When last heard from, the Ballard Southern had converted an American Flyer/Lionel Baldwin S 12 to On30 by mounting the shell on an HO SD chassis. That was successful, so I went looking for an SW 1...
"... contacted MTH to see if I could buy an S scale SW 1 shell as a part but they are not willing to sell an engine shell unless you can prove you actually bought an engine and can show the damage to the it that makes it require a new shell. I think they're missing a little niche market opportunity there."
I was able to locate an SW 1 by S Helper Service. I guess I wanted an SW 1 really badly, as I bought the unit new just to get the shell. It turned out to not be much trouble to reduce the overall size by taking the shell off the chassis base, where most of the mass was. The electronics were mounted in the shell rather than on the chassis, and they had to be removed, as did the casting of the engineer. However, that left the shell fitting quite well on an HO SW 9 chassis. I had to put an extended coupler on the front end and will have to add a new deck, but otherwise, I have a nice looking small narrow gauge SW. Pix at:
http://www.dickwightman.com/railroad/2012bs/diesels/sw1/swconversion.html
That gives me a GE 44 ton, a Baldwin S 12 and now an SW type. My very loosely placed "somewhere between post-war and 1970's" diesel based narrow gauge operation is getting in shape to roll.
The conversions have been fun, but, man, Bachmann, narrow gauge existed in this period. Please consider giving us something nice to work with. Can't be that hard to develop a nice modern looking diesel shell that's a drop fit to one of your HO chassis.
Dick Wightman - Ballard Southern RR
"... contacted MTH to see if I could buy an S scale SW 1 shell as a part but they are not willing to sell an engine shell unless you can prove you actually bought an engine and can show the damage to the it that makes it require a new shell. I think they're missing a little niche market opportunity there."
I was able to locate an SW 1 by S Helper Service. I guess I wanted an SW 1 really badly, as I bought the unit new just to get the shell. It turned out to not be much trouble to reduce the overall size by taking the shell off the chassis base, where most of the mass was. The electronics were mounted in the shell rather than on the chassis, and they had to be removed, as did the casting of the engineer. However, that left the shell fitting quite well on an HO SW 9 chassis. I had to put an extended coupler on the front end and will have to add a new deck, but otherwise, I have a nice looking small narrow gauge SW. Pix at:
http://www.dickwightman.com/railroad/2012bs/diesels/sw1/swconversion.html
That gives me a GE 44 ton, a Baldwin S 12 and now an SW type. My very loosely placed "somewhere between post-war and 1970's" diesel based narrow gauge operation is getting in shape to roll.
The conversions have been fun, but, man, Bachmann, narrow gauge existed in this period. Please consider giving us something nice to work with. Can't be that hard to develop a nice modern looking diesel shell that's a drop fit to one of your HO chassis.
Dick Wightman - Ballard Southern RR
