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Post by railthunder on May 10, 2012 21:50:59 GMT -8
I purchased several of the Walthers Amtrak E8As for my Florida trains. I'm very impressed with these and they run great. Also, Walthers did a nice job on the Chevron and the paint. It matches their Phase I cars very nicely. Attachments:
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Post by rhpd42002 on May 11, 2012 4:10:36 GMT -8
Good looking loco, railthunder. I have an older version of the E-8/9 in CB&Q. Haven't even taken it out of the box to DCC it.  Please share more pics of your fleet and layout. |
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Post by Deleted on May 11, 2012 4:59:10 GMT -8
The special Proto E9 model of SP #6051 was due along with the Amtrak units. The Amtrak units made it to Milwaukee. The SP units are now just listed as "Advance Reservations" status. I can only assume that producing two road names at one time was too much for Walthers factory to handle.
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Post by Donnell Wells on May 11, 2012 6:46:06 GMT -8
Despite the delays in delivery, the new run of Es look good. BUT...a friend of mine showed me his new (revised) A-B set of UP E9s with the new Plano grilles installed, and all I could say was,
Donnell
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Post by rhpd42002 on May 11, 2012 17:02:03 GMT -8
I didn't know they had upgraded them to that level!! Darn shame my curves won't allow them to run on my layout. I just don't need any "shelf queens". |
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Post by railthunder on May 11, 2012 17:30:59 GMT -8
Here are some more pictures. This is what they look like in a lash up. Amtrak tended to run their E units "Elephant style" on the early Florida trains. This is depicted with the three units at my Tampa Union Station. Attachments:
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Post by railthunder on May 11, 2012 17:32:17 GMT -8
I'm very impressed with the detail specific efforts that Walthers did. This unit is a former Seaboard Coast Line (SCL) unit. Attachments:
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Post by railthunder on May 11, 2012 17:33:48 GMT -8
You can see that the paint on the units matches the previous Walthers runs on their passenger equipment painted in Amtrak Phase I (early Amtrak) very well. Attachments:
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Post by railthunder on May 11, 2012 17:36:22 GMT -8
I also like the details and the addition of MU hoses on the front and grab irons on the nose and roof. I've not added some of the parts from the parts bag and probably won't until the railroad is a little futher along. Attachments:
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Post by railthunder on May 11, 2012 17:38:08 GMT -8
This is another shot that might show the details better on the nose and pilot. Attachments:
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Post by railthunder on May 11, 2012 17:42:03 GMT -8
Another shot from above. One improvement I really like was Walthers put a better 5 chime horn on these than their previous runs of E7As. They were monsters! Another nice touch is the radio "whip" antenna. Attachments:
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Post by railthunder on May 11, 2012 17:43:58 GMT -8
This is the coupled distance between two units. I plan on installing Kadee #23s to get them even closer eventually. Attachments:
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Post by railthunder on May 11, 2012 17:45:55 GMT -8
Here is a rear view. I was impressed that there were no diaphragms as the prototype did not have them, hence my earlier post on Kadee #23 Couplers and the installation of the lift bars and it should be good to go. Attachments:
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Post by railthunder on May 11, 2012 18:00:10 GMT -8
In closing I only found two slight issues. One of my units sat way too low with the front pilot sitting on the rail. I took the shell off (easily done - spread shell slightly outward and fuel tank on both side and lift gently). I noticed that the rear cab wall had become loose and once that was fastened back up and everything together the shell was fine. The other is the speed recorder journal had fallen loose on another unit and easily snapped back in. I plan to really watch these units as the previous Protos had issues with their journal boxes coming out at times. These were a much tighter fit and tolerance so should be fine I hope.
On the detail specific side the front pilot is still too big for my taste and pictures of the prototype had a much smaller opening around the coupler. With a little effort down the road I will make the fix on a couple of the leaders. The other is these have fuel tank skirts whereas they didn't on Amtrak. I'm not sure without closer scrutiny how to do a fix and still have the shell attach securely to the frame. In spite of these things I find the E8As to be very much improved over the Proto runs of 1993 to present and I hope down the road other Amtrak Es will be done from other predessesor railroad prototypes.
On the Tsunami sound units they (SoundTraxx) seemed to have fixed that transition issue and the twin 567s do sound wonderful. As one would imagine a pair is pretty impressive.
I hope you've enjoyed the pictures and they haven't caused a bandwith challenge etc.
Happy Railroading
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Post by calzephyr on May 13, 2012 5:21:44 GMT -8
In closing I only found two slight issues. One of my units sat way too low with the front pilot sitting on the rail. I took the shell off (easily done - spread shell slightly outward and fuel tank on both side and lift gently). I noticed that the rear cab wall had become loose and once that was fastened back up and everything together the shell was fine. The other is the speed recorder journal had fallen loose on another unit and easily snapped back in. I plan to really watch these units as the previous Protos had issues with their journal boxes coming out at times. These were a much tighter fit and tolerance so should be fine I hope. On the detail specific side the front pilot is still too big for my taste and pictures of the prototype had a much smaller opening around the coupler. With a little effort down the road I will make the fix on a couple of the leaders. The other is these have fuel tank skirts whereas they didn't on Amtrak. I'm not sure without closer scrutiny how to do a fix and still have the shell attach securely to the frame. In spite of these things I find the E8As to be very much improved over the Proto runs of 1993 to present and I hope down the road other Amtrak Es will be done from other predessesor railroad prototypes. On the Tsunami sound units they (SoundTraxx) seemed to have fixed that transition issue and the twin 567s do sound wonderful. As one would imagine a pair is pretty impressive. I hope you've enjoyed the pictures and they haven't caused a bandwith challenge etc. Happy Railroading Thanks for posting the pictures. I have not heard the Tsunami sound for the twin 567's yet but I would think they do sound great. |
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Post by spookyac47 on May 13, 2012 10:19:31 GMT -8
I purchased several of the Walthers Amtrak E8As for my Florida trains. I'm very impressed with these and they run great. Also, Walthers did a nice job on the Chevron and the paint. It matches their Phase I cars very nicely. I purchased a pair of the latest release WalthersProto E8A locomotives decorated in the Pennsylvania Railroad decor. I already had several of the previous release Walthers Proto 2000 Series and some of the Life-Like Proto 2000 releases. When they redid the molds for the latest release, they created some "seams" that were not present on the prior releases. If you look on the top of the locomotive, above the cab, you will see a seam that runs parallel to the sides on both sides that connects to another seam that runs across the front of the cab. These were not there on previous releases and, as far as I can tell, were not on the prototype. Additionally, if you look at the rear engine cooling hatch, you will see seams that run from the hatch back to the rear of the locomotive, again parallel to and near the sides of the locomotive. I would suspect they may be some form of mold parting or segment line. |
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Post by Deleted on May 13, 2012 15:03:09 GMT -8
The Walthers Amtrak E8 still isn't that modified. Unlike this poor old E8...  |
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Post by railthunder on May 14, 2012 16:30:50 GMT -8
The Walthers Amtrak E8 still isn't that modified. Unlike this poor old E8... Great work on the Metra unit! I've still got a bank of the old Proto E8s that I plan to do some neat stuff with too down the line. |
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