Model Railroading > A Walthers SW1 dissected and undecorated

I picked up my Walthers SW1 this week at my LHS. This is the beginning of a kit-bashing project to build a late SW1 with the square cab windows above the hood and a single step taper on the cab end of the hood. The first step in the project was disassembling it and stripping the factory paint. The drive is smooth and it runs well. The trucks don’t have a lot of rocking motion, but it stays on the track well, even on my simulated maintenance deferred track. If you are curious about this new release of the SW1, here are a few pictures of it disassembled.

Dennis

Photos 1, 2 and 3: After stripping and reassembly. I did this to show a “before” photo of the model.

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Photo 4: The chassis with the factory PC board removed. It comes with a DCC ready plug, but I chose to remove it and start from scratch. The motor is smaller than what I’ve seen in HO models, and sits flat into the chassis. I suppose this was required with the limited space between the truck gear towers.

Photo 5: All of the pieces-parts for the chassis.

Photo 6: The shell and window glazing.

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Photo 7: This shows one of the trucks disassembled, which pivot on bolsters located below the center-line of the axles. Electrical pick-up from the axle bearings is accomplished with small brass contacts within the trucks.

Photo 8: A close-up of the bolster on the frame.

Photo 9: The small motor is shown next to a standard sized Kato motor.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/23/13 19:34 by CNW.

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Excellent photos and information Dennis. Thanks for sharing. Time for me to track one of these down..

Cheers,
Harry

Warranty voided! Sounds like an interesting project. Do you have any particular prototype in mind or free-lancing the end result?

MWP in STL

Hi,

What did you use to strip the Walters paint ?

Thanks,

Don

Thanks for sharing the photos, Dennis. It's great to see how cleanly the Walthers paint strips off. I need one SW1 for my future layout plans; I have an old undec from the original run but would like to have the current upgraded drive. I think I'll go ahead and pick one up after seeing yours.

Dave

I just hope that you have a mental note of how that all goes back together again! Personally, I would have a zillion notes in case I forgot. Good luck on an interesting project.

Very interesting and well done post. Thank you for sharing. Looking forward to the finished product.

Chris

I wondering , if this is the old " Lindberg " Model's SW1 , that was made in the Late 50's ?

No, it's a mild update of the old Walthers SW1, released in the late '80s or early '90s. Same body and frame.

Great photos and story to go with it.
Some very good information here.
Are you going to install DCC and sound?
If so what do you plan to use for a decoder?
thanks for sharing the photos with us.
cf7

The shell was stripped using Chameleon stripper. I have a large size bottle that I`ve used for several years. I completely disassembled the chassis to dunk it in the stripper, but the Chameleon didn`t take off the black paint. Oh well, it will be painted green anyway. I plan to use a Digitrax DH123D decoder and hard wire to the motor, trucks and lamps. I hope to add a few ounces of ballast to give it a little more pulling ability. The finished model will be a late C&NW SW1 still in its factory paint with the striped ends.

Dennis

I figure anything that Chameleon or alcohol can't remove is a good base, unless there is dust caught in it. A caution with Chameleon -- over a period of years it will make a plastic bottle (like the bottles it was sold in) very brittle. It's smart to transfer it to glass, or at least a newer bottle.

This is the prototype that I will be referencing for the SW1 project. The three major changes needed are the cab windows, hood taper and headlights. I have a Cannon & Co. switcher cab kit with the square windows and I have the headlight castings from a Proto-2000 SW1200. The hood taper will take some scratch building. I may try making some brass handrails to replace the chunky plastic ones.

New Ulm, Minnesota August 19, 1973 my photo.

Dennis



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/13 18:26 by CNW.

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Hmm... I'm not a fan of stripping paint with anything other than alcohol just to avoid any damage to the plastic. I've seen brittleness and crazing even with Chameleon. I actually thought that Chameleon was out of business.

I have an undecorated SW1 from one of the older Walthers runs and may just swipe the shell to use on the new chassis. Were any upgrades made to the shell itself, or just the chassis?

I plan to model this unit that worked at a cold storage warehouse in Mt. Airy, MD:

http://www.trainweb.org/oldmainline/oml/400wswit2.jpg

Dave



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/13 20:41 by drolsen.

CNW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> This is the prototype that I will be referencing
> for the SW1 project. The three major changes
> needed are the cab windows, hood taper and
> headlights. I have a Cannon & Co. switcher cab
> kit with the square windows and I have the
> headlight castings from a Proto-2000 SW1200. The
> hood taper will take some scratch building. I may
> try making some brass handrails to replace the
> chunky plastic ones.
>
> New Ulm, Minnesota August 19, 1973 my photo.
>
> Dennis


Custom Finishing has a part for the hood taper. It's made for the Walthers SW1.
Walters part # 247-285. Shows out of stock right now, but you might be able to find one somewhere.

PHall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CNW Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > This is the prototype that I will be
> referencing
> > for the SW1 project. The three major changes
> > needed are the cab windows, hood taper and
> > headlights. I have a Cannon & Co. switcher cab
> > kit with the square windows and I have the
> > headlight castings from a Proto-2000 SW1200.
> The
> > hood taper will take some scratch building. I
> may
> > try making some brass handrails to replace the
> > chunky plastic ones.
> >
> > New Ulm, Minnesota August 19, 1973 my photo.
> >
> > Dennis
>
>
> Custom Finishing has a part for the hood taper.
> It's made for the Walthers SW1.
> Walters part # 247-285. Shows out of stock right
> now, but you might be able to find one somewhere.


Or contact the source. http://www.customfinishingmodels.com/