In looking at the models it at least appears that they have tried hard to match detail... with the exception of the few hand grabs on one side of the hood the model looks like it will be rendered quite overall. There were examples of shortlines and smaller Class Ones using multiple units (either m.u. or double headed if m.u. was not possible) on lighter railed branchlines, the same sort of assignments that GE 70-tonners were assigned to... For a freelancer of a shortline this could be a great option in handling traffic that was ran on lighter rail...
Northwest Short Line sells an upgrade wheel set that also gets rid of the "pizza cutter" wheels. It's a little pricey, but they are a HUGE improvement! Here is a photo of them in a loco I custom painted and detailed for the CB&Q years ago:
In case anyone else is interested the ESTIMATED release date for at least the PC SW1 is 8/7/15. This is posted on the pre-order page on there US web site.
One of the things that has always surprised me is just how heavy EMD switchers are in comparison to their size. You'd think an SW1 would be in the same league as a GE 70-tonner, and it's not. SW1's is spec'd in a 198,000 (99 tons), an SW8 is 230,000 (115 ton) and a GP7 is 246,000 (123 tons); not as much differential as you'd think, even if the 70-tonner horsepower and the SW1 are identical at 600hp. The 70-tonner was deliberately designed to be no heavier than a 70-ton freight car for light rail applications. Remember that for years the 'standard' US weight limit was 263,000 for freight cars at the rail. In the era of 50 and 70-ton freight car weight limits, an SW1 or any EMD was still heavier, by a lot. There are two things to consider; one is the weight the bridges will take and the second is the weight the rail can handle for axle loads. You can add more axles on lighter rail (EMD SDL39) but bridges are another matter. Where you really saw the SW1's shine was on lines with light bridges, not necessarily light rail. When you think about it, a lot of light branches in the steam era (and logging locomotives) were standardized in the 50-ton range, which was the same as the roughly 50-ton car weight of the era. Shays were often done as 42-tonners, Heislers to 47-ton, etc. A 60-ton Shay was a modern monster. A 44-ton diesel is a little puppy, but tons are still tons. That's also why some lines held onto steam - the axle and bridge loads. Southwest Lumber Mills in Flagstaff got a Baldwin VO1000 used off of Rock Island, and it broke the 50-lb rail while standing still. They went back to a 2-8-0 until the line closed. In this area we had one B&O branch that had a rather precarious pin-connected truss bridge that had a specific class of small-fuel-tank GP7's to operate it, when you think about it, that's really shaving it tight, as the additional fuel didn't weight THAT much. Youngs High Bridge over the Kentucky River (Southern) was operated with SW1's, with two crews, one on either side of the bridge, and they rolled trains over it without crews at the end - that's when you know you've really got a bridge rating problem. SW1's were the lightest thing they had and were the road units over this line. This is a great story about SW1's, worth the read - google "Southern's locomotive chases - Bluegrass Railroad Museum" and it will come right up.
That google read was interesting Randgust. A locomotive over a bridge with no one in the cab...veeeeeerrryyy interesting!
I spoke with the Arnold reps at the Portland NTS. They said the new locos are in the container at the Tacoma port and should ship to dealers in a couple of weeks! Bert Cripe PNW Free-moN http://www.pnwfreemo-n.org/
I also saw these at the Portland NMRA show. The Arnold rep let me run them and experiment with the speed. This was on straight DC, and they creep really really slow. Excellent mechanism. Probably the best-running N scale engine I saw except for the Kato FEF at the Kato booth.
I also saw the booth at NTS. These look really nice, and seemed to run well. I'd probably have one already if I hadn't just spent a bunch of my trade credit on an Atlas S-2 in GN and undec (which I plan to make SP&S). Hornby bought the Arnold name, if I am not mistaken, but they haven't copied the sort of goofy mechanisms of the Arnold of yesteryear.
Just received mine yesterday and a few initial observations. Runs very nice with excellent slow speed but perhaps a tad noisy. One traction tire on each truck. I thought they went out of favor on diesel models in the 70's but apparently Arnold still feels they are necessary. Looks like a coreless motor. Body shell and details are very nice, maybe not as fine as a Kato, but still look good. Sitting next to my Kato NW-2 it looks a bit "chunkier". I purchased the Penn Central version to possibly strip and repaint, but certain details like cab windows and such are glued in place so I may not now. I guess I like it enough though since I just ordered a BN one.
[QUOTE="u18b, post: 941949, member: Looks like they used a tiny coreless motor or something.[/QUOTE] A can motor looks the same, so unless someone take a motor apart or the company confirms it, no one knows for sure. @Point, Yes, and if done right so the wires don't flex at the solder joint it's a much better connection and will last a very long time.
Been there, done those, too. If the wires didn't break, eventually the soldered joints decided they no longer wanted to be attached to the trucks. The Kato mechanism Con-Cor later put under the old Atlas/Rivarossi shell was a major improvement.
My black B&M SW-1 arrived the other day and I think it looks and runs great. Sadly I haven't been able to wring it out but I think the paint looks nicer than my B&M Atlas S2. B&M often used their SW-1s to replace their Moguls on locals so I suppose I might go that route.
I just received mine today. Disclaimer: I consulted with Hornby America on the R&D for the SW-1. I am very,very pleased with the outcome for this model. While I am a big fan of the conventional split frame drive and low friction axle cone pickups with frame spring contacts, the Hornby/Arnold mechanism is certainly a well engineered alternative. I don't anticipate the hard wired circuit will give any problems.....The way the Arnold wires are routed doesn't put any stress on the connections so wires pulling off should not be an issue. (side note- curiously, Kato virtually lost their market when they went to N Scale style pickups on the HO RS2 and SD40-2) The molded on detail on the shell is very well executed. I had to go through the entire list of offerings to find a configuration that matched the CB&Q SW-1s (all of the Q units were the same even though they came in several batches). The B&M Minuteman scheme unit was the one that had the right combination of details. I didn't get the units in time for the Prototype Modelers Meet in Naperville next week but it looks like I am going to have to find my workbench (I know generally what corner of my train room it is in!) and actually do some modeling......working on R&D and artwork for my clients satisfies the creative urge too much but I am fired up to get these units into CB&Q Black and Gray "Everywhere West" and "Way of the Zephyrs" dress!!! The SW-1 went through several phases and the Arnold model will match all but the real odd-balls (don't recall if any got dynamic brakes but that is the kind of thing that they didn't tool...and industrial mods like anti-rock loader canopies!!). In HO the old Lindberg and AHM SW-1s and the current Walthers SW-1 all come only in one flavor regardless of the roadname. A major option that was tooled for the sophisticated N Scale market is the Frame Mounted Handrails....GN and other roads favored them and the units don't look right without them. The body style options (early arched windows and multi-stepped hood vs. later flat topped windows and single stepped hood) covers the production from 1938-1953. It is an almost universal locomotive...it is much easier to name the roads that did NOT have them vs. the 92 original owners and most all went on through the mergers and survived with the Class 1 railroads until SD40-2s became "normal" switch engines. There are still some working today on industrial and short lines.... many are even older than I am by almost a decade! There still seem to be some who see "Rapido" and think the SW-1 has the crude Walthers/Arnold Rapido S-2 spring worm drive.....wrong!! The only thing that has survived from the Rivarossi/Lima/Arnold Rapido era is the N Scale brandname "Arnold" for the Hornby N Scale product line. While I surveyed the Rivarossi and Lima product lines for Hornby USA going back ten years, we determined that given the age of the tooling it would cost less to build new state of the art locomotives and cars than to try to repair and update forty year and older tooling. I would urge you to take a close look at the SW-1 (and the U25C and upcoming tooled variations for the U28C). We need to support and encourage Hornby in their N Scale program....they have a very talented design staff in Spain and enlightened and supportive executive management in England. They would ask what additional features were needed on the model rather than trying to cut options. I think Hornby was able to "hit the ground running" with the first two products and if Hornby America can prove there is a market in North America for N Scale the future will hold many wonderful things. Note also that Hornby has incorporated my coupler design in the production units with some modifications that were necessary over the original design. As conceived, the "RMR" coupler had what turns out to be a very tiny U-shaped spring that could not be reliably made nor made to center and close the coupler properly. Hornby fixed that issue and retained the basic size and shape of the coupler with its extended knuckle surfaces to increase the "vertical gather" from what is essentially a Z-Scale-sized coupler to the same as the face of a M-T compatible coupler. This will prevent false uncouplings due to bad rail joint alignments unfortunately common to our scale while preserving the more scale-like size and detail of the coupler head and maintain M-T compatability. I have not yet had the opportunity to talk to Hornby about the possibility of making the coupler available separately but will be doing so in the near future. Charlie Vlk Railroad Model Resources
