Walthers created a new category of HO-scale products with its 1995 catalog. The Trainline offerings represented basic, but good quality, models aimed at the entry level or beginner hobbyist. The first Trainline locomotive is the GP9M. The model was introduced with eight roadnames: BN, CSX, UP, Conrail, Santa Fe, SP, CN, and Norfolk Southern. The model retailed for $29.98 and was also presented in Walthers' Deluxe Trainline Train Set offerings that same year. In the trains set releases, a red and silver passenger warbonnet Santa Fe GP9M is present that is not listed amoung separate sale loco models.

Some Walthers Trainline items have a past history prior to inclusion in the company's product line. The Trainline GP9M has its roots in a 1974 release by Cox. Cox sold HO-scale model trains, largely geared to the beginning or train set market, beginning in the early 1970s. The first items from Cox are repackaged Athearn-made items. In 1974, Cox launched a group of Hong Kong-imports that included a GP9 similar to the Walthers model. Walthers purchased the toolings, following Cox's exit from the model train world in the late 1970s. Walthers made a number of changes and improvements to this basic diesel model. Most notably, you'll notice Walthers refined the front and rear pilots enclosing them from their original empty and open appearance. Cox's drive included trucks with talgo couplers. Walthers offered an improved performance drive and couplers became body-mounted for enhanced utility.

A review of Walthers' Trainline GP9M appears in the March 1995 Rail Model Journal magazine. You may read the article online at TrainLife.com.