Walthers' PROTO 2000

[sour rails]

     Is the Walthers line of Proto 2000 locomotives actually worth as much as they sell for?

[Guilford Guy]

Yes

[SteamGene]

Depends.
Gene

[CHUG]

Absolutely so.

[Atlantic Central]

I have a large fleet of Proto 2000 locos, never paid retail, but they are worth every penny of the usual prices in the market place.

Sheldon

[sour rails]

Depends.
Gene

     Thanks for answering, but I would like to know how or why you think they are actually worth that much.  All my locos (5) are Bachmann, so I don't really know how to word the question.  Thanks for any more info.

[Atlantic Central]

sour rails,

First, are you interested in steam or diesel? or both?

Diesels - Bachmann diesels are nice locos for the price, I cannot say much about Bachmann Spectrum diesels other than the 44 tonner, because it is the only one I own. Compared to most Bachmann diesels I have seen, spectrum or new upgraded standard, Proto2000 diesels are more detailed and the detail is finer. In other words the hand rails are closer to scale, etc. This does make them more fragile. In my limited experiance with Bachmann diesels, they all run fine, but Proto2000 (or even Proto1000) run smoother and have better slow speed performance.

I have Proto GP7's, PA1's, E8's, SD9's, FA1's, FA2's, S1's, BL2's and RS-2's, all in multiple copies. They all run and look great and pull well.

Sheldon

[Pacific Northern]

I have a large fleet of Proto 2000 locos, never paid retail, but they are worth every penny of the usual prices in the market place.

Sheldon

The later runs of the Heritage Steam are great engines. As said they are available at discounted prices now and again. If you had to pay full retail then I would go elsewhere.

[Guilford Guy]

Beware of the older run of P2k GP30's. Many suffered from "split gear syndrome." If you do get a P2k GP30 with split gears, the wheelsets can be swapped with athearns and it will run fine...

[Atlantic Central]

Guilford Guy,

Other Proto units besides the GP30's had the gear problem. All of my GP's had it and so did some of my FA1's and PA's. BUT they are all very early runs of those locos - all current runs of those locos are just fine!

AND, first Life Like, and now Walthers, will warranty them with no problem, just call them up and they will send you replacement wheel sets free.

AND, no replacement wheelset Life Like or Walthers has sent me has ever failed.

I would NEVER use an Athearn wheel set in a Proto locomotive, especially if you are refering to the old Athearn wheelset with rough iron wheels (dull silver color). Those old Athearn wheels do not pickup the power as well as smooth shinny wheels.

In fact, I have used Proto wheelsets to upgrade all my old Athearn units rather than buy more expensive replacements from NWSL.

Sour Rails,

Do not let this talk of wheelset problems scare you away from Proto, it is and old problem from years ago (6-8 years ago actually) and even if you buy some old stock somewhere, they will stand behind it and give you the parts which are very easy to install.


Sheldon

[sour rails]

     Thanks guys, I just wanted an answer before I buy one and find that it's junk.   Now, the loco I am looking to get is a PA Nickel Plate Road;  was it produced around the time of these wheelset problems?

[Atlantic Central]

sour rails,

A PA from the early runs in Nickel Plate could have wheelset problems, but remember, they will replace the wheelsets for free.

How many are you interested in? I have one in Nickel Plate I will sell you.

It only has about two hours running time on it, the wheelsets have already been replaced, and it has been converted to close coupling with the Kadee conversion kit.

The earliest Proto PA1's had the couplers out a little far to insure good operation on tight curves. Kadee makes a special conversion kit to move them back in. That is what is on the loco I have.

Contact me by direct e-mail if you are interested.

Sheldon

[Guilford Guy]

Sheldon, the wheelsets I used were from an RTR GP38. Older wheelsets from an F7 went to a dummy GP30. Both units are deadlined as I work on a new themed layout, but the goal was to after get them working, and install a decoder, get some P:87 wheelsets for them.

[westsidelumber12]

If you get em with sound yeah, I love my GP7, best $203.47 i ever spent. Lubky for me walthers had me on sale.

[hobo1]

depends -GET REAL STEAM GENE proto 2000 is better than bachmann and almost as good as atlas .