Athearn 1000/1500 Diesel Locomotive

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S

Switch Track

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About ten years ago I bought my then six-year-old son an Athearn starter set. It came with what I believe to be a switcher locomotive. It's a BNSF with a rear-mounter cab. After all that time it still runs great. In fact, it might just be the fastest locomotive we own. Does anyone know anything about this li'l guy? At one time I was thinking of getting rid of it. Now that I am thinking of a BNSF fleet, I think I'll just keep it. I sure is a good running little diesel locomotive!!!


Happy Railroading,

Tom
 
I just checked Athearn's Website. It's definitely an SW 1500; however, there's no info about it. Incredibly it's still offered. I am assuming it's a freight locomotive.


Happy railroading,

Tom
 
I recently got the undecorated version. Other than an annoying HUM from the engine, I think it is a good loco for what I bought it for. I am hoping the HUM will go away as it breaks in, or I can find the source and reduce it.

If you need the expoded parts diagram that came with it, I can scan in the one that came with mine and send it to you. It will somewhat show how to take it apart and the part numbers for any pieces you might need as replacements. It also showed optional parts, depending on the options you wanted to model. It mentions a SP edition. I don't know what that means, though.

I do not know the differences between a real SW1000 and SW1500, but I know the paperwork for my model said SW1000/1500, so you were correct in referring to it that way (Athearn does).

I do not think they are offered anymore. They are listed on the Athearn website, but the entire range of Blue Box loco kits is listed as "discontinued" even though you can still find them "new" on the shelf.

If you would prefer a differant road name or to create your own, there are normally dozens of auctions on Ebay for shells for this engine. You could also swap the shell from an unpowered dummy engine to your powered chasis if there is a particular road name you would prefer to have and could not locate the shell only. I have seen them running for about $10.

Other replacement parts seem to be readily available for the Athearn locos. So, you should have support available for quite a while to keep that one around.
 


I believe one of the exterior differences between an SW1000 and SW1500 is the SW1000 has one smoke stack while the SW1500 has two smoke stacks. Another is the SW1000 uses older Alco looking trucks, while the SW1500 (Athearn's models) uses Blomberg trucks (like what most 4 axle EMD GP units use).
 
ICG/SOU said:
I believe one of the exterior differences between an SW1000 and SW1500 is the SW1000 has one smoke stack while the SW1500 has two smoke stacks. Another is the SW1000 uses older Alco looking trucks, while the SW1500 (Athearn's models) uses Blomberg trucks (like what most 4 axle EMD GP units use).
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As I remember from the exploded parts diagram that came with my engine, it had places where there was one part # and then behind it there would be a (SW-1500) and then a different # with (SW-1000). I guess enough of the parts are the same that Athearn just used one diagram to cover 2 different models.

For me, I am just making an engine look like one of them from the local shortline so my son will have a train that looks like the one usually parked near our house (although I do not think it is a SW-1500). I am not good at IDing eninges. The SW-1500 model looks close enough, and when painted it will be obvious to my son. That was my goal. I think the real one is a MP-15DC, but those models cost a lot more than this one cost me.
 
Switch Track said:
I just checked Athearn's Website. It's definitely an SW 1500; however, there's no info about it. Incredibly it's still offered. I am assuming it's a freight locomotive.


Happy railroading,

Tom
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the SW1500 is a switcher loco used in yards to shunt freight cars around. they also stray from yards sometimes to switch local freight car moves. most have a slow top speed as they need the low end grunt to move heavy trains in the yards. however many were equipped with diffrent trucks to permit faster mainline speeds around 50-60MPH. I have even seen a few pics of them lashed up with a mainline freight ,not sure if it was used for pulling or if it was just moving locations? It would not be very common to see it used along SD40-2 , SD45s etc... and other mainline engines.

Trent
 
The SW1000 was the 1000 horsepower version of the SW1500, which has (strangely enough) 1500 horsepower. The way to tell the difference is the single stack of the SW1000. To my knowledge, no SW1000 was ever built with anything other than standard AAR switcher trucks. The SW1500 was built with both the AAR trucks and Flexicoil trucks. Which truck is correct depends on the railroad. The SP had a fairly large fleet of SW1500's and they had Flexicoil trucks since they were used in transfer service as well as some branchline work and the Flexicoil truck is capable of higher speads and the ride is a lot better that the AAR truck. No SW1500 used Blomberg road trucks. The MP15 line did use Blomberg trucks and, although they look similar to SW1500's, many more of the MP15 locomotives were used in road service.
 
It's a little off topic from the original poster, but...

Here are a couple pics of the train near me. Can anyone identify what type it is.
 
UP2CSX said:
Classic SW1500. Ex-SP unit judging by the cab mounted number boards.
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OK, thanks. I guess I have the correct model then. Maybe I should check into the optional parts to see if I can make mine a little more prototypical before I get around to the painting.
 


I think I will have to grab my camera and go get some of my own pictures this weekend. The line near me has 2 switchers, #1551 and #1552, and they have different cabs on them. #1551 has 2 side windows where #1552 has 4 side windows. Otherwise, the two look pretty similar to me. The cab on #1552 looks like the model I have, so I guess I should go with that road #.
 
Tom,

Here is the parts diagram that came with my SW-1500. Mine is the Blue Box (BB) kit variety. I am not sure if this is the type you had or if your's is the Ready To Run (RTR) line. You said your's was about 10 years old. I was not doing this back then, so I do not know if the RTR line existed then.

Sorry if I hi-jacked the thread with some of my own questions...

I hope there is no copyright issue with posting this diagram. It doesn't say anything on the diagram about being copyright material.
 
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ken 23434,

Thanks for your generous offer for tech specs for my SW1500; however, I have the original copy that came with this locomotive.

This is a neat locomotive. I am going to keep her. She still runs great!

BTW, would our locomotives be Athearn blue box, or are they another model?

Finally, thanks to the professional railroaders here, I have learned a great deal about this li'l locomotive. In fact, I had no knowledge of switcher locomotives. Now I know they were/are yard workers.


Take care,

Tom
 
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Ken, both locomotives are the same, SW1500's. They are also ex-SP units. After the UP took over, they began an overhaul of the SP SW1500's that included removing all the SP light clusters and blanking off two windows on each side. #1551 got the full treatment including a new headlight/numberboard/classification set and the windows blanked. Unit #1552 only had the minimal work done of taking off the SP light clusters. The Athearn BB would be best represented by #1552 since it has the four windows. If you really wanted to make it accurate, you would want to blank off the SP light cluster and relocate the headlights to the middle of the hoods. The top hat syle of spark arrester would also have to be added - I think Details West sells them.

Commonwealth is part of Rail-Link, a shortline operator that seems to buy up junkers, repaint them, and then do nothing else until they die. Almost every picture I've seen of a Rail-Link engine that has been in service for more than a few months looks like they have oil sprayed on them on a regular basis.
 
UP2CSX said:
Ken, both locomotives are the same, SW1500's. They are also ex-SP units. After the UP took over, they began an overhaul of the SP SW1500's that included removing all the SP light clusters and blanking off two windows on each side. #1551 got the full treatment including a new headlight/numberboard/classification set and the windows blanked. Unit #1552 only had the minimal work done of taking off the SP light clusters. The Athearn BB would be best represented by #1552 since it has the four windows. If you really wanted to make it accurate, you would want to blank off the SP light cluster and relocate the headlights to the middle of the hoods. The top hat syle of spark arrester would also have to be added - I think Details West sells them.

Commonwealth is part of Rail-Link, a shortline operator that seems to buy up junkers, repaint them, and then do nothing else until they die. Almost every picture I've seen of a Rail-Link engine that has been in service for more than a few months looks like they have oil sprayed on them on a regular basis.
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They painted them last spring. They did have the Rail Link color scheme until then. They actually painted them on one of the sidings near my home. Your are correct about them looking like they are covered in oil. Last summer they were nice and clean following their repaint, now they are covered in crud. From what I have seen, this line only has 4 engines: a GP-16, a CF7 and the 2 SW-1500's. I think the extent of the rails they operate on is only about 5 to 10 miles. There is a container terminal in Portsmouth and a BASF plant one one end, and then they go on into Suffolk where they can tie into NS and the old ACL. The two SW-1500's are frequently parked just around the corner from my house. They are the only real trains my son sees on a regular basis. That is why I want to decorate one to look like them. I might eventually get a GP-16 or CF7 (or both). I grew up in Louisville, KY and I also wanted to have a L&N engine for the small layout my dad built for me. I had a couple steam engines and a couple diesels, but none of them were painted for L&N. I always thought it would be cool to have one that looked like the ones I saw beside the road. I guess I am reliving a childhood dream through my son. :)
 
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There are lots of detail parts available from Details West and other parts manufacturers. They can be found in your local hobby shop and online. When ya start accumulating enough of them and installing them, you won't want to let the kids run the trains because they might damage the details.
 


UP2CSX said:
To my knowledge, no SW1000 was ever built with anything other than standard AAR switcher trucks.
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There were a few built with Flexicoil trucks. There is also a difference in the radiator...smaller that the 1500. I have a few undecs I'm painting/detailing/DCC-ing. There is also an SW-1001. Diffrences in the handrailing between units is one spotting feature.
 
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