Walthers new announcements this month include a run of their Proto line GP35s. Walthers was nice enough to include us in the run with 4 road numbers for the Frisco. These are all later model GP35's on Alco trade in trucks (no torpedo tubes this time). Just like the NW2 offering, two numbers (725 and 728) are DCC Loksound. MSRP $319.98 The other two (727 and 731) are standard DC. MSRP $219.98 Expected delivery is Winter 2025. As always, discounts are available. Midwest MRR prices are $271.98/$186.98 https://trains.walthers.com/hubfs/P..._2024_Walthers_New_Product_Announcement_C.pdf
We are getting closer to having these units. Just today, this batch of GP35's showed up at Midwest MRR. Every railroad in the offering came in except for the Frisco. I called Walthers to see if maybe there was a manufacturing error that was being addressed that would lead to further delays. The person I spoke to didn't see anything in the system to indicate that was the case. The Frisco units are just late hitting Walther's warehouse. I thanked them for the info and said I would pass it along to the group to hopefully cut down on phone calls to their system about this matter. Hopefully we will see these in another week or two. The person on the phone didn't have anything specific on timeline.
I would b e nice if they offered it in the B/Y paint scheme with the roof mounted air tanks(torpedo tubes). Frisco engineers dubbed these as "Darth Vaders". I believe Chicago & Northwestern RR. had these as well. They can produce both of these to maximize production benefits such as cost and profit margin. No problem selling these out from pre-orders. Also , BLI has GP 35's in a variety of road names as well, but not FRISCO.
I know this is technically off topic, but I'm gonna share my 2 cents in the vain hope that SOMEONE (literally any of you big manufacturers) read this thread and make a product for us to spend money on. I keep watching product announcements in the vain hope that someone will produce a good torpedo tube GP35 for us. I put in preorders to support this offering from Walthers, but if they made a torpedo tube verison, I would stretch my wallet even further open. Same offer for BLI. I've been critical of them, but I keep saying all of that hoping to one day eat a huge plate of crow. If they produce a correct model (and I cant stress this enough - CORRECT) I will gladly break my wallet open for a big order of Stealth GP35s. If they pulled a move like a few years ago where they slapped a $400 dollar price tag on an SD40-2 that wasn't even remotely correct, I might become the most insufferable person ever anytime BLI gets brought up. As far as paint schemes, I'm honestly not sure which would sell better. I would be interested to see sales numbers for the similar situation with the U25Bs over at Rapido. I would buy a couple B&Y for funzies, just like I did with the B&Y U25B. To summarize: Walthers or BLI: we are begging you to give us a reason to spend money with your company.
As of this afternoon, these are now marked in stock on Walthers' website. It'll still be another week or two before they appear on dealer's shelves but the wait is almost over.
I took a few minutes to open up my box from Midwest this afternoon and check out the latest Walthers offering. I haven't went through with a fine tooth comb, but everything looks in order with the GP35s. Only complaint is the roof beacon lens is more of a red instead of an orange color.
I know a model railroad company that would not have accepted the "red" Prime Stratolights from the manufacturer. He would have caught that discrepancy in the pre-production phase. Walthers has no excuse for this.
Work has been hectic, so I haven't had much time or energy to think about this issue. Yeah, a nice unit with the wrong beacon is better than nothing at all, but they should have got it right. The pre-production photos had the correct orange lens on there. I don't anticipate having the time during business hours to talk to Walthers about it until it rains again. Would someone else on the forum have time to chat with them about this?
