As many of us know, the SW1500 that is being branded by Micro-Trains both within their train sets and as individual units are made by Walthers. The unit is a high-quality locomotive and a serious upgrade from the older Life-Like switchers. The Walthers rep told me that they intend to "get in the game" and produce new releases of this locomotive with their own branding. Expect to see announcements in road names not being run by MTL for this locomotive sometime in the next year.
umm, the only part that was made by Walthers was the mechanism, and even that had to be modified to work for the SW1500. I wouldn't say it was any upgrade from the LL switchers, as it was the same mechanism as the SW1200s that LL/Walthers made.
Walthers did add a brass worm and much better looking wheels when they did their release of the SWs. They fell short of having a DCC ready frame as they originally advertised. Jason
Correction to: Walthers to Release SW1500 Switchers Original post (June 27, 2017) As many of us know, the SW1500 that is being branded by Micro-Trains both within their train sets and as individual units are made by Walthers. The unit is a high-quality locomotive and a serious upgrade from the older Life-Like switchers. Correction to this post: We are glad to know that Micro-Trains reads our blog. The company politely informed us earlier today (June 30, 2017) that our original post incorrectly states that Micro-Trains simply purchases off-the-shelf SW 1500 N locos (from Walthers) to incorporate into train sets they distribute. That is not the case. Walthers does not make Micro-Train's SW1500. Walthers provides only the power chassis (as they acquired the LifeLike loco power chassis tooling years ago). Micro-Trains designed, tooled, produces, decorates, and assembles the loco cab, body, and detail parts that makes up the finished loco. We regret this mistake and sincerely apologize for the misleading information contained in our original post. As always, we appreciate feedback on our blogs, especially when they contain errors. --Team TroveStar