Model Railroading > Walthers Proto SD9

My MILW preorder came in to the local brick and mortar yesterday. This is a smooth running and nicely finished model. It is set to run on DC and will smoothly start about mid throttle without needing to go to nearly full throttle. The ESU Lok Sound decoder has a nice SD9 sound.

The finish is a little intense. An overall layer of flat dust to tone it down will be nice. The rooftop silver spark arresters are probably a first for a production model. These are nicely shaped but they stand too high off the roof. Walthers mounted them on top of the exhaust stacks while the MILW cut the stacks flush with the roof then mounted the spark arresters. Walthers used round legs to support the arresters while the prototypes used flat strapiron for legs.

There are all weather windows on both sides of the cab while it was common on the MILW only find one on the engineer's side. That' OK since one of the parts bags has a roof mounted window shade to replace the box.

There is an assortment of parts in two enclosed bags. Unfortunately most of these cannot be identified in the parts diagrams.

I am happy with the model and I think it will be a nice operating model. It is not Genesis quality but can certainly be upgraded if you like. The handrails on the corners are nicely done.

I noticed the various SP and Burlington models are now showing an expected arrival on Oct 28th, 2019.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

funnelfan Wrote:
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> I noticed the various SP and Burlington models are
> now showing an expected arrival on Oct 28th, 2019.


The SP is tempting. SD9s were regulars through Davis when I lived there in the 70s.

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