The majority of my planned layout will be modern city switching operations, and I have a special place in my heart for diesel switchers. Particularly SW’s and MP’s. I know Atlas has an MP15DC coming out in November, and another company (can’t remember which) has an MP15AC coming out in December. However, the only SW’s I can find anywhere are old blue box Athearn Dummy locos, or P2K’s in older roadnames that don’t fit in a present day layout (I’m looking for CSX and CSX aquisitions like Chessie System, Seaboard, or L&N).
How come none of the big loco manufacturers (Bachman Spectrum, LL P2K, Athearn Genesis, Walthers, et al) currently offer any SW’s (at least none I can find)? And why’s it taken so long to come out with MP’s?
I believe that Athearn Genesis is coming out with the MP15 in January. I have seen quite a few SW1500 powered locomotives from the Athearn bluebox series on ebay lately. You could probably find one in the road that you want on there.
Really? I was looking on ebay just tonight, and all I could find in the roads I was looking for are dummy’s. I’ll have to keep looking. Athearn Genesis was prolly the company I was thinking about regarding the MP15AC.
I just can’t understand why more companies wouldn’t offer them.
Seeing that the average older EMD switcher is 50-55 years old the major railroads retired them.Most major railroads still use SW1500s,SW1OOOs,MP15DCs and MP15ACs…
BLI has NW2’s in B&O, SW7’s in C&O. Those road names may not be coming out in the second run do out any time now.
Stewart made Baldwin switchers, such as the S-12 in Seaboard, and others. Maybe you should call Tony’s and ask what he actually has. The Stewarts’ I have are good engines.
I, too, have a switching layout. My first plan was to have in it the city, like you. There is a small, recent book devoted to city railroading. I changed to an industrial switching setting because I didn’t have the time I needed to properly detail the city scenes. Industrial areas are much easier, I think, anyway.
Have you thouhgt about painting and decals for undecorated diesel switchers. Number them as you please. I even bought dummies and junk off of ebay, painted and decaled them, and they are like scenery at the engine shop, sidings, etc.
if they make dummies they probably make powered units as well , keep looking on ebay , consider searching some of the large internet retailers as well
plan B would be to buy the dummies on ebay , then buy a powered unit of any type and swap the shells . a bit more expensive , but you could then try to resell the dummy with the unwanted shell
I just did a search in ebay for SW1500, SW1000, and SW-7’s and found 10 powered cows and quite a few powered calfs (or is that calves?). I suppose if you loooked long enough you could find the road name you wanted.
Actually the ‘buy the dummy and the powered, then resell the dummy with the unwanted shell’ is an idea I hadn’t considered before… I think I"ll try that, thanks!
Another answer is that the RR’s use a lot of old GP’s or SD’s for switching. Parts for the old 567 may still be readily available. GP38’s may be a lot more common than switchers. Guess the old EMD’s never retire, they just go to work for a new owner.
I, too, am a fan of end cab switchers. Stewart has a nice little niche with their switcher kits. You do need some better developed modeling skills to assemble them as they are a step above a blue box kit. But I believe they produce some which are undecorated.
Why are there so few? Demand, mainly. Most home modelers can get by with one or two, even with a larger layout. But those same people usually want a whole fleet of hood units. So it makes sense for companies Atlas, Athearn, Lifelike, etc… to focus on units people will want to buy several of. Another contributing factor is that many railroads now use older six axle units as their main yard switchers. My brother lives in the Tacoma area and he’s always sending me pictures of old SD 9’s switching.
I was looking at this thread forthe past several days. There have been a lot of switchers available in the past few years:
Athearn - SW7 SW1000 SW1500 & now a MP15AC
Atlas - S1/S3 S2/S4 RS1 & now a MP15DC
P2K SW9/1200 SW600/800/900
BLI - NW2 SW7
Kato - NW2
Stewart - Various versions of the basic Baldwin switcher
In the past, Walthers has produced a SW1 and a FM switcher. You are looking for CSX painted engines - mainly the newer SW/MP stuff is about all they would have as the older SW’s and Alco/BLW/FM’s were long gone by merger time(maybe some SW1200’s were still around).
They are Athearn - they are bullet proof. What you need to do is rewire them with the Digitrax harness kit/decoder, clean up the flash on the gears and replace the ‘sintered iron’ wheels with good N/S wheels from NWSL or Jaybee. You just have to put a little work into a good basic engine.
I remember an editorial about seeing a GP30 powering a work train after 30 years of service. The railroads look at their aging road engines as good sources for local switchers after they have paid back their investment to the road in mainline service. Why invest “precious” cash resources in new when they have “serviceable” old fully depreciated four axle equipment. Almost any of the older geeps or u-boats could be used as a local switcher unless the radius of your switching area is extreemly tight. I can see a reluctance to send an SD or 6 axle U-boat into a switching area, they would be better used in hump yard or perhaps flat yard switching, and not on lighter weight rail in an industrial area. Keeping up with the Jones’s" is fine for SUV’s, pools and Boats. The railroads like to keep their bottom line up, not the Jones’s.
Will