SW1200 Switchers

[One of One-Sixty]

Does anybody makes a decent SW1200 switcher?   I know Con-Cor use to make one which has been discontinued (don't know if it was decent or not), but I am looking for a couple of decent. . . . . . . .  okay, can it be a fairly decent SW1200 switchers for a project I am looking to start.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

The lifelike ones are pretty solid. Not AMAZING, but not bad.

Wish I had a good pic of one. Mine are all in the "projects" pile...

[Mark5]

To me the Lifelike is the only game here. They look really good but I don't own one, so I can't comment on how they run.

The concor "sw1200" uses the ancient Rivarossi/Atlas shell from pre-history, which isn't exactly based on anything (supposedly based on pre-production drawings - the cab is angled).

[Puddington]

Ok; it's an SW 8 (one stack not two) but it's the same basic model

I'm "ok" with these; I own four; two from the early release and two from the later one. They all run well (DC mode) but do need more TLC than other locomotives. The power pickup's (the brass pieces) are very easy to damage and gets very dirty quickly. They are nicely detailed and for the money were a great addition.

[sizemore]

The Riv/CC SW1200's are junk. IIRC Con-Cor then rereleased the SW1200 with an updated but still ancient mechanism. The LL/Walthers is the best for the money. They just need to have the wheelsets replaced with NWSL wheelsets and they look really good. OOTB they are solid runners, modifying the pickups and a good decoder they are pretty good runners.

The S.

[jmlaboda - RIP]

With the Walthers/Life-Like switcher you can represent SW600, SW9, SW900 and SW1200s.  Reasonably good detail and for SW1200s Miniatures by Eric do sell the Flexicoil trucks that many of them were built with.

[Chris333]

I think the LL model run better than Kato NW2's, at least as far as slow speeds.

[wm3798]

I've managed to stuff a decoder in there, and a rear-facing light!

The pick up system in these things is a C-, but if you don't spend a lot of time taking the engine apart, it's okay.  Every one I've worked on has been a smooth and quiet running, and they do an admirable job pulling cars out of one track, and shoving them into another.

Lee