A Surprise (to me) - Walthers Reissuing DL109

[brokemoto]

This is where the manufacturers have it all wrong.  As EVERYONE knows, every train nut has two favourite railroads:  The Baltimore and Ohio and one other.

The B&O never had DL-109s.  They were not much for ALCos, although they did buy yard goats and FAs.  I suspect that they bought all of those FAs because they could not get all of the F-7s that they wanted when they wanted them.

Con-Cor did sell a B&O lightweight set with a DL-109 powered and dummy.  The C-C DL-109s were not bad runners, even by to-day's standards.  The LLs do run much better.

[bbussey]

I don't have a problem with arbomambo's first exasperated remark.  If that's how he feels, then that's how he feels.  But he shouldn't have deleted the second remark after he was called out on the first one.  Hit-and-run commentary isn't cool.  And he shouldn't have disparaged this site while posting his review on TrainBoard, even though the disparagement was veiled.  That was uncalled for and serves to extend the very discourse he finds distasteful.

I also don't see what he's upset about.  NO ONE in this thread bashed or complained about the production quality and performance of the model, which is what he gushes about in his TrainBoard post.  All of the "negativity" revolves around the CHOICE of prototype and the INFREQUENCY of Walthers N scale motive power releases in general.  And, there are just as many "positive" posts about this Walthers release as there are "negative" posts.  I don't know what set arbomambo off, but resurrecting a seven-month-old thread just to piss all over it from two venues isn't the way to go about it.
 

[FloridaBoy]

Man, I come across as a real Pollyanna here, but for once, my most disappointing and disgusting company who took a productive Life Like and transformed it into a pompous and relatively unpopular product has my support everytime they come out with a new N scale loco. 

First, I love the DL109, and although not entirely accepted by the railroads in their prototypical day, which necessitated the PA's, I love the streamlined art deco design.  I liked the performance and looks of the older ConCor Kato powered model and have several.  But when Lifelike came out with the metal framed DL, and now reissuing it, I am happy and will buy them no matter if they ran prototypically or not.  They fit on my layout and I probably have a passenger set to fit. 

I have learned I am not the only opinionated guy in model railroading or in model car building for that matter, so I take opinions that differ with mine with a grain of salt. The proof of this loco is its sales performance. 

I am sort of sad that once I bragged about all of the train filled hobby shops that were around here just 2 years ago, and now that giant has fallen.  The nearest train store is not able to be located in Ft Lauderdale, and the one in West Palm 30 miles north has limited stock, and the well stocked train store is 45 miles south in North Miami.  I just can't believe that the culture has changed here so much.  Let me know how these run.

Ken "FloridaBoy" Willaman

[bbussey]

I bought the New Haven "New Image" scheme from this batch.  The unit runs as well as those in the previous batch. 

I have no complaints with any Life-Like/ex-Life-Like units from the FA1/FB1 forward and I have a bunch of the various models.  I like the pre-split-frame PA1 also, although the split-frame version is better.  But Life-Like stepped up it's game at that time, and Walthers has maintained it whenever they have reissued a model.  Putting the infrequent-release schedules aside — the tooling, deco, and performance of the Walthers/Life-Like units have been top notch.

[peteski]

I also bought one - the older green New Heaven paint scheme. While not up to today's DCC-ready standard, it is a fine model. The price was right too (I bought mine from BLW). No complaints here.

FloridaBoy: It is interesting to see you post here on TRW. Feels like the good times we had on the Atlas forum.   

[wcfn100]

All this Life-Like talk just makes me remember how bummed I am that they never got to the GP30 in N.  The 30 year old Atlas model has run it's course.

Good models, good runners at a good price.  What a shame.

Jason

[kalbert]

I dunno, much of the thread seemed over the top negative to me - basically a diatribe against Walthers by a couple of a$$... er, hats.

Funny how a thread can have an overall bitchy vibe based on the repetitive posts of one or two dooshhats 

-Mark

Agreed.

I remember this thread. Or am I thinking of the E8 thread? Or was it the.... I don't recall exactly, try to steer clear of the "product review" threads if I can help it.

Cue the "some of us don't settle for mediocrity and are advancing the hobby" remarks.

[CBQ Fan]

I picked up the rock island to run my Zephyr Rocket, or is it Rocket Zephyr, I can't remember.  Not sure if the rock ran them with the Q train but I like it!

[John]

whats a DL109

[wm-webb]

whats a DL109

On that note, does anybody have a link to a video of a running/working DL109?

[bbussey]

There is a fly-by of one in the second scene of this ad for a New Haven 1950s video, as you also can see in the video preview still-shot.