Formerly known as the SW1500, the Athearn SW7 was the most popular plastic model of a GM switcher in HO scale. I had several of them, but they began to disappear when I started replacing them with Life-Like GM switchers. Both makes have their pros and cons. The Athearn switcher shell is more durable and easy to remove without breaking, while the Life-Like switcher shell is more accurately detailed. The Life-Like switcher runs better, but the weight of the Athearn switcher is more evenly distributed.
I used to have some Athearn Baldwin S12s too, but I decided to let them go because Baldwin switchers didn’t fit in with the theme of the CP Rail segment of my railroad (prairies and southern Ontario). I do have a Stewart VO1000 done up for my fictitious short line, and while the shell looks great it doesn’t run much better than an Athearn Baldwin switcher.
I have 4 of the SW7s, NS, PA.,BN and CR
1 SW7 calf, CR
1 SW1500, PC
1 SW1000, CR
and 2 SW7 chassis with the Cary SW1500 shells, CR and P&LE
The extra weight of the Cary shells make them quieter and adds quite a bit to their pulling power.
I have a couple of SW7’s–one painted in Sacramento Northern colors, not prototypical (the SN never used that model, and it is numbered as an S-1) but cute, one in Rio Grande colors but slated to be the innards of a box motor project I’ll finish sometime before doomsday, with luck. They’re nice little engines.
I have 4 SW1500s and 3 SW7s I still run…My biggest complaint about the P2K switchers is the fragile handrails and detail parts…[8][:(!] My favorite locomotive that I like to use switching the passenger terminal at the club is my Stewart Baldwin DS4-4-1000…For switching cars in the yard or the intermodule terminal I use one of my SW1500s[:D].
Stop using the 0-5-0 on the engines then, and get a turntable [:D][:D][:D]
I haven’t broken anything on my P2K’s yet, but since I have no place to put them on the track and just leave them, it’s probably only a metter of time. Fragile, yes, but they DO look nice!
ANd aloco, a Stewart VO1000 that dosn;t run better than an Athearn S12? Which drive is in that Stewart? My DS4-4-1000 is the absolute best running loco I have. I have an undec S12 that when I belonged to a club WAS going to get painted Lehigh Valley (resident best painter couldn’t do electronic work, I couldn’t paint, so I traded him working ditch lights for a paint job, but he never got around to it before I left the club). Now I model Reading and they didn;t have any S12’s so it just kinda sits there. I put a bunch of work into it mechanically, NWSL repalcement wheels an an Ernst drive, and it really pulls and runs VERY nice and slow, even though it’s still got the original Athearn motor. I dug out the old MR article that shows how to bash one into various other Baldwin units, I might get around to that some day.
1 UP SW1500, but it doesn’t work. I think that the motor is busted. Not enough pressure on one of the carbon brushes. I might put a new motor in and make it run with DCC…if I ever get enough money to get both.
i have three of the sw1500’s…two don’t run any more and the third one is on the way to the graveyard also…they need new everything on the motors…got a lot of miles out of them though
Right now 1 SW7, wich I’m calling an SW1200, because it’s really close, which I’m going to paint eventually for the Wisconsin and Southern. Also want to buy one more to do the same thing for, so I’ll have both of the WSOR SW1200’s in my fleet.
I have a custom painted cow/calf set running right now on my layout. Though I have several Athearn switchers, they are being phased out by P2K units. The P2K’s slow switching speed and easy starts and stops are the big sellers for me. Even with Ernst gearing, my Athearn switchers just aren’t up to snuff. [V] I still like to use them for local trains and short freights, though. Their pulling power and reliability comes in to play there.
I have a BN SW1000 that’s missing its bell. I was going to replace the bell, but for some reason I didn’t when I ordered a bunch of parts from Athearn. Stupidly, I ordered the brake cylinders for an SD40-2 I am repairing when also ordering new sideframes for the trucks (which it turns out include the brake cylinders). My budget at the time did not include money for the bell, but it would have had I not bought the cylinders I didn’t need.
Randy,Those spaghetti thin handrails are real fun when you tote your engines to and from the club when the engines need servicing…All to sadly if you sneeze to hard those spaghetti thin handrails will break.[:(!] There has to be a better way to make tougher scale handrails.[:D]
Let me re-phrase that. My Stewart Baldiwn switcher runs better than the Athearn Baldwin, but it is just as noisy as the Athearn. The Stewart has a Canon motor in it, and I’m not impressed with it. Stewart should have put Kato motors in their switchers.