Walthers HO Scale Metroliners

The Horn sound file can be reprogramed to the proper horn sound,there are replacement "Yellow Glo" LEDs
made by Minitronics and Ngineering,and are avaible thru Walters(pgs 797-799 in the current['14] catalog).

I'll have to replace the LEDs as I have some golden whites, but am unsure of the voltage requirements on the Metros. It's good that these can be remedied, but I wish Walthers would check these things before releasing them with such a large pricetag. Don't get me wrong, we're spoiled with these Amtrak releases lately, but come on Walthers do your research.

HexOmega2319 wrote:What's this sorcery?! That must be the only one then, because I've yet to find any others. Atleast I'll be able to have 1 accurate train of Metros! I also wish they'd stop going with soundtraxx decoders though, they sound terrible compared to QSI and loksound. Hopefully I will be able to swap out the LEDs atleast, redecal the car type plates to Metroclub and we should be good to go. Excellent find on the photo.

You are partially correct. Most of the club cars did not have Amtrak Phase I striping. That said, 884 was repainted VERY early on (probably so that Amtrak could have an all Amtrak trainset, though I've never seen it.

One of my books lists the Amtrak painted Metroliners as of 1977 (and it misses a few that appear to be repainted after that date, but before rebuilding, such as 868). Indeed, this book does only list 884 as being the one Amtrak painted club car.

Now, I thought I saw another club car in Amtrak paint, but only one other. I cannot find the photo for the life of me, but I do know it was taken VERY shortly before the car was rebuilt in mid 1979, so its probably not much better. Almost all of the club cars were rebuilt in mid 1979, and the only two that weren't remained in their PC paint.

I'm banking on them releasing a Penn Central set. If not, I'm going to wait until these go down in price, and repaint one. I don't think I could repaint one of the Pennsy sets, given their limited production nature.

HexOmega2319 wrote:I'll have to replace the LEDs as I have some golden whites, but am unsure of the voltage requirements on the Metros. It's good that these can be remedied, but I wish Walthers would check these things before releasing them with such a large pricetag. Don't get me wrong, we're spoiled with these Amtrak releases lately, but come on Walthers do your research.

If you think the model has minor flaws, you should read the "history" intro on the instruction sheet. Its MISERABLE. You can tell that someone was feeding them bad, almost conflicting information. There are even general typos in there, and sentences that make no sense.

I wish i could be in the room to help with this stuff. It irritates me since i'm a scientist, and i can't afford to have dumb flaws in my research. How hard is it to look at a picture? I also have all the books and photographic evidence they need to NOT make these mistakes. I guess I just need to offer next time.

Fortuneately, I feel that LEDs are a pretty minor issue, and the metroclub thing is just a pain. Otherwise, these cars seem pretty good,

If you're into accurate equipment modeling like I am, the LEDs are a huge set back. Theres literally no excuse to have blue lights on an engine from the 70s. It's just laziness. I have a good friend who's worked with Walthers in the past, and it is true that there are alot of excellent people there, but the big wigs and the people that make the final decisions just don't care. We can thank them for the Walthers Amtrak RPO and the heritage coaches in phase IV. There's no doubt they are getting better, but they lose sales because of it, and nobody wants to have to correct mistakes in something they just paid $230 for each.

Its called orange or amber paint. Just paint over the bulbs and they will look just like the warm white ones you see. Guess what? Its how some of the manufactures do it today. They cast the blue white LEDs in amber plastic instead.

Most likely that will be the only fix here as many of these new engines come with surface mount LEDs and not the typical 3mm ones.

Excellent idea approach. Is there translucent paint that you recommend? Manufacturers really have no reason to be using blue white LED, even the locomotives that use LED's instead of incandescent don't have blue hues.

I dont remember, a buddy of mine was just using paint markers like these. The diffusing part is not necessary for surface mount LEDs as you can easily damage the elements.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-yo ... ored-LEDs/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I use Tamiya paints to color lenses, it seems to work for me anyway. They sell "transparent" paints in several colors.

HexOmega2319 wrote:If you're into accurate equipment modeling like I am, the LEDs are a huge set back. Theres literally no excuse to have blue lights on an engine from the 70s. It's just laziness. I have a good friend who's worked with Walthers in the past, and it is true that there are alot of excellent people there, but the big wigs and the people that make the final decisions just don't care. We can thank them for the Walthers Amtrak RPO and the heritage coaches in phase IV. There's no doubt they are getting better, but they lose sales because of it, and nobody wants to have to correct mistakes in something they just paid $230 for each.

I agree with just about everything you said. I just got a PRSL RDC from walthers, and it has the right LEDs in it, so you'd think they'd just use those in the car as well. Nothing is more irritating than having to adjust a $230 product.

BUT.....

look at it this way, You don't really have to do to much in the way of adjustment to these cars. They run reliably out of the box, the details are all good, the decoders, even if you don't like the sound, are cooperative. In fact, the only nitpick I have is that the Faively pantographs are too flat, but then when has anyone done these pantographs right outside brass?

In the grand scheme of things, the LEDs are a dissappointment, not a disaster, and that is whats important.

Thats not to say that if any walthers people are reading this, they are off the hook. If they do a Penn Central run, they better get it right.

Absolutely, and if they keep naming them parlor cars on the sides we won't even be able to redecal them without doing custom decals. Microscale conveniently only has snack bar coach decals on their sets.

The photos I've seen of the models show grey/silver trucks. I always thought the trucks of all Amtrak equipment from Phase 1 thru 3 was black. Is it really correct as shown? Somehow it doesn't look right to me in grey/silver or maybe I am just so used to looking at the Bachmann versions.

Also, I think a nice feature for Walthers to include would of been a version of the cab end with the front doors open and diaphragms extended so it doesn't look so odd when the cars join at the cab ends.

dizelinr wrote:The photos I've seen of the models show grey/silver trucks. I always thought the trucks of all Amtrak equipment from Phase 1 thru 3 was black. Is it really correct as shown? Somehow it doesn't look right to me in grey/silver or maybe I am just so used to looking at the Bachmann versions.

Also, I think a nice feature for Walthers to include would of been a version of the cab end with the front doors open and diaphragms extended so it doesn't look so odd when the cars join at the cab ends.

Yes, the underbody color is correct. It was an attempt to match the bodies.

The extended diaphragm at the cab end isn't practical in HO scale, that's why they didn't do it. It doesn't hurt the models at all. Maybe in G, but not HO.

I finally ordered one today ($129.99 for the non-sound models at Blue Ridge Hobbies' super sale) and I'm looking forward to actually seeing one up close. Maybe start planning a Capital-Liner conversion kit for them.

Mike Bartel
IHP
http://ihphobby.tripod.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.shapeways.com/shops/ihphobby" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

My coach from Blue Ridge Hobbies is on its way, but I couldn't wait and picked up a food service car from Nicholas Smith Trains today. Very nicely done. They really did their homework on these cars despite some of the minor flaws that have been talked about. The coach and food service/parlor cars have different underbody correct for the car type, something I didn't catch before. Even the roof electricals around the pantograph have details specific to the electrical supplier (Westinghouse/GE). The end cab is cast in metal, which is a little unusual. The car number fonts are correct. I would have liked to see the Enter/Exit signs printed in the little ovals above the doors, but decals are available for these. The chrome finish is a bit bright for scale, I think. Overall the models could be mistaken for brass models on a layout if you didn't know otherwise. I still haven't sprung for one of the cars with sound, though I might have to because the car numbers I want are only available this way. I think these models can join the Con-Cor MP54s as excellent examples of how well plastic MU cars can be made today. I don't want to reveal too much now, but they're going to be a hard act to follow!

Mike Bartel

The extended diaphragm at the cab end isn't practical in HO scale, that's why they didn't do it. It doesn't hurt the models at all. Maybe in G, but not HO.

The extended diaphragm at the cab wouldn't necessarily have to be operational. It could be just an alternate snap-on piece to the standard cab or an alternate cab design. In that case it would be easy to represent in HO as well as N-scale (as I can only hope Walthers would have eventual plans for the Metroliner in N-scale).

A few vids of the units in action. They look better and better each time I see them
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mdMf3XiLag" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ukog5AwO6tA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JULgFn6ADOw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;