What’s New In Model Railroading
From the National Train Show
On August 3-5 The National Train Show was held in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This is a big tradeshow for the model-railroading hobby; this is the place that all the hobby manufacturers unveil their new products. Companies such as W. K. Walthers, Athearn, ExactRail, and Atlas make a big showing at this annual event. There are a number of great looking new products out this year, one of the highlights come from Walthers. They decided to unveil their new Chesapeake & Ohio train in Grand Rapids, because the prototype did travel through the town in its years of operation. Model Railroader Magazine was also there and gave us that could not go a glimpse of the action. There is a video of “Cody’s Office” that has Cody of Model Railroader talking to a representative of Walthers about the new C&O product, and some of their other products too.
I personally am a fan of motive power myself, so I will tell you a little bit about the new WaltersProto 2000 engines that were unveiled. The model is of the Electro-Motive Division E7A diesel locomotive in C&O Pere Marquette paint scheme. The model will come in four road numbers; two in DC with SoundTraxx sound decoders, and two with DCC control and sound. If you know anything at all about the Proto 2000 line from Walters then you know these look great. They come with Five-pole skew-wound can motors, and painted metal grab irons, handrails, and uncoupling levers. The cost of DC powered is $199.98, and DCC powered is $299.98 they will be available in March of 2013.
The next products are great Walthers Pullman-Standard cars. They have cars available with or without lighting, for DC and DCC. Walthers is great with the details of these cars; they look just as they did in the past. They are so detailed that they have prototypically accurate window tinting. In addition, some cars even have a real metal finish to simulate stainless steel that is appropriate per the type of car. They did not stop at just that; they even have accurate wheel sets too, 36” turned metal wheels. These cars will come out: September, October, November, and December with a cost of $69.98 unlighted, and $79.98 lighted.
It is my opinion that Walthers has done it again with a superior set of motive power and cars that will make your layout look great. For those of you that model in this era in Chicago or Detroit, this would be a great set to have. They appear to photograph well against a blue-sky background, buy the picture on the Walthers website. If you are a fan of C&O you need this postwar streamliner on your layout, you can preorder them now at www.walthers.com.
