Missing Lifelike Locos

I am one of those n scale model railroad nuts who has more locos than I really need. I decided today was Lifelike Day(new national holiday) and started running Lifelike locos that have not seen daylight in a while. Most were in the blue label box-GP20, SW8, E6, Erie built, FA1 ,E8,BL2...Smooth running, pulling power and easy on the wallet. For all the steam guys even the original Mallets and Berks were a welcome addition.I know the have their issues but they still were welcome. In hind site wish I had purchased more at the bargain basement prices they were available for years ago. Lamenting Lifelike's absorption into Walthers

 

Amen to that! If it hadn't been for LifeLike's steam and first generation diesels, my roster would be very lacking.
It is a shame Walthers mostly sits on the tooling they bought from LifeLike.
It is also a shame they don't provide support for the products the way LifeLike did.
In any case, I am very thankful for the large variety of models they made available.

 

Buy an E-6 and paint it purple .. put a silver stripe on it and call ACL.

Randy

 

Well ... I've switched feed mills around Janesville Wisconsin with one , but I suppose it would look out of place with cacti..

Randy

 

Exactly. Here's a high nose:



Here's a low nose GP9.



Life-Like GP9 line, all modified from GP18s. (Two GP20s in the background.)



With care and a lot of breaking in, they run well as switchers, too.

 

I sure wish some enterprising N scale manufacturer would rescue the Life-Like tooling from Walthers and put it back to work. Walthers appears to have very little interest in doing so. Unfortunately, only a handful of the old Life-Like engines were/are DCC-Ready, so that may be a sticking point (vis'a'vis the costs of redesigning and retooling them for DCC support).

-Mark

 

yes they are great I got 10 of them for $15 each. could not past them up and they still run great today. those where the days of bargains.

 

Very true. Indeed, mine are DC.

 

I have a Life Like GP20. The only thing I wish was that they would have made a high nose version so I could build a WP version.

 

Dampfloko, you were actually two days late for National Life Like Day. Believe it or not, I did the same exact thing !!! Had enough of being at the bench and had M/T'ed some E7s. Wound up bringing them all out to stretch their legs a bit !!! Six BN GP20s (three Undec., destined to be high-nose), four CRIP GP18s, three CRIP BL2s, one PC GP20, several SW8s, two Undec FA2s, two CRIP E8s. A good time was had by all !!! Well, except two Blk/Red BL2s. They will be fixed, though !!! I have the same problem. 400+ freight cars, 80 passenger cars, over 150 locomotives !!! Maybe we will wind up with the same therapist someday !!! Ha,ha,ha !!!

 

But Life Like were continually updating the mechanisms before Walthers bought the tooling, since then they've done a couple of limited runs of GP20's with new DCC ready mechanisms but that's about it. They could do it if they believed in N scale.

 

Conversations with Walther's reps at several train shows confirms that there is a reluctance to re-release any locos unless they are at least DCC-ready, if not DCC-equipped. My suggestion that they re-release the old Life-Like locos unmodified, as "Classics", doesn't seem to have developed any traction back at the home office.

 

Originally Posted by Spookshow
I sure wish some enterprising N scale manufacturer would rescue the Life-Like tooling from Walthers and put it back to work. Walthers appears to have very little interest in doing so. Unfortunately, only a handful of the old Life-Like engines were/are DCC-Ready, so that may be a sticking point (vis'a'vis the costs of redesigning and retooling them for DCC support).

-Mark

As long as they are the newer split frame ones they are pretty easy to convert to DCC. Did a couple C-Liners last week while I was watching TV. Took less than an hour each of not so continues work. LOL....Mike

 

Actually I am using the old plastic frames for a B&M low nose GP-18 and a Blue Bird GP-9 (Atlas shell), I painted both. They both run great and I even use them for switching locals.




I even have an old Life Like plastic frame F7 I did up for B&M (with an F2 road number) back in the days when I couldn't find anything better (it was my first custom paint job and the decals didn't turn out all that great)... I still run it on through freights. Here its getting ready to head out with a Minitrix F9 I painted on the point.


I love the old Life Like stuff and would probably buy a few even if the plastic frame versions were re-released.

 

I have some LifeLike stuff from the 80's locomotives and rolling stock, I have to find out how to oil the locomotives though I got them unused about 3 years ago. HO scale thought.

 

I have a beautiful set of A-B-B-A FA's in UP. Real stump pullers. Took a while to find enough different loco numbers to make a set. I have a A-B-B-A set of CP C Liners and an A-B set of CP FA's. All ran great, but haven't been run in years.

All are DC with no easy to convert to DCC.

I keep thinking of selling them, but they are so rare and out of the main stream that I doubt I would get anything for them. Might as well just keep them.

Pete Steinmetz