2 rail SW9's

Erie Lackawanna black and yellow is a definite sale for me.  Multiple road numbers would be a bonus.

Even I could be interested if it has a horizontal drive, straight DC, undecorated.

Would these be done in 3 rail also

Switchers are one of those bread-and-butter things that are badly needed but in short supply.  I’d be interested in an SP tiger stripe switcher and possibly a Santa Fe zebra stripe machine.

I agree with you that a straight DC but  DCC ready system is probably the way to go. Some of us might not only thinking of DCC but also about battery-powered “dead-rail.” However, I’m just one guy and I don’t know how the rest of the crowd feels.

I think I’d be willing to put down  a larger deposit up front for the SW-9.  If this were an ideal world, I’d be reserving an ALCO-GE HH-660 or an S-2, but it’s the world we live in.  I’ll take what I can get.

As a point of continuing education, there are no dashes in EMD model numbers. The locomotive under discussion here is an SW9, not SW-9.

Thank you for the effort, Beth. I'd be in for 1x CB&Q and 1x AT&SF. Hopefully it's Atlas you end up working with.

CBQ-Atlas--I will second.

@Rich Melvin posted:

As a point of continuing education, there are no dashes in EMD model numbers. The locomotive under discussion here is an SW9, not SW-9.

Rich:

LOL! I am sure Beth will appreciate your post.

Beth, thanks for the effort. I'm sure it's not and will no,t be easy. I'm in for two  LVRR Cornell red SW9s.

Phil

@Beth Marshall-The Public Delivery Track posted:

Hey gang....

I'm going to try to get some 2 rail SW-9's made.  Believe me, Id rather do S-2's or S-4's, or SW-1's......But SW-9's i think is my best shot.

I cant talk about manufacturers, but the plan is horizontal drive and either full DCC/sound package or straight DC.  Probably one or the other.  Full DCC and sound is really cool, but straight DC might be easier to get done, and would cost less.  I know some ppl would rather put in their own fav DCC and sound boards....LMK.

So here the roads im considering.   IHB (1970's NYC black/white scheme) , PRR, SP tiger stripe (1 unit SP #, 1 unit T&NO #) , SF zebra stripe. , LV  earlier Cornell red/black with small lettering..the best/classic LV scheme).....EL 1963 black/ yellow, CB&Q black/gray/yellow/red "everywhere west", RI Maroon (block letters),  T&P (MoPac blue) , and black, unlettered.

Here's the point.....I need to be able to sell 30 of each paint scheme, at, lets say..$450 each.  So please dont tell me u want Appalachicola Northern, unless u think I can seriously sell 30 of them. Believe me, AN is a great paint scheme, so is IT.  But i need to do something that has a broad enough appeal to sell 30 units at 450 each.

If i could get 10 road names, 10 of each done, this would be a no brainer, but 30 pcs of each is the absolute min i could hope for.

Chime in.

beth

public delivery track

Why only 2rail ?  I’d be in for T&P if 3rail offered.

ACL, DM&IR or FEC would also be nice.  I won't hope for FXE or Steelton & Highspire.

+1 with Mr. Lee above about the electronics.  As long as there is an NMRA 8 pin connector, a decoder or dead rail can be installed.

@SANTIAGOP23 posted:

Thank you for the effort, Beth. I'd be in for 1x CB&Q and 1x AT&SF. Hopefully it's Atlas you end up working with.

Atlas SW9s are quite nice BUT At a $450 price point, can it be the original Atlas ???  Gotta be MTH product ?  RailKing ?  I guess we will see. Still want 3rail option !!!!

I don’t understand the three-rail market as well as I might, but I hope Beth concentrates her efforts on bringing out the two-rail switchers first.  Some of us have been waiting for a long time for two-rail switchers—at least five years. I know I’ve had switcher reservations since before Atlas started having problems with their suppliers and Weaver shut down and that my reservations were cancelled.

Three-railers  have been blessed with a lot of switchers in a lot of road names during the same time period. I can’t help but imagine the remaining Big Guys releasing SW-9s in their pet road names to dealers while Beth is waiting for her stuff to go into production.

I would be in for two of these. Either LV, T&P, or RI will work, preferably in straight DC. Let us know when firm reservations are needed. Thanks.

Jeff

@Mister_Lee posted:

I don’t understand the three-rail market as well as I might, but I hope Beth concentrates her efforts on bringing out the two-rail switchers first.  Some of us have been waiting for a long time for two-rail switchers—at least five years. I know I’ve had switcher reservations since before Atlas started having problems with their suppliers and Weaver shut down and that my reservations were cancelled.

Three-railers  have been blessed with a lot of switchers in a lot of road names during the same time period. I can’t help but imagine the remaining Big Guys releasing SW-9s in their pet road names to dealers while Beth is waiting for her stuff to go into production.

I sympathize with you 2railers about lack of product. For this very reason I chose to do 3rail - MANY More Choices !!!  Even still - I don’t have that many choices as I collect/run “Midwest” roads MP/TP, Frisco, MKT. These aren’t offered as much as I’d like to see. Atlas was Great but has been MIA for 10 years or so. 3rd Rail Sunset has been doing my roads lately so they get my business - though no switchers. If you are unaware, They do both 2 and 3 rail - BTO.

.

Black, unlettered .... I'll commit to one, but maybe two;   

--------     (preferably with the separately-applied details NOT installed, and in a separate bag, as                   Atlas does it)

I think Conrail had a large fleet of SW9s. Just saying.

A SW9 with horizontal drive is a great choice. Having said that, I am a bit leery of the unknown. I have been patiently waiting and hoping for Atlas to announce more SWs ... because smoothly creeping down the tract is critically important to me.

Thanks, Beth

I would be satisfied with SP tiger stripe or T&NO. But black unlettered would be fine as well. Whatever would help get to 30 units.

IF they are Atlas AND 3 rail is also an option, I would be interested in a Missouri Pacific model in either the older black scheme or the jenks blue.

I would be interested in Milwaukee or undec. Horizontal drive, please.

Dick

I'd be interested in at least two undecorated. Straight dc to keep cost down, and I'd be looking at battery conversion.

I thought about the SW-9 project some more and broached the idea of a release in the Katy's original factory paint to a connected Katy modeler I know, but he wasn't sure there were enough Katy two-railers to make a Katy release feasible, at least not in two rail.

The only suggestion I've got for the gears is a lower gear ratio.  This is a switcher, after all, not an E-unit trying to hold down the schedule for some 100 mph plus passenger express. Switchers do slow.

Beth, I don't know if you'll get the numbers to make this project feasible (Should I already be making my deposit?), but I'd like to thank you for thinking about this project and taking steps to move it forward.

I'm in for SP tiger stripe and SF zebra stripe in multiple road numbers (as many as you produce) as long as they are road numbers that Atlas has not already done.

Burlington model, 1999.

Over the years I've purchased at least (8) un-decorated SW9's.  Note: the price is the same, as a completely painted model.  With the SW's there is a choice of pilots, Mu'ed or standard as pictured above.  Model above was a floor-crash model.   Atlas supplied new widow panels, which allowed for the re-assemble of the cab, the major damage of the floor crash.

@BigJohn&theWork posted:

IF they are Atlas AND 3 rail is also an option, I would be interested in a Missouri Pacific model in either the older black scheme or the jenks blue.

I’m ditto on this !!!!

If a 30 model minimum, can it be for 2 rail and 3 rail combined ????

I am interested in a NYC in 2 rail. I have been looking for one for a long time. I would prefer DCC and sound but if the price is $450 plus shipping for straight DC I don't know. I have to think about that. My train budget is tight right now with the Sunset H10.

If you did Cambria and Indiana in 3-rail, I'd be in for two.

CP red please Beth.

If the undecs arrive like Atlas's with the details loose, I'll settle for CP (pic below) with everything attached (sorry Jim, gotta be sure the Chinese(?) have added all the right parts).  And the attachments are apparently brass, so I can't begin to guess who owes Beth a favour.  Being a Brit the price scares me coz' of the usual additional shipping costs (included in 20% sales tax AKA VAT), but the Atlas locos pleased a lot of us with single horizontal motor drive (and not huge Pittmans either), easier back then to add DCC/Loksound.  Excellent for jealous HO modellers too.
http://rrpicturearchives.net/s...ture.aspx?id=1141903

Jason

would like a PRR  + 1 Conrail

Paul

For those interested in the Bethlehem Steel Co. railroads which used EMD's, a good option might be a painted red & yellow (early scheme) or black & yellow (later scheme), unlettered unit with decals for Cambria & Indiana,  Philadelphia, Bethlehem & New England,  Steelton & Highspire,  Patapsco & Back Rivers, Cornwall RR,  Conemaugh & Black Lick, and South Buffalo. 

Atlas had done the Pennsylvania SW9, one of the first offerings, before TMCC, and electro-couplers.  Sound was poor, speaker was above the motor, near the front top heat exhaust. Model is marked on the fuel tank 1999.

Lehigh Valley for sure!  You had me at "horizontal drive"!  If you cannot get enough LV reservations I suppose I could go IHB or EL so I definitely would be down for something Beth, thanks!

good for two, a tiger and a zebra (stripes, that is) SW9 OK, but SW1's would be really fab.

Hi Beth,

With all due respect, I really don't understand what you are shooting for here. You are asking for interest but you aren't really giving enough detail.

I might be interested in a 2R SW9 in the 1963 EL paint. Now if you tell me who is building it and what features and details it will have then I'd move closer to a more definite YES. If I knew this was an Atlas remake that would make me comfortable of the mechanics and then it comes down to Railroads and schemes. You picked the most obscure EL paint version out there, for example, which while not my favorite I would take 2 of. I'd also take 2 in pure Erie, 2 in EL Maroon/gray, 2 in Chessie, and 2 in B&O Blue/Yellow if you made them. I'd need to know what it was I was buying before I would be willing to commit though.

For what it's worth...

I ran a poll on the 2 Rail O scale Facebook page a while back to help gauge interest for a potential SW1 project with Sunset/3rd Rail. The results of that poll for a newly tooled SW1 with DCC/Sound in 2R at $700 ea. came to a minimum of 118 units with many people wanting multiple road numbers of the same scheme. This is my point though... How many of those would have been real orders? Nobody knows. Scott has never announced the project so there is no way to accept or track preorders. Right now it's just the results of an internet poll. Much like this thread.

In my humble opinion I think the best way to gauge interest is to do what importers have done since this hobby started. Do the research, crunch the numbers, put up the details of the project and take preorders. That's the only way to know if you have the support or not.

If you had product in stock to sell me today in Erie, EL, B&O, and Chessie that was accurate, ran well, and looked good I would purchase 6 at $450.

BTW... If you decided to do SW1's I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have much problem moving 100 units. Just saying.

Thx for the info. 

Biggest problem is that Im an individual, and not running a multimillion$ company.  I dont have the time or desire to run a full time, full blown model train importing company. My small biz takes up too much of my time as it is.

The point is, that if you arent doing the tooling , and the manufacturing, and the trips to China,  and the endless 16 hour days with no other life yourself, you have to work with those who are able to do the heavy lifting.

I wanted to do the SW-1 in 2 rail.  But getting MTH to retool that for 2 rail was an iffy proposition at best, and then they sold the tooling.  I URGED Atlas to get that tooling (and some other stuff), but it didnt happen.  Thats another story.

I was asking on the forum just to see if any particular road had more of a following than others. . I was not looking for commitments, and im not worried about whether anything i get produced will be "nice" .  I wouldnt invest money in something that wasnt really nice.

If it isnt too obvious, I cant go to any importer/manufacturer and ask for 100 engines to be made, 10 each of 10 different paint schemes. Not if i dont want to be laughed at. .    And the price target is $450.  I think thats a lot to pay for an engine as it is.    I know there's a small group of people who dont mind paying $700 each for plastic/diecast diesel engines, but I just think thats too much. I really prefer to sell items that I would buy myself.  Thats the benchmark.

Right now Im getting a special runs of IHB and TRRA SW-1500's done by MTH.  Its a really nice, well detailed full o scale sized engine.   With the full proto 3.0 package.  And my selling price is around $345.  Unfortunately, is only in 3 rail.  Believe me, I would have loved to have them done in 2 rail, but with the uncertainty in the model train industry (and the world, for that matter) , no one wants to put out the money for new 2 rail tooling right now.    Sunset models might be able to do it, but they have to charge 700 an engine to recoup their costs, and thats with direct sales only, no deal discounts, and depending on their core of buyers, who will pay that much.

Yesterday, I had someone calling me, complaining that I was asking 79.95, for a relatively hard to find MTH reefer, that retailed for 69.95 , 5 to 10 years ago. And he was incensed that I would ask so much.   FWIW

beth

Beth, thanks for all you do for this hobby. I'm sure you know what you're doing and who can get stuff done for you.

This project is a little to old for my interests, and my other hobby is taking up all my resources.

I am watching to see what develops though. I like diesels so anything diesel catches my eye.

I'm sure you also know about these experts claiming to know what price anything is worth. I can't even fully imagine all the grief you must endure to make things available to the hobby.

Again, I just wanted to say thank you. I appreciate what you do. I watch to see what you bring forward for us all.

Thx for the nice words.  There are a number of ppl doing their best to make a wide assortment of stuff available, and they all should be thanked.  No ones doing this cause they are "raking in the bucks".    I just happen to be one of the few ppl working on getting more  2 rail available right now, and its an uphill battle.  If i had started working on more 2 rail 5 years ago, I think i would have had a better chance..

Right now, it just tough for  lot of reasons.

Hi Beth, I just have to chime in.  I met you at York a few years ago.  You had a tent outside of the orange hall.  I was impressed!  You go above and beyond for your business.  A big thank you. Bill

@Beth Marshall-The Public Delivery Track posted:

Yesterday, I had someone calling me, complaining that I was asking 79.95, for a relatively hard to find MTH reefer, that retailed for 69.95 , 5 to 10 years ago. And he was incensed that I would ask so much.   FWIW

beth

Things change and prices go up; offer him some cheese to go with his whine.

Looking forward to seeing and hearing more about what can do on an SW-9.