1031d
Probationary Member
Posts: 10 
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Post by 1031d on Feb 19, 2015 14:54:41 GMT -5
Who has the best bang for the buck HO SW-1200? Is the P2K one anygood?
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Post by iomalley on Feb 19, 2015 15:27:06 GMT -5
Depends on a lot of factors. Ease - advantage Athearn Accuracy - advantage P2K Athearn is crude, being that its a very early example of a SW7 (or even a late NW2) with latched carbody doors, (that are too short) louvered roof over rads, flush grille, and end cab windows that don't match any prototype. It has one huge advantage, you can easily swap out the AAR sideframes with flexicoils. My example has all the inaccuracies cured, except for the carbody doors.  The P2K is more dimensionally sound, and has the correct doors, grilles, cab and carbody roof...but the swapping of the sideframes requires more engineering. It is moderately easy to do, but a bit tedious. Here's a P2K project that I've started, having most of the hard sideframe work done on the chassis.  P2K also makes the proper handrail ends with drop steps too. |
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Post by simulatortrain on Feb 19, 2015 19:01:46 GMT -5
The Athearn hood is wider than scale width as well. Not that you can't make it look nice, as seen above.
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Post by iomalley on Feb 19, 2015 19:34:01 GMT -5
Yeah, but its not as bad as their other early offerings. The P2k and Kato (the only 2 I have to measure) scale out at 0.972" wide across at the rad, and the Athearn is 0.979" so that's only 7 thou diff which translates into less than 1 scale inch. The biggest width issue is where the body meets the cab. It covers the batten strip on my Cannon cab on 1256
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Post by jakeloyst on Feb 19, 2015 20:56:19 GMT -5
  Have to agree, best bang, is the good ole Athearn BB unit. This one is from the 80s, before there was Cannon cabs. It has an MBE SW1200rs kit, a cab interior from GSB, and other bits and parts. There not 100% accurate, but close enough to look good with a little work, and the basic shell, will give you the starting point for a whole series of switchers produced by EMD and GMDD, as well as several early transfer units. |
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Post by simulatortrain on Feb 19, 2015 23:19:25 GMT -5
Wow, the hoods really are that wide then? I've never been around a real one or studied them a whole lot to know.
That's good to know as I have a spare Athearn hood from another project and Proto S3 that's waiting for a repower along the lines of SCL S2ms. I had assumed the Athearn hood was too wide to use, but now maybe I'll have to find some shop space...
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Post by CP_8530 on Feb 20, 2015 5:52:29 GMT -5
Depends on what you want to do. The P2K SW1200 is by far the best, most accurate and smoothest running. You can find them for ~$50-60 on eBay at times. The Athearn, well, the shell is kinda dated now.  Cab kinda stucks, drive is so-so, the only real advantage is the Flexicoil truck swap. Other than that most of its details like the top rad grills, hood door latches, louvres, etc match earlier EMD switchers (it's supposed to be an SW7, so could technically be disqualified) and would need to be changed if you wanted an accurate SW1200. But you can usually find some of them them for pretty cheap. If you're no stranger to cutting shells up, you can probably castrate the plastic molded-on frame/walkways off the Athearn body. But if you find a cheap P2K, the hood is a separate piece, so would save any messy hacking work. |
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Post by iomalley on Feb 20, 2015 9:59:32 GMT -5
You're right Dan, you must be willing to accept compromise to use the Athearn. Here's another silk purse by Tom Cox...  |
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Post by iomalley on Feb 20, 2015 10:15:54 GMT -5
Wow, the hoods really are that wide then? I've never been around a real one or studied them a whole lot to know. That's good to know as I have a spare Athearn hood from another project and Proto S3 that's waiting for a repower along the lines of SCL S2ms. I had assumed the Athearn hood was too wide to use, but now maybe I'll have to find some shop space... Yes, the NW/SW hoods are physically wider than the rest of the GP/SD catalogue. Mostly because the design was done in an era where the full frame handrails didn't exist, so excess girth just hung over the sides, as one shimmied down the deck, holding the handrail high up on the carbody. It was downright unsafe for those vertically challenged. You can see it clearly on older NW/SWs that were retrofitted with full handrails, the RRs either mounted the stanchions on spacer blocks, or bent the bottom of the stanchion to get as close to 2' of rail clearance width as possible. |
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Cab kinda stucks, drive is so-so, the only real advantage is the Flexicoil truck swap. Other than that most of its details like the top rad grills, hood door latches, louvres, etc match earlier EMD switchers (it's supposed to be an SW7, so could technically be disqualified) and would need to be changed if you wanted an accurate SW1200. But you can usually find some of them them for pretty cheap.