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Post by Commodore on Jun 26, 2018 6:49:34 GMT -5
OK. As long as it's black.  Get it? Henry Ford said you can get it in any color... That's how he made it so cheaply. Initially he had the Dodge Brothers building bodies and others supplying various parts. Ford's innovation was standardized procurement ...so all he did was assembled a car in an organized way. He was the first Tim Cook, so to speak. If you can't paint. Buy a shell and send it to a painter like Gerd or buy a painted shell from Gerd ( what do you say Gerd?) and finish it yourself. SeaRails makes a great small switcher, 40 Ton, industrial, Baldwin dockside, etc. I have one of these. The SW1200 is fairly good size compared to the SeaRails switchers. |
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Post by gerd on Jun 26, 2018 22:22:40 GMT -5
OK. As long as it's black. Get it? Henry Ford said you can get it in any color... That's how he made it so cheaply. Initially he had the Dodge Brothers building bodies and others supplying various parts. Ford's innovation was standardized procurement ...so all he did was assembled a car in an organized way. He was the first Tim Cook, so to speak. If you can't paint. Buy a shell and send it to a painter like Gerd or buy a painted shell from Gerd ( what do you say Gerd?) and finish it yourself. SeaRails makes a great small switcher, 40 Ton, industrial, Baldwin dockside, etc. I have one of these. The SW1200 is fairly good size compared to the SeaRails switchers. All possible, I can build the whole SW1200 incl. super detailing, without, paint the shell only, with decals, etc.... |
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spoilybear
New Member
Hello all! New--Bee here to AZL , Getting ready for Christmass most loving time of year.
Posts: 42 
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Post by spoilybear on Jun 29, 2018 10:13:01 GMT -5
hello all , I did quick search on US switchers , depending on what Generation your into today our railroads have been using what   Ever is in the yard that can do it. (most companies now a days) Good portion of switchers are in scrap pile or Museum. so I did find modern of Locomotives pictures of them in use till 2015. Looks like they decided to keep plows in front to push lot. Neverland Hope this helps some . Ben |
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Post by neverland on Jun 29, 2018 10:20:09 GMT -5
hello all , I did quick search on US switchers , depending on what Generation your into today our railroads have been using what View AttachmentView AttachmentEver is in the yard that can do it. (most companies now a days) Good portion of switchers are in scrap pile or Museum. so I did find modern of Locomotives pictures of them in use till 2015. Looks like they decided to keep plows in front to push lot. Neverland Hope this helps some . Ben Thanks, Ben. Have Gerd doing a custom job for me in NH colors. Depending on his future workload, we may talk switchers. Deb |
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Post by dazed on Jun 29, 2018 10:22:46 GMT -5
Yeah, this was brought up a few posts into the thread. It has been the reality for some time now (at least since the 1980's) for the larger railroads to use "road switchers" (namely "Geeps" like the GP38-2, GP40, et al) for yard work and local industry switching. There are still true switchers in play as well--particularly in very large yards--but it is definitely not the majority.
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Post by gerd on Jul 2, 2018 8:03:01 GMT -5
Here now my version from the kit of Z maker aka Rudy Valle, patched ex MILW unit with SOO markings. Model has been super detailed (grab irons, lift rings, cut lever, MU-hoses, horn, louver grills, all weather window, hand rails), custom painted, decals and weathering.
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Post by neverland on Jul 2, 2018 8:15:05 GMT -5
Here now my version from the kit of Z maker aka Rudy Valle, patched ex MILW unit with SOO markings. Model has been super detailed (grab irons, lift rings, cut lever, MU-hoses, horn, louver grills, all weather window, hand rails), custom painted, decals and weathering.
Gerd, that is one awesome looking switcher! -- Deb |
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Post by markm on Jul 2, 2018 13:53:16 GMT -5
A number of great looking switchers have been presented here. But for me, just as important is the performance. Can they pull a half dozen heavyweight Pullmans? Can it pull them through as many turnouts without stalling or derailing? Can it be DCC'ed?
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rvn2001
Engineer
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Post by rvn2001 on Jul 2, 2018 15:07:29 GMT -5
As you know, there is no drop-in decoder for these. There's no reason you couldn't hard-wire a decoder into it. There should be room for one under the hood. You could even add directional lighting by drilling through the headlights and installing the LEDs of your choice. You would need to determine the values for all of the CVs. There's no reason it should stall going through switches any more than any of your other locos since both trucks pick up power.I haven't tried pulling 6 heavyweights with it. It is a small switcher, after all. I'm curious about that so I just might try it tonight.
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Post by neverland on Jul 2, 2018 16:16:40 GMT -5
As you know, there is no drop-in decoder for these. There's no reason you couldn't hard-wire a decoder into it. There should be room for one under the hood. You could even add directional lighting by drilling through the headlights and installing the LEDs of your choice. You would need to determine the values for all of the CVs. There's no reason it should stall going through switches any more than any of your other locos since both trucks pick up power.I haven't tried pulling 6 heavyweights with it. It is a small switcher, after all. I'm curious about that so I just might try it tonight. Let us know the outcome. I for one wouldn't be using a switcher to move heavyweights anyway. |
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Post by tjdreams on Jul 2, 2018 18:35:08 GMT -5
I'm planning to add directional lighting and to put a Decoder in mine. I have test fitted 3 different decoders. The TCS Z2 fits nicely under the hood above the front truck. The Digitrax DZ126T is a little tighter fit but it too can be squeezed in above the front truck. The ESU LokPilot Nano will fit in the operators cab and with a little work I believe it can also be made to fit above the front truck. Of the 3 the TCS Z2 appears to be the best fit for the space available.
For the lighting i'm going to try and drill out the headlights and use some 0.25mm fiber optics.
David
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rvn2001
Engineer
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Post by rvn2001 on Jul 2, 2018 19:41:32 GMT -5
As you know, there is no drop-in decoder for these. There's no reason you couldn't hard-wire a decoder into it. There should be room for one under the hood. You could even add directional lighting by drilling through the headlights and installing the LEDs of your choice. You would need to determine the values for all of the CVs. There's no reason it should stall going through switches any more than any of your other locos since both trucks pick up power.I haven't tried pulling 6 heavyweights with it. It is a small switcher, after all. I'm curious about that so I just might try it tonight. I just pulled all 8 of my Wabash heavyweight cars with my SW1200 without any problem. Both the chassis and shell are brass so I expect it would pull more if I had them. Like Neverland, I don't imagine I would be hauling my heavyweights with an SW1200 ...... unless I was making up a train. |
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Post by neverland on Jul 2, 2018 20:33:45 GMT -5
As you know, there is no drop-in decoder for these. There's no reason you couldn't hard-wire a decoder into it. There should be room for one under the hood. You could even add directional lighting by drilling through the headlights and installing the LEDs of your choice. You would need to determine the values for all of the CVs. There's no reason it should stall going through switches any more than any of your other locos since both trucks pick up power.I haven't tried pulling 6 heavyweights with it. It is a small switcher, after all. I'm curious about that so I just might try it tonight. I just pulled all 8 of my Wabash heavyweight cars with my SW1200 without any problem. Both the chassis and shell are brass so I expect it would pull more if I had them. Like Neverland, I don't imagine I would be hauling my heavyweights with an SW1200 ...... unless I was making up a train. Thanks for the test run & the update. Deb |
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Post by markm on Jul 3, 2018 10:04:19 GMT -5
I have to say that 8 heavyweights is a very good start. I suggest the heavyweights not out of modeling interests, but because they are a good test vehicle. Their length and weight make for a challenging load. If a locomotive can pull and push these cars through a couple of "S" curves of diverging route turnouts at low speed, everything else will work fine. You'd actually be surprised how some of the production road switchers can struggle with this.
I can't speak for all roads, but the terminal yards of my prototype interests would build a passenger train in the passenger yard and pull (or push) that train to the launch pad to mate with the road power.
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Post by siddyz on Jul 3, 2018 15:18:59 GMT -5
I don't know if you are aware of the extremely tiny CT ELECTRONIK DCX76 DECODER - this is extremely small and may solve your problem converting the SW1500 to DCC  |
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