SW1500 n scale body shape

[eastworld]

I notice that the Atlas/Rivarossi/Concor N scale SW1500 seems to have body sides that taper at the cab end, but all the prototype pictures (and also from what I can see HO scale models)  I have seen seem to indicate that the sides should not taper. Is this a fault in the manufacturing as I know that earlier SW types did have tapered sides, and that the Atlas model wasn't necessarily too accurate? The pics I have seen of the Micro Trains model have parallel sides.

 

Stu

[Barclay]

I believe all the EMD switchers had the taper until the SW1500 came out in the mid - 60's, but perhaps the model is actually of something else. Athearn called theirs an SW1500 at one stage but it wasn't! The SW1500 was quite different to what came before it.

[Mike_Walker]

The SW1500 definitely had parallel hood sides plus the taper on the top towards the cab.  This also applies to the 8-cyl SW1000 and SW1001 although the latter retained the earlier cab profile to provide for close clearances - the SW1000 and SW1500 had taller cab sides with flatter roofs.  The related MP15AC and MP15DC models lacked the taper completely and rode Blomberg rather than switcher type trucks.

[Gilbert]

It looks like a bit of a sw1200/sw1500 hybrid to me TBH

[mdvle]

I'm guessing it's the same story as what happened in HO with Athearn and their initial(*) SW1500 offering - they worked off some early EMD drawings that got changed before the SW1500 entered production and thus ended up with an incorrect model.

 

Don't know if it is accurate but this website indicates the tooling is from 1971 and claims it is closer to an SW1200

https://www.trovestar.com/generic/zoom.php?id=134342

 

 

* - in HO Athearn eventually renamed their incorrect model to the closer/accurate SW-7 and tooled up a correct SW1500 - but there will still be a lot of older Blue Box incorrect SW1500's out there.

 

[Mike_Walker]

A hybrid indeed!  The hood looks closest to a SW1200 but the cab resembles the one fitted to the ICG 'SW14' rebuilds.  The real ATSF 2418 was a TR4 cow-and-calf set which was based on the SW7.  These had a different louvre configuration with a second small row near the top of the hood leaving space for the road name to be applied in between.

[barkingdigger]

Not sure about the Atlas N gauge model, but Athearn's HO scale "SW1500" (which was actually a SW7/9/1200 body) had to be made wider to fit the rather large electric motors then in use, and was tapered to meet the cab so the details could be made correct.  The same issue afflicted their GP9, GP35, and other early hood units but these had no taper where the over-wide hood met the cab.

[doctor quinn]

I recall reading that the ConCor n scale switcher is based on an Illinois Central SW7/9/1200 rebuild hence the squared off cab roof

[eastworld]

Thanks for all the replies - I think I more or less guessed that was the case.

 

Stu