Broadway Limited Imports HO scale EMD SW1500 diesel locomotive

With its striking color scheme and flashing lights, Broadway Limited Imports’ Southern Pacific “Kodachrome” scheme SW1500 makes a splash. Even in one of the 11 more sedate schemes offered, this highly detailed, sound-equipped model will attract a lot of attention. The model features BLI’s Paragon2 dual-mode sound decoder, which operates on direct current (DC) and Digital Command Control (DCC).

The prototype. When General Motors’ Electro-Motive Division introduced the 1,500-horsepower SW1500 in 1966, it added to its catalog a switcher as powerful as its road locomotives of the 1950s. The SW1500 and SW1000 were the first switchers equipped with the 645 series diesel engines. Production ended in 1974 with the introduction of the MP15DC.

The biggest difference between the SW1500 and EMD’s earlier SW models is the cab. The roof has a flatter arch, creating more headroom, which allowed EMD to raise the floor of the cab and provide better visibility. The cab also features four windows on its sides instead of the two sliding windows on older SW models.

A 600-gallon fuel tank and Association of American Railroads (AAR) type A switcher trucks were standard equipment for the SW1500. However, 765 of the 808 locomotives produced were fitted with the optional 1,100-gallon fuel tank. Flexicoil trucks appeared on more than
half of the switchers, including the prototype for our review sample.

The model. Our sample was one of two road numbers BLI offers painted in the Southern Pacific Kodachrome scheme. That livery was the result of a proposed, but never completed, merger in the mid-1980s between SP and the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Ry. Southern Pacific had two SW1500s painted for the merger, one with a yellow cab and one with a red
cab. Number 2539 has the yellow cab.

The model has a characteristic SP lighting arrangement, with a twin-sealed-beam Gyralite on the left, a large round red emergency light in the center, and a twin-sealed-beam headlight on the right, which, unprototypically, partially illuminates the emergency light when it’s on.

The model matches all dimensions found in Model Railroader Cyclopedia: Vol. 2, Diesel Locomotives (Kalmbach Publishing, out of print) and Our GM Scrapbook (Kalmbach Publishing, out of print). The detail of the front grill with the visible radiator fan is a stand-out feature. The detailed interior includes a painted engineer figure.

All of the paint is evenly applied, with sharp separations between colors. The lettering is sharp and opaque, with all but the smallest lettering on the EMD builder’s plates legible under magnification. There are some voids in the large SP lettering on the hood.

Under the hood. The model features BLI’s Paragon2 sound decoder, which convincingly reproduces EMD’s 645 series V-12 engine. The model’s skew-wound can motor is equipped with flywheels and is mounted low in a cast-metal frame. All eight wheels are driven and pick up electricity. The metal couplers are screw-mounted in draft gear boxes at the ends of the frame. A speaker is mounted facing down above the rear truck.

DCC performance. The model began moving in speed step 1 at 1.5 scale mph.
It accelerated smoothly through 28 speed steps to reach a top speed of 33 scale
mph at speed step 28. Prototype switchers with Flexicoil trucks like our sample
could operate at speeds up to 70 mph, depending on gear ratio. Switching to
128 speed steps, I had even finer control at low speed, excellent for a switcher.

After changing the model’s long address to 2539 to match the road number,
I took it to Model Railroader’s club layout, the Milwaukee, Racine & Troy. It
had no trouble pushing and pulling rolling stock through any of the no. 6 turnouts
on the layout, and the locomotive’s sound system didn’t skip a beat.

When the locomotive is first put on the track, it powers up with the sound effects off. Diesel engine sounds start when the throttle is increased to speed step 1. The engine rpm automatically increased with speed, unless I controlled this manually with functions F5 and F6 to increase or decrease revs.

Other manually controlled sounds include a coupler sound effect with F3 that simulates two cars coupling when the locomotive is in motion, or a slack effect that is armed when the locomotive is stopped. The sound effect then will play when the locomotive starts moving.

Users have the option of three horn sounds. Holding function button 2 for a long horn blast, quickly releasing it, then pressing and releasing again plays an alternate horn ending.

DC performance. The sound of the engine starting was heard at 6V, and at 7V, the locomotive began to move. The lowest speed measured on DC was 3 scale mph, and at 12V, the model reached a top speed of 31 scale mph. On DC, the only sounds available are the diesel engine sounds, which change with locomotive speed; and random sounds like air releases. More sound effects can be triggered on a DC layout using a BLI DC Master Analog Control Module, which is sold separately for $49.99.

A wide variety of paint schemes and high level of detail make BLI’s SW1500 an attractive option for late 20th century layouts.

Price: $249.99

Manufacturer
Broadway Limited Imports LLC
9 East Tower Circle
Ormond Beach, FL 32174
www.broadway-limited.com

Era: 1966 to present

Road names: two road numbers each: Southern Pacific (two schemes), CSX, Louisville &
Nashville, Missouri-Kansas-Texas, Norfolk Southern, Reading, Seaboard Coast Line (L&N reporting marks), St. Louis Southwestern (Cotton Belt), Southern Ry., Union Pacific, Western Pacific. Undec.

Features
40″ blackened metal wheelsets, in gauge

All-wheel drive and electrical pickup

Dual-mode sound decoder

Five-pole, skew-wound motor with flywheels

Metal knuckle couplers mounted at correct height

Weight: 9.6 ounces