CMW/Walthers TDH3610 Bus quick review

[bbussey]

The Classic Metal Works GMC TDH3610 transit buses showed up in the mail today.  A couple of quick observations:

I got a few of the "National City Lines / Blank Destination" version, for kitbashing purposes.  The marquee isn't blank at all, but has LOCAL printed on it.

Only the chassis is metal.  The rest of the bus is plastic.  That actually works better for me, since I'm going to be kitbashing a TDM4507 to represent the New England Transportation Company equipment.  I also need some New England Greyhound intercity buses, and if I can figure out a way to use this model as the basis for a Scenicruiser, I will.

The bumpers hold the chassis in place.  Pull the bumpers out and the chassis pops out.

The posts between the windows are part of the window glass and painted to the bus color, which also simplifies kitbashing the model.

Etched stainless steel mirrors and windshield wipers are included on a fret to install.

The one negative is that the model appears to sit too high on it's wheels.  Since the model is easy to disassemble, it shouldn't take much effort to lower the model on its axles.  It also could use a little more stability.

The painting, printing and mask separations are crisp.  The headlights are part of the body and painted silver.

Overall, a nice model that was very much needed in N.

[cfritschle]

Bryan,

Thanks for the review.  I had noticed in the photos that they appeared to be riding a little to tall, somewhat like a 4 X 4. 

It is good to hear that they are easy to disassemble.  I have spent a lot of time drilling out the metal posts on their older automobile bodies in order to make adjustments to the bumpers, and to replace the wheels and axles.

Carter

[wazzou]

I think the ride height issue could be said of just about all CMW vehicles.  I have lowered nearly every truck that I have purchased including the P/U's.  The cars really aren't too objectionable.

[FrankCampagna]

Gee, with all the transit buses now available, maybe someone will come up with an intercity bus.

Frank

[Rasputen]

Please post some images when you can - the only ones I have seen are so small I can only tell
that it's a bus.

[bbussey]

Please post some images when you can - the only ones I have seen are so small I can only tell
that it's a bus.

http://www.blwnscale.com/Classic%20Metal%20Works%20N%20Scale%20Bus.htm

[Mark5]

I saw them at the show and at MBK today. The bodies look pretty nice (not excessively wide like the WOT bus).

The wheels though make you swear this was the off road version of the bus.

Mark

[tom mann]

Any good reason why it rides high? :

[MichaelWinicki]

Any good reason why it rides high? :

That's a pretty obvious issue... I wonder why they are released like that?  Is it that difficult a fix?

[bbussey]

That's a pretty obvious issue... I wonder why they are released like that?  Is it that difficult a fix?

The plastic interior snaps onto the metal chassis and holds the axles in place, so it seems easy enough to file two grooves about .020" deep into the bottom of the interior so that the axles settle into them when the bus is upright.

[Bob Horn]

Even eaiser than that. Just snip the nubs off the bottom of the interior. Looks right. Bob.

[Nato]

  One complaint is the National City Lines paint scheme. I grew up in the 1950's 60's in a City Lines town,we had "Salt Lake City Lines" and I did quite a bit of riding, also saw the "Fruit Salid" paint scheme as it was called on LA busses and street cars,and on busses' in Decatur,Illinois in 1969. The yellow-orange body color could be a bit more oranger,but the green strip and window band color is way too pale. My Corgi Los Angeles City Lines ,bus and PCC street car models both have darker green. That is what I used on several bus model kits (Pirate Models) and plaster cast (Robert's Minatures) busse'sI built in the 1980's.I would also like to see the CMW bus offered in the later two tone green and white scheme that many of these properties adopted in the late 1960's 1970's era. Corgi did this scheme on a PCC car. The CMW model could be kit bashed into the slightly longer body leingth bus with seven windows between the doors. Nate Goodman (Nato). Salt Lake, Utah.

[inkaneer]

That bus appears to be the same or very similar to the one in this photo.  I can't tell from the CMW photos if the right windshield has a diagonal side and not rectangular.  Notice the date of the photo, Feb. 5, 1950

http://images.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/i/image/image-idx?med=1;sid=c55edd3ea91c8898af800731f42884db;q1=hpicphlf;rgn1=hpicphlf_all;size=20;c=hpicphlf;lasttype=boolean;view=entry;lastview=thumbnail;subview=detail;cc=hpicphlf;entryid=x-411-720-05-54;viewid=0325.TIF;start=41;resnum=50

[bbussey]

The diagonal side is molded into the window glass and masked/painted the color of the bus body.