I’m very interested in the new Walthers H10-44, and close to purchasing one. It looks like a great model. However I’m a bit concerned on the paint Walthers choose for the two Santa Fe versions.
Looking through my many Santa Fe books, it is hard to tell if the H10-44 (total of 3, 500-502) were painted in black and aluminum zebra stripes or if they wore the unique black and white scheme Walthers chose.
This website lists the H10-44’s as being delivered in the original black and silver scheme (and presumably later getting zebra stripes), while the H12-44’s wore black and white zebra stripes:
Can anyone confirm if the Walthers version is correct?
Below is a comparison of the Walthers model #501 with a prototype image of #500 found on page 71 of Santa Fe In Color, Volume 1: Chicago-Kansas City, by Lloyd E. Stagner. They look close, and it is very hard to tell if #500 has aluminum or white stripes. The picture of #500 was taken in 1956, almost my perfect layout era of 1957.
Although I don’t think I can fault Walthers on this one. Looking over varying photos, it seems the Santa Fe H10-44’s had more then other roads. And I don’t think the Walthers prototype was based off of the Santa Fe version. I’m trying to find a factory photo of a Santa Fe H10-44, but so far haven’t found any in the many books I have.
Wonder what the extra louvers are for? Dynamic brakes? Or just a later modification of the original factory model.
I’d also like to find that neat Fairbanks Morse shield/logo/plaque that is placed on the front right under the headlight. Can’t seem to find any made in HO scale, which is somewhat surprising.
When I got my h-10-44 it came with a FM plate as an extra part. If I’m not mistaken, you can order FM plates seperately from Atlas from there H-16-44 parts list.
Prototypical or not, I got my H10-44 yesterday. Beautiful loco. Runs oh so smoothly. A huge improvement over the Roco version we tried and sent back many many years ago.
One of the best features is it comes with a very nice manual. It even mentions what decoder is used so you can go online and download the full manual from QSI, if I’m remembering correctly, yeah I think it’s QSI. But I’m happy the manual that it came with is detailed and covers pretty much all you need to know, it’s a lot better then most manuals that come with DCC/Sound equipped locos.
The sound is fairly good. The loco/motor sounds could be better, but then again I’m not all that familiar with how a true FM diesel should sound. The horn is nice, and the factory bell chosen for it also seems right. You can alter the sound levels for each which is nice too.
As for paint. Well I’m still not sure how accurate it is for an H10, but they did model it exactly after the “Chicago” white stripes and silver numbers shown on many H12’s. So it looks great for an H12. And it does come with a Fairbanks Morse plate that you can install, nice touch. It also comes with some other goodies, like cab shades.
DCC programing was fairly straight forward as well. Although renumbering it was a little weird. But following the instructions worked. The manual even includes the already converted binary to decimal numbers to use for all of the road numbers Walthers made for these H10’s. Mine by the way is Santa Fe #502.
All in all I’m happy with it. Nice to finally have a factory DCC/Sound equipped zebra stripe switcher. Sorry BLI, you lost you’re chance of a purchase by me of a zebra NW2. Not sure why they dropped the ball, and continue to do so with that one. Way to go Walthers, you got my business by being first.
