Walthers 1960s City of Los Angeles Announced


bob

bob

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Just Announced! Union Pacific† 1960s City of Los Angeles is the Next WalthersProto® Name Train ​



Traveling east or west in the 1960s was an adventure to remember on board the City of Los Angeles! Flagship of the great Domeliner fleet, the train attracted the elite of Hollywood and Wall Street, while affordable long-distance coaches and a Café-Lounge were added during the winter months for travelers on a budget.

Our newest WalthersProto name train brings you 10 limited-edition cars - available for the first time in two distinct versions: the new 920-9540-series features factory-printed car names and numbers at no extra charge, while the 920-9530-series includes decal names and numbers for easy customizing.

Perfect power for the City of Los Angeles and other UP trains of the era, matching E9 A&B units will be available separately featuring road-specific details - many being replicated for the very first time - that appeared on the prototypes during the 1960s. All engines will be available with your choice of ESU LokSound Select sound and DCC for operation on DCC or DC layouts, as well as standard DC versions.

TWO limited-run Deluxe Edition 10-car sets available only while supplies last!
For the first time, you can add a complete 10-car consist of WalthersProto Union Pacific passenger cars to your layout or collection in minutes. Choose from TWO railroad-ready consists, with each car featuring factory-installed LED interior lighting (as appropriate), more than 150 Preiser passenger and crew figures throughout the train, plus unique car names and numbers - great features available only on these limited-edition replicas! Only 300 of each Deluxe Edition set will be produced and past runs have sold out in a matter of hours!

Participating dealers are ready now to take preorders for all limited-run Standard and Deluxe Edition models, with reservations due by May 31, 2018 to guarantee availability.

See the complete 1960s City of Los Angeles name train announcement with more information about all of these great models online now at https://www.walthers.com/city-of-los-angeles.

We're excited to share this new name train with you, and hope you all enjoy the City of Los Angeles as much as we do!

Your friends at Walthers

† - Union Pacific licensed product
 
A gorgeous train, looks real nice. Would sure look great on the club layout too. The price seems decent for the detail level. Awfully big investment though. Speaking of awfully big, with 10 full length cars, 2 locos and 24” minimum radius, this gem isn’t going to be happy on a 4 x 8 layout.

Yes, it’s in HO. Might have been a handy thing to include in the press release though, eh? Guess they figure you can click on the link and find out that way.
 
Some of there cars have difficulty getting around 30". Depends whether they have matching diaphrams and sometimes the trucks get hooked into the stirrups. I have one of the RPO's with the mail bag catcher arms and it has long stirrups right near the end of one truck. I can't use it on the club layout for that reason.
 
Last time they did a UP themed train, the product sold out quickly. This one looks really attractive. Unfortunately, as I found out with the Capitol Limited a few years ago, my basement isn't big enough to handle a ten to twelve car train, plus power. (16x24). I kind of wish they would try some "Pike Sized" trains of 4 to 5 cars and one engine. the City of LA would definitely look great on a club layout.
 
I have to agree with Toot'n, I had some Walthers passenger cars in HO that they recommended 18" radii for. Those cars needed closer to 22 or 24" to run. Walthers seems to "under state a recommended radius" their cars.

That being said, this train will look amazing on an appropriate layout.
 
wombat457 said:
Walthers seems to "under state a recommended radius" their cars.
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Walthers second train was the 20th Century Limited of 1948, a really nice collection of cars behind a A-B set of E-7s. Problem was the cars were too much like the real thing, and needed more than the stated minimum curve radius of 24". The 72' RPO-Baggage wouldn't take my 32" radius curves, let alone 24". same with the observation car. there were just too many places where things were binding or catching due to accuracy with the prototype. I have copies of two "How to Fix" articles, but the train remains in a container. There were issues concerning the accuracy of the paint, but the NYC Historical society provided the paint drift cards, and confirms the accuracy of paint and lettering.

Two years later, I bought two and one half sets of the Broadway Limited, and everything ran fine on the same 32" radius curves, so they fixed some of the issues. The Capitol Limited also ran well. But they are definitely not designed for less than 24" curves, and work better on broader curves.
 
Boris said:
Last time they did a UP themed train, the product sold out quickly. This one looks really attractive. Unfortunately, as I found out with the Capitol Limited a few years ago, my basement isn't big enough to handle a ten to twelve car train, plus power. (16x24). I kind of wish they would try some "Pike Sized" trains of 4 to 5 cars and one engine. the City of LA would definitely look great on a club layout.
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Back when I was playing with designs for my garage layout, I tried to fit in a passenger station. Even with 18 feet to work with, it really wasn't big enough, and the only thing that would fit was essentially a giant oval. Kind of like a 4 x 8 layout upscaled. Even then, I think I only had room for 6 or 8 cars.

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Unfortunately when Walthers states the minimum radius for those 85'ers, they seem to be talking about 1 car on it's own. Probably never thought to check them coupled together.
 
Toot: I accidently ran a mixed train of Walthers Lightweights down a track with 22" radius curves and Atlas #4 switches, and surprisingly, it stayed on the rail. I then tried it with Heavyweights and they didn't stay on the rail. Meanwhile, the 20th Century Limited cars derailed on 32" main line curves.

Bob: Back when the common passenger train was made up of Rivarossi or ConCor 85' cars, the biggest train I could handle was 6 cars plus 2 E8s. That was a continuous run layout. Now, I'm running a point to point layout with runarounds that accommodate maybe 7 or 8 freight cars, plus power and cab, so I'm down to 3 or 4 car passenger trains preferably of a push -pull variety. In retrospect, perhaps I should have done N scale, but then I wouldn't be involved in this thread...
 
I'm be a lucky one to see the train running on the layout in Walther's show room when I pick up supplies.

Greg
 
wombat457 said:
The scale wouldn't stop you from posting Boris. I am N Scale and I still find post about all scales interesting
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Yeah Tony, you're right about that. My thought was that given space available, I would have sufficient room to enjoy watching Kato's Broadway Limited with extra cars, in N where in HO, The Walthers Broadway Limited would take up a third of my Main line. Obviously, I do like passenger trains.
 
That is one of those horrible compromises we all have to make ... Even with N Scale, I am looking for more and more room and I have a reasonable space to work with in terms of N Scale.

I converted from HO for the simple reason that I wanted to run longer, newer trains and my HO layout couldn't deal with them.
 
Tony: Somewhere, since I last posted, I noticed an advertisement from KATO, for an upcoming N Scale version of the COLA, similar to the Walthers version in HO. So much of what Walthers does in HO, is done by someone else in N.
 
Boris said:
Last time they did a UP themed train, the product sold out quickly. This one looks really attractive. Unfortunately, as I found out with the Capitol Limited a few years ago, my basement isn't big enough to handle a ten to twelve car train, plus power. (16x24). I kind of wish they would try some "Pike Sized" trains of 4 to 5 cars and one engine. the City of LA would definitely look great on a club layout.
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They did the Pierre Marquette Train a few years ago. I believe it was only 5 cars. I've also taken cars from the San Francisco Chief set to make up a Grand Canyon that is only 3-5 cars long.

Union Pacific isn't a good road for pike sized passenger trains as they would just combine the shrinking trains into one longer train.

Timing for this release couldn't be worse. I've just spent piles of money on not only toy trains, but also automobiles, home improvements, children's college, and the like. I haven't gotten either Broadway Limited Set for the same reason. The funny thing is that for the runs I do get (Empire Builder, Super Chief, Capital Limited, Hiawatha, San Francisco Chief, 20th Century) all the cars end up on clearance about 6 months later. I could have gotten the Empire Builder for 1/3 the price after the fact. I did the Pierre Marquette cars for $29 each though. So I waited on the Broadway Limited, and that never happened. Either run! The El Capitan run was here and gone so quickly I didn't even get a chance to think about it.
 
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I will have to agree with the Horseman. One of our club members has a Walthers Empire Builder. That is one long train and with the A-B-B-A power, it will not entirely fit into our large yard. I believe that it has 16 passenger cars.

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I built my North Coast Limited and the only place I have the room to park it is in hidden staging tracks. For me, 3 to 4 cars max is more than enough.
 
Iron Horseman said:
So I waited on the Broadway Limited, and that never happened. Either run! The El Capitan run was here and gone so quickly I didn't even get a chance to think about it.
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Horseman: I just picked up some ATSF cars for $25 each, as parts donor cars. I need the trucks and interiors for other projects. First time around, I bought two full Broadway sets, plus additional sleepers. I suspected the Broadway would sell out quickly, and divided my business with three suppliers. I had such grandiose ideas :rolleyes:, back then. But it did sell. When the second run came out, I wasn't buying, and only picked up the corrected 5 Double Bedroom lounge. They disappeared quickly. My goal was to create several of the Blue Ribbon trains. :cool: They have been in boxes for years now. My focus is a couple of four or five car trains that are plausible companions to my RDCs. I suspect, that one of the 21 Roomette Budds, may become a Corridor Coach, as happened in real life. Not sure though.

montanan said:
One of our club members has a Walthers Empire Builder. That is one long train and with the A-B-B-A power, it will not entirely fit into our large yard. I believe that it has 16 passenger cars.
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Chet: Yeah, how 'bout that. And, that is a long yard. If the full 16 car, 4 unit "Builder" dwarfs a club sized layout, Imagine what it would do to the average home layout?

Even the old Athearn BB 72 footers added up when the consist went beyond 3 or 4 cars. My Reading "Schuylkill", project train, which utilizes RDG prototype BCW 68' Reading Cars, an FP7, Baggage - Mail; Baggage-Coach; Grill Coach; and two Coaches has a large footprint. That's with what most people would consider "shorties". I will have to extend my East Side staging tracks to accommodate it.
 
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I am with you Joe. This is what I commonly run, especially being that I am modeling a more rural area.

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Here's a leased NP RDC with another car in tow which is probably the most modern ride the passengers will get. Ready to depart the Station at Logan.

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