platinum series and the old Life-Like Proto 2000 & Proto Heritage lines seem to be still the same - But I would suspect that may be combining those into a high-end line. They have been getting rid of some of the various Walthers manufacturer ID’s and consolidation . They now have 910 for Walthers Mainline and 920 for Walthers Proto.
The basic difference is that the Proto 2000 line usually has more detail. Much of the old Life-Like Proto 1000 & Proto 2000 4 axle locomotives have the same basic drives under the shell. The older Proto 2000 engines many times had completely different gear ratio’s with each new locomotive(at least in the 6 axle engines). Walthers has been upgrading the engines to have a constant 14:1 gear ratio in the future.
If you are running DC, that can be an issue. With DCC, you can speed match the engines.
Jim
[quote user=“jrbernier”]
I think all of this is just ‘re-branding’ of several Walthers lines. It appears that the Walthers Trainline & Life-Like Proto 1000 line of cars/engines are now being folded into the Walthers Mainline series. The Walthers Gold/Platinum series and the old Life-Like Proto 2000 & Proto Heritage lines seem to be still the same - But I would suspect that may be combining those into a high-end line. They have been getting rid of some of the various Walthers manufacturer ID’s and consolidation . They now have 910 for Walthers Mainline and 920 for Walthers Proto.
The basic difference is that the Proto 2000 line usually has more detail. Much of th
I have several Mainline locomotives (RS2, SW1 and GP15),as far as the SW1 and RS2 go, they are both former Proto 1000 models. They do not have grab irons but do have fine handrails. The GP15 is a more recent model that Walthers started after their purchase of the Proto line I think it came out about 4 or 5 years ago. The level of detail is the same as my other two locomotives. The more recent F40s I think are Trainline engines with some shell upgrades (grab irons by the doors).
Thom,
They are worth the money. I had purchased four of their Mainlines, SW1 X2, RS 2 x2…not My road name, but I didn’t care…the price was right…75.00 apiece…Yardmaster member discount. They run just as quiet as the Kato’s I have…detail is similar to Kato…You do not need to put on detail, it’s already put on, comes with Protomax coupler’s, no need to switch to Kadee’s, they look the same and perform just as well. A pic of SW1 & RS2 together, You can see the hand rails…scale size and not twisted or bent…pkg was excellant, LED equipped. I run straight DC and they come DCC ready, with plug.
Take Care! [:D]
Frank
I defintely agree with you. I purchased my UP RS-2 simply because it looked so great and I always wanted some UP power on my layout. I absolutely love my Chessie SW1 and the Chessie GP15 which I purchased back in the April-May timeframe. All of my Mainline locos run very smoothly and quiet. I also am a great fan of their rolling stock especially the 40 foot gondolas and recent tank cars (Phillips 66 and Mobile look fatastic). For what it is worth, modeltrainstuff.com has a few on sale right now.