I just picked up an SHS SW-1, spur of the moment purchase, and boy is it a beaut. Of course it is WP silver and orange. Now I noticed it has a plate with the truck mounted couplers. Once I take those things off and replace them with Kadee's, it will have a flat plate sitting there underneath. Don, what did you do with yours and any suggestions? I'm inclined to cut it off. Greg
Greg, the SW9 I bought had a plate to which the AF couplers were attached to the trucks. The instructions had me remove the plate and attached couplers then mount the Kadee couplers on the frame underneath the pilot. I really don't recall a residual flat plate underneath the trucks after I replaced the couplers. I worried about that at first, but it becomes obvious once you remove the AF couplers and replace the wheel sets.
Well I finally dived in and did the wheel replacement and Kadee installation. The couplers were a breeze but the wheel change out was kind of fiddly. Once all said and done, the engine looks fantastic and runs great. I can't say enough about SHS and the quality of their equipment. I was going to pass on the SW-9 but now I think I will get one and paint it for WP. It's getting to the point that I won't need any engines and these two switchers will more than fill my needs for the switcher fleet. Greg Elems
Greg, My SW9 is really nice. Its a good thing, given that I have not had a chance to buy another locomotive yet (should get a bonus in March...). I have had a chance to run my SW9 for about an hour or so on Bob Werre's layout here in Houston. It ran really well. I plan to buy the other road number of the SW9 soon. Its been a couple of months, but, as I recall, the couplers were easy once everything was apart. Changing the wheels was interesting or challenging, depending on your point of view. They were tricky to get aligned. Once you get them in place, the locomotive does work pretty well. I am starting to think about my layout plan for the house. I have a space about 12'x12'. Any ideas?
Hi Don, Yes the wheels were fiddly and the Kadees did mount very nicely on the frame. Worth the effort IMHO. What road name did you end up getting? Didn't you say you were going to do an around the way type layout? Do you want to avoid a duck under? My next focus will be on switches. There are a couple of options out there. The easiest would be the Shinohara ready to use. There are some kits and templetes that look promising and another method I've been considering. Taking ME HO and regauging them on S scale wooden ties. As I see it, not much would be changed other than the gauge and length of the rail from the frog to the switch points. Greg
Hi Greg, I ended up with a Rio Grande locomotive and caboose for the very scientific reason that I liked the paint scheme. I will probably follow through with that sort of western theme, but I will probably end up with a couple of different roadnames when all gets said and done. I want to be able to have continuous running, so I will probably not be able to avoid a duckunder in the space available. I hope that by elevating the railroad to about 48", its not a big deal for me. I'm a little over 6', so that height will work well for me. My tentative plan is to use the Shinohara turnouts and flextrack in code 100. I bought a little of it. It looks pretty good and seems well made. Some of the local guys here in Houston have had a few problems with the turnouts, but, in general, they seem to support that idea. If I try to handlay track, I will never get the darned layout running. I have too many other things competing for my time. I will probably stick with the Shinohara as a reasonable compromise.
Hi All: Greg, i've got the Rio Grande SW9 as well and it has run very reliably at shows. Another guy in our club has one as well adn we MU 'em to pull longer consists. Only maintenance item that has come up, twice when i've derailed on a turnout, the wheel sets have shorted out on the track, we run AC with Flyer transformers, and a pickup wire has melted off at the affected wheel each time. It's run as long a two hours steady at a show with no effect as far as i can tell. Regards, Ted
Ted, Thanks for the running report. I will be using DC on my scale layout, so I will keep the problem in mind. I finally changed out the wheel sets in my F-7's. Put all four SHS F units I have on the test track and WOW they ran great. No forced DCC tricks to make them run together and they did fine on my cheap Bachmann On30 set transformer. Greg
Actually that is how the SHS SW-1 comes. Definitely a step above the AM models. I doubt I will do any filling on this unit. I have AM engines that are in need of pilot improvement first. Greg
Had the same experience as Greg with converting an SHS SW9 to scale. Its a little tricky to get the wheels in the right place, but it is not an impossible task. The locos have pre-drilled holes for Kadee couplers and the pilots have been designed to look good with scale couplers "out of the box".
