Model Railroading > New and improved PS1???

I just bought a newly released Walthers PS1 boxcar and compared it with the old Walthers white box version from the 80's.  Whatta revelation!  First , the good.  The underframe is much better looking and the roofwalk is see-through.  The graphics are much clearer and the trucks and couplers are improved too.  What really got me was the two main indentifying features of a PS1.  The new version does not have the little blocks just below the roof peak on the ends and more glaring is the lack of a straight step on the left side,  Both steps are offset, although less clunky.  If Walthers was going to create an all new tooling for this model, as they claim., how could they miss these notable features?  Yes, new is not always better.

Which PS-1 are you talking about?  Pullman Standard had a common code for their boxcars which was used for anything with a roof, four sides, doors and a floor. 

Rick

I guess this one:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/910-2355

It has the odd-shaped steps at each end as the OP mentioned. However, I would consider the roof and ends to be the main identifying details of the PS1, not the steps and those little things at the top of the ends. Heck, the model has molded grabs and ladders, so it's obviously not being marketed to us rivet counters.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/15 14:16 by CPR_4000.

The features mentioned are actually (together with the blank roof panels at the ends of the car)  the spotting features for an early PS1 boxcar (built 1947/1948) as compared to the later versions of the PS1.

Of the PS-1s that Walthers has produced in HO - 40', 50' waffle side and 60' single and double door - the only one released in either the 1980s or a white box was the 40' car.  (Note that Walthers offered 4- and 8-door 86' P-S boxcars,  but those were never referred to as PS-1s in Pullman-Standard documents). There's some speculation that the Walthers 40' car was never-released Train Miniature tooling.  It wasn't the old Roco PS-1 once offered by AHM, Con-Cor purchased thal tooling from Lilliput a year or two after the Walthers car came out.   . 

http://www.ho-scaletrains.net/walthersfreightcars/id176.html

In any event, the new Walthers car does appear to be newly tooled early PS-1.  Only McKean has done that one in the past, and between the molded-on detail and what appears to be a separate roof on the Walthers it isn't a good match for the Walthers tooling.

Doug Stark

rschonfelder Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Which PS-1 are you talking about?  Pullman
> Standard had a common code for their boxcars which
> was used for anything with a roof, four sides,
> doors and a floor. 
>
> Rick

That might very well be, but my C&NW PS1 has a build date on it of 1956, so figure that out!