As someone who's just gotten a train I gotta say the Mainline coaches are an absolute godsend for not going bankrupt and so far I haven't been disappointed

The Mainline cars definitely fill a market for those looking to build passenger trains for a budget. I do wish they would do more runs of some of their older cars in the Proto line because I'm currently working on creating the Horseshoe Curve Special consist, and several of the cars I need haven't been made in several years.

Personally I have used both lines and have detailed/added lighting to the Mainline. I will always be going Proto if I want the details or just get the Mainline and not worry about detail/lights. Buying the Mainline and detailing them takes a long time and by the time you have the lighting board fixed the cost is not as great as it originally seemed. That is just me though, I would much rather not be dealing with a hundred tiny #74 or whatever holes lol.

An important factor not mentioned is the recommended turning radius for the “Mainline” vs. “Proto” cars. Mainline cars can operate on a recommended 18” radius. Proto cars need to operate on a minimum 22” radius turn. This information comes from Walther’s product pages. This is huge issue when considering your operating layout.

Im a N Scale rivet counter that doesnt care if the rivets are correct. Figure that one out. Just love detail. Enjoy your channel and rule #1. Keep up the good work.

Just recently purchased UP 4141 and then thought about the heritage fleet. I’m all about the budget. Decided to go with Walthers and purchased another UP locomotive, 9 Mainline UP passenger cars but went Proto for the Flag car…. My layout and it looks great

I love Walthers mainline. That’s my favorite brand.

I have been wanting to buy these cars for years they're beautifully detailed both versions. Both units have toured the UNION PACIFIC freight engines & the classic UP BIG BOY. Good demonstration DG MODELWORKS. 👍

i went with rule #1 for my CN/gtw OCS train... but i used Rapido CN green cars.... i just need to get an old proto 2000 E9a and mod it and get the decals to make an the ocs locomotive witch im in no rush to make right now... since i don't have a main HO layout right now... i'm working on a HOn30/OO9 narrow gauge layout for shows to get my feet wet on building a layout.

Hey Derek, there 3 rules, Rule 1 This is my layout. Rule 2 I make the rules. Rule 3 Illuminating discussion of prototype history, equipment and operating practices is always welcome, but in the event of visitor - perceived anacronisms, detail discrepancies or operating errors, consult Rule 1! Derek, where can one find a hat like your NS hat you wear?

While I want to get some of the Walthers UP passenger cars there not easy to find for a good price and in stock. So I just use some athearn blue box UP passenger cars. There not detailed but they still look good behind my athearn Genesis 1943 and 4006

👉Great point. It's your railroad. I model SP around 1986 to 1996 prior to merger with UP. But I occasionally run freight locomotives and passenger trains from the 50s and up with no guilt. Rule #1. It's my railroad, that's how I run it.👍

You the man, your railroad do what you want👌I have the entire list of all the U.P cars Ringling circus bought over 60 of them

I am so excited build up one this year thanks making video deryk I appreciate it now can help me model union pacific passage trains

Excellent tips Derek, and I agree, the Walthers Mainline passenger cars are probablythe best bang for your buck cars out there today! I'll also add this, if you want to go the really, REALLY cheap route, I highly recommend stopping at a hobby shop that has bargin bins shelves, you can usually find some really cool stuff at dirt cheap prices! I was at a hobby shop in Memphis, Tennessee and walked away with a nice 4 car set of Athearn blue box SP Daylight cars for about $40, they might not be the most protoypically accurate things out their, but they sure look great riding behind my Bachmann GS-4 4449!

Thanks for pointing out the differences.

You are very correct Derek...its your railroad and you can do whatever you like...the UP cars look great...thanks for sharing and keep up the great work..Lance

I really enjoy your reviews. Keep up the good work !

I like your rule #1. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you for your review.

Thanks for the reviews, and reminding me about Rule #1. * subscribed *

Great video. I have a mixture of both also. And everything you mentioned is spot on. 😁👍

Great vid!

I just sold off all my passenger cars and E-8 locos. I had proto car and mainline cars both. Excellent job comparing the 2. One thing I would add would be the spacing between the proto vs the mainline cars. You get a little better and closer to real one on the proto line cars. Great video !!!

Your 2nd car, a Budd 10-6, is indeed part of the Heritage fleet as crew sleeper "Willie James." The trucks can be changed out for more accurate versions for less than $20. The chair car is a Southern Pacific prototype and they did paint several in UP yellow for City of San Francisco service, so at least the car is close to prototype, even if not part of UP's fleet.

Deryk I have a bunch of the mainline in Amtrak. Pretty nice for the price. I’ve also added the detail kits and lighting kits. I will say if you’re going to add all that stuff it’s probably going to cost just as much as the proto version. Thanks for sharing. Happy new year 🎆 .

As far as the chain, you have to use the Kadee gripper you demonstrated. Lol. As far as the passenger cars, the mainline sleeper, coach and observation cars are on sale for $35 right now. That’s a whole lot cheaper than $100 or better for the Proto cars, but like you said, it’s your railroad so do what you want but if I can get three cars for the price of one it’s not a hard choice. Thanks for the comparison.

Thanks for this amazing video I now have almost every passenger car from the heritage fleet the only cars I am missing are the experience the union Pacific car and one of the power cars. Now that I have these cars I can now uses them for a special train I'm going to run to celebrate union Pacific's 160th anniversary of the driving of the golden spike

Love the vid! As being someone who bought ALL of the walthersproto UP excursions cars with the intention of building both the George Bush funeral train and a UP excursion train, I agree wholeheartedly on the mix and match of the mainline and proto lines. As you could probably imagine, I dropped some serious coin to achieve those goals. The difficulty of sourcing the Kenefick car might be a future video in relation to this one.

This helped a lot

Great comparison and hitting all the positives of each. I often said h.o. is best scale for a budget. Can buy numerous cheaper products and detail yourself to save money. Take care!

I have a 3 walthers ready to run cars, (orginal) and I plan to get some mainline cars, as well as more bachmann spectrum, silver series and a few proto 2000 cars So far I currently have a ATSF RPO #1401, CP Skyline series Dome Car (no road number on it but again my railroad chose to run them as is), and CP Grill-diner York, and Bachman spectrum nyc coach #965, and all are great runners, and so far they add variety to my excursions and office car specials I plan to get those 2 walthers mainline UP cars you showed and a Santa Fe sleeper cars for making a geometry train I may be getting more cars this summer to make a full “Mixed Heritage Equipment Bag” Steam excursion as I call it, as for me modeling the types of excursions seen behind MILW 261, NKP 765, SP 4449 are cool, as their like the old Amtrak rainbow era trains, a variety of rolling color.

Nice Vid. Walthers passenger rolling stock is the best in my opinion. Easy to upgrade looks and rolls very good

great ideas for every one

The Mainline 10-6 sleeper is very close to the Willie James car. I'm curious if the micro-sol trick to pull the lettering off would work and then you could re-letter it. I also used their baggage dorm as the base to build my power car since I didn't want to take a knife to a $100 model.

HELLO DEREK ITS IS RANDY AND I LIKE U VIDEO IS COOL THANKS FRIENDS RANDY

How is the interior quality of Walthers Mainline? Is it good?

Catching up on your videos. Nice idea and product reviews. Curious if you did this with the Mainline NS F-Units?

nice thoughts for sure. Your layout so do what you want, Not what someone else says you want! Did you find with those Walthers cars they are a bit light? did you or are you adding more weight to them? Thanks for the video Derek, any and all railroads can use this excursion style train, doesn't even have to be a class 1 RR .

Looks like you need a big boy now to pull those things around. Haha one of these days I'll pull the trigger on the Kato n scale UP excursion set.

They used to include the grab irons with the cars in the older runs. I see they found another way to get more money out of the end user. It wouldn't cost them money to include them or just charge a few dollars more with them included. Stuff like this is just more reasons I prefer to buy older stuff. I'm near done with the hobby due to costs anyway.

nice Bag....

Please forgive the possible misspelling, but what's your thoughts about Athearn model railroading equipment?

Now you need the new Broadway Limited FEF-3 to put in front of those cars. Trust me, it is an impressive model.

One thing regarding the business train. They have a power car and a end of train car with a big picture window that no manufacturer is producing. There is a custom car maker that does them so I guess if you want to be prototypical you would have to contact him.

The Uncle Pete influence is getting stronger over there in NS land. I think some Centenials will get you all in. Welcome aboard. LOL.

I notice that the Observation Car at 2:32 has something wrong with it? The right side is lower than the left. It looks weird.

I prefer the proto cars. The mainline lighting kits are a huge nightmare. I've been in the hobby over 50 years and I hope to never buy mainline passanger cars again.

Money is no problem! Retiring before you're in your 70s is greatly overated. 🙄

How do you which decals to use and where to put them? I also had some problems with derailing. The rear truck on the observation car which I had to modify. The baggage lounge car had the same issue. I solved that problem when I changed the direction of the car on the track.