Train-Miniature / Walthers

Early version with Ajax brakes, cast on name boards, and 3/3/3 ends.

Current model with brake stand, glue-on name boards, and wood ends.

Ben Hom reports, "The Walthers/Train-Miniature kits have been through three "phases" of tooling:

- The original Train-Miniature tooling featured separate letterboards. There were two end variations; a 3/3/3 Dreadnaught end, and a composite "braced" end. These models had underframes molded in black plastic with a single piece centersill, crossmembers, and press-fit coupler pockets.

- When Walthers re-introduced these kits in the mid-1980s, they retooled the Dreadnaught end version with molded-in letter and herald boards. These looked pretty silly for paint schemes that didn't require a herald - you had a big blank board on the car.

- Walthers later re-issued the composite "braced" end version with separate letterboards. These can be differentiated from the earlier Train-Miniature offering as the underframes are molded in a rust-colored plastic and have been retooled with separate coupler box covers.

"Car dimensions and Pratt Truss sides generally match PRR Class K8 double deck stockcars; however, side slat pattern, door, roof, and underframe do not match. Can be kitbashed into credible stand-in of PRR Class K8 with Red Caboose X29 underframe, PRR 2D-F8 trucks, and scratchbuilt doors. Prototype has a distinct narrow-narrow-wide-wide-wide board pattern as you count them from the bottom of the car side to the bottom of the upper deck."

Although this is designed as a "shake the box" kit, it is not. The current number boards do not fit properly without shaving the back side of them considerably. The coupler pocket cover is very thick and the retaining screws large so that the wheel axles may hit them. Replacing the coupler pocket cover and filing down the screw will solve this problem.