Walthers Limited Edition SW 1200 Coming in December

[thomasjmdavis]

Don't worry .... these locos will bomb out, have to be sold at firesale prices, but will have confirmed  Walther's ongoing philosophy: N scale products never sell. 

I imagine if they reviewed LifeLike's books when they bought it, they know they sold.  But that was as a $39 loco with a very nice paint job and a level body.  As a $99.95 loco with bad paint and poor fit (and how much worse will that be when you try to shoehorn a decoder in?), well....

If I came upon an ATSF unit with good paint, and in the meanwhile, someone has figured out how to reassemble one so the body is level, I might be tempted, at a price that was discounted to the point where I felt I was being compensated for it being a kit. That extra 1/16 raises the coupler from .215 to .2775, so there is virtually no hope of using it as a switcher "out of the box." Tearing it apart and reassembling is not a matter of some slight improvement, but absolute necessity to get it to perform its function (not to mention looks).

[Mark5]

They used to market it as an SW9/SW1200 (both are written on the boxes on mine)

They are essentially identical shell-wise according to the yeard limit spotting guide:

http://yardlimit.railfan.net/emd/spotting/index.html

The SW8, SW900, and SW600 (which Lifelike also did) are essentially the same except for having a single exhaust stack.

Mark

[RSWController]

I imagine if they reviewed LifeLike's books when they bought it, they know they sold.  But that was as a $39 loco with a very nice paint job and a level body.  As a $99.95 loco with bad paint and poor fit (and how much worse will that be when you try to shoehorn a decoder in?), well....

If I came upon an ATSF unit with good paint, and in the meanwhile, someone has figured out how to reassemble one so the body is level, I might be tempted, at a price that was discounted to the point where I felt I was being compensated for it being a kit. That extra 1/16 raises the coupler from .215 to .2775, so there is virtually no hope of using it as a switcher "out of the box." Tearing it apart and reassembling is not a matter of some slight improvement, but absolute necessity to get it to perform its function (not to mention looks).

Look, I understand some concerns but it’s not fair when discussing the merits whether it’s a worthwhile purchase to quote one price that is MSRP and one that is discounted. According to my memory, and the Model Railroader magazine review, it was not a $39 dollar loco. It was a $65 dollar loco in 1997. Today, it is a MSRP $99. So no, it’s not that big of a price difference as you’re making it sound.

[Cajonpassfan]

They are essentially identical shell-wise according to the yeard limit spotting guide:

http://yardlimit.railfan.net/emd/spotting/index.html

The SW8, SW900, and SW600 (which Lifelike also did) are essentially the same except for having a single exhaust stack.

Mark

Mark,
an excellent resource, thank you for posting the link! Nice to have the side by side comparisons.
Otto

[milw12]

Wow, will the couplers mate up with a Micro-Trains height gauge?  That sounds like a big difference.  Maybe it wasn't assembled correctly at the factory.

Naturally my height gauge is on hiatus but if I can find it I'll post a definitive answer. As for now, things didn't look good with an Atlas boxcar, it barely coupled. Once get a photo with the gauge I'll send an email of to Wally to see what they have to say.

Fwiw, it ran fine on my unitrak loop.

As for price, I wouldn't buy it for $20 with that paint. Better off finding an undec shell, painting it with some concept of quality, and dropping it on a Bachmann NW-2 like @coosvalley suggested. Really disappointing considering how much I was looking forward to this.

That blemish on the above-pictured unit's cab might actually look pretty good with a little rust-colored chalk applied to it.

I had a similar thought, but man, that hood paint. It might still find a use as a weathering experiment, strip, repaint and swap it with an NW2 so it could resemble something I wouldn't be ashamed to own. All that for $99 

I would say I'd never buy a Walthers N scale product again, but with their release record I doubt I will have to worry 

-Lucas

[peteski]

Well, when you release a model that has some pretty serious quality control problems do you blame the consumer for not buying a sub par product?

And for top dollar prices. It is a vicious circle. No wonder Walthers doesn't see N scale as a viable market (they shoot themselves in a foot and then complain that it hurts).

[learmoia]

Don't worry .... these locos will bomb out, have to be sold at firesale prices, but will have confirmed  Walther's ongoing philosophy: N scale products never sell. 

Except that they were able to sell Micro Trains mechanisms for basically complete model whole sale price.

Price of SW1500 = Price of SW1200 + Price of average MT Freight car... but you loose out on the free SW1200 shell, fuel tank and truck sideframes.  (Sorry, I think MT got bent over on this deal)

So when the fires sale comes, MT should buy them all and do another run of SW1500s..

~Ian

[Point353]

So when the fires sale comes, MT should buy them all and do another run of SW1500s..

With more companies adjusting their production quantities to closely align with the number of pre-orders, there may far fewer fire sale opportunities in the future.

[Mike the Modeler]

Bump, they are supposed to be out now.
Anyone seen one in person, or bought one, and what's the reaction?
Otto K.

With apologies to Peterski who set the bar high with his SW1 review, here is my reaction:

I purchased one each of the SP (TNO) versions. The painting was very good. They do squat a bit in the rear similar to what has been shown already in this thread. I have a suspicion as to why but will reserve comment until I can verify so I don't start a rumor. The rear of the frame seats deeper than the front. Any attempt to pull to rear of the frame out of the shell to level the loco impacted the run quality for some reason. These have the same inane electrical contacts welded to the underside of the walkways. The big difference is that these now have wires direct from the brush caps that plug into the light board or decoder. There is some minor difference in how the frame halves were milled to accept the trucks ( see photos). The trucks are extremely free rolling when out of the loco and are absent any grease. It appears that the bronze contact strip in the trucks are of a different gauge metal compared to prior releases. ( this has not been confirmed with a caliper) The electrical contact can be spotty rolling through turnouts ( atlas code 55 with powered frogs)  and it appears as this may be related to the bronze contact strip. The wheels were in gauge. One truck had the small gears that sit between the gear tower and axel installed backwards so it did not engage the other gears. I was able to easily remove the gear axel and flip the gear around to the correct orientation. The locos ran fine on DC. After a TCS MT1500 decoder was installed they  ran smooth except the speed would oscillate. I turned off the BEMF and this went away ( CV 61 = 0)

The following photos show the new frame and motor with a TCS decoder installed. It is the one with the white wire. Note the wire and electrical tape are as supplied by Walthers. The other frame is the prior release from Walthers. Notice that the new frame is milled for clearance of the top of the truck, where the old frame was "as cast".
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[Joetrain59]

Would the new PCB work in the older releases? Not for DCC purposes, but the LED is much brighter than the older versions. Just got my 2 undecs of older units from BLW sale.
 Thanks,
 Joe D

[daniel_leavitt2000]

Joe, I was actually playing around with this tonight.

1. The new PCB does work with the old frames without modification.
2. They are not any brighter than the old run, and mine were yellow like the latest MTL SW1500.
3. You need to modify the motor, cradle and contacts if you want to use the motor-to-PCB wires. Probably not an issue if you have no use for DCC.

[peteski]

Replacing dim or yellow LEDs with bright white ones is a task which an average model railroader should be capable of. Those are standard old-fashion 3mm leaded LEDs.

[Joetrain59]

Thanks Daniel. I have maybe 2, 3mm leds from Richmond Controls that I could swap in. They also have caps/diodes on them. Or I could use smd leds I have from Ngineering. I could order new pcb's from Walthers also, which would be the easiest way to go. Painting the room where new layout will be is going to put a stop to working on some projects for a while.
 Yes, Peteski, I know, and can do it.
 Joe D

[peteski]

Thanks Daniel. I have maybe 2, 3mm leds from Richmond Controls that I could swap in. They also have caps/diodes on them. Or I could use smd leds I have from Ngineering. I could order new pcb's from Walthers also, which would be the easiest way to go. Painting the room where new layout will be is going to put a stop to working on some projects for a while.
 Yes, Peteski, I know, and can do it.
 Joe D

Unlike companies like Atlas or Kato, Walthers does not sell parts.  You can call their tech support and if you convince them that you are looking for parts to fix a Walthers model, if they have some spares, they'll send you the parts, but if you just want to buy some parts for a project, forget it.

As for LEDs, there are thousands available on eBay.  I did a search for "3mm warm white LED) and there are many,many listings.
Like:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/111844319261
https://www.ebay.com/itm/253322703290

[Joetrain59]

Peteski, last week or so, I ordered and got 2 sills from Walther for SW's
Call 866-883-1466.