Model Railroading > Walthers New Passenger Train

Unless I missed it, I haven't seen any converstation here about Walthers' new passenger train:

Click here: City of San Francisco - Name Trains - Shop All Departments (walthers.com)

Reportedly, incudes four newly tooled cars.
Victor B.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/22/22 17:12 by wabash2800.

They want a lot for them

WAF Wrote:
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> They want a lot for them

The price seems about right.  

Wabash 2800 , thanks for sharing this info . I'll put it on my list for Christmas. 

The "manufacturers" who don't actually manufacture the items themselves, but contract to have the items built, mostly in China, are getting slaughtered with huge price increases for materials, labor and transportation costs, not to mention skyrocketing interest rates.  Of course, we are all feeling this one way or another.  I'm sure that when Walthers first started planning this set, they had no idea that things would increase as they have in just the last few months.  I'm actually amazed that the prices are not higher.  

Hope you are all doing well,

Allen Drucker

Someone reported elsewhere the following: "The China USA currency exchange valuation has returned to 2019 levels. Dollar continues to strengthen against other currencies as well"  Not that it
would lower prices but it might cause prices to not rise as much now.  OTOH, I know shipping costs tripled or more during the container shortage - not sure where that is at now.

My consolatoin is I plenty of rolling stock so at this point I am only buying one her or one there mostly to fill in gaps.  I have pretty much all the passenger trains I need - the only thing I was
> having a hard time filling in were plated phase II Superliners for my early 80's Amtrak California Zephyr but finally found a few after a long daught of not finding any.  The main missing passenger
car is the ex El Capitan step up car used on the Amtrak California Zephyr in phase III paint for a good 10 + years still isn't available in HO. 

C'mon Walthers!  Even Kato made it availble in N scale so you can model a front to back correct Amtrak CZ for the early/mid 1980's.

Cheers,
Jim

Jim:

I am a big Amtrak fan also (in N Scale) but here is a link to a possible car that you mentioned in your post.  (just to make sure you are aware of it).  

Might be hard to find but with all the HO places including eBay you never know.

Plus you could reach out to IMR and see if they have any plans to re-run them since I believe they purchased the TSP tooling.

https://www.intermountain-railway.com/distrib/tsp/html/tsp4815.htm

Take care,

Northridge Switcher

> Plus you could reach out to IMR and see if they
> have any plans to re-run them since I believe they
> purchased the TSP tooling.
>
> https://www.intermountain-railway.com/distrib/tsp/
> html/tsp4815.htm
>
> Take care,
>
> Northridge Switcher

Thanks.  That is the later version with the stepped striping.  The version I am needing has straight striping across the entire car.  Also, the Walthers tooling is better than the TSP.  I've seen twice on Ebay custom painted Walthers step down cars with phase III and they got bid up past $250 each time. It goes to show there are people want the same car.  Now if only Walthers would do one for a popular Amtrak Superliner train!

One of the things that made the City of San Francisco interesting to me was the eclectic consist of cars which included cars in various Southern Pacific schemes.  However, while solid yellow trains may be correct for the era of PAs in the Daylight scheme, when SP switched to the grey and red for its diesels, there would have been a greater variety colors on the City of San Francisco cars.

Regarding the costs of this set, it would have been nice if Walters also offered an early 1960s-era San Francisco Overland which would be shorter and, therefore, less costly for modelers.

I am not a big passenger train fan. I typically run short trains on my layout to add variety but not long ones.
The City of San Francisco offering kind of intrigues me tho. Even with the huge price tag.
I have a question tho...
I have found that passenger cars, most especially Walthers cars; are a PIA to get to run and track well. This makes
me leary about laying out this expense. I have not bought any Walthers cars the last few years (just Rapido and BLI)
and was wondering, for those who have; if there has been any improvement in tracking etc. I have in the past had to
level trucks, fix wheels, mess with couplers etc. The Trucks being 'square' being the biggest issue. I was wondering
if people think there has been improvment in the quality of Walthers passenger cars as the prices have gone up on
the newest stuff?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/26/22 12:15 by inyosub.

"if people think there has been improvment in the quality of Walthers passenger cars as the prices have gone up on the newest stuff?"

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The latest run of Superliners I have run very well.

Has Walthers posted an expected delivery date for the City of SF?

Gerry