My Southern SW1 survivors guide

Kentucky & Indiana Terminal RR · October 10, 2010, 02:38:30 PM

anyone that knows me knows that southern sw1's are my favorite of all time diesel. From what I've read over the years they had 15 of these jewels in total, and a little research has yielded at least seven survivors and possible an eigth although it may only be in parts. any holes in my research or information not seen here that you may have would be of great interest and appreciated highly.

1000- unknown fate, last picture found from Hawkesville Ga circa 1973

1001-unknown fate

1002-former chattanooga traction company #4, retired from ns in 2000's to corman then to G&O on the KXHR line and immaculately restored to CTC colors.

1003-unknown fate

1004-sold to Louisville and Wadley rr in Wadley GA, stored in one leg of wye there for decades, rumored to be active on occasion to shuffle cars on this mostly dormant line. Still in Sou. colors, but rough looking.

1005-sold to Port of Ponce railway in Puerto Rico- still in Sou. colors although Sou. name is removed. used daily.

1006-listed as BLDX 1006 in Waycross GA, last few shots show it being cannibalized, possibly scrapped but no confirmation.

1007-Also on the G&O KXHR line, immaculately restored to Southern 1007 scheme and sublettered accordingly. also used on a near daily basis.

1008-09-10-11 all four units I have found nothing on in recent years. 1011 was shown retired and traded to emd in Dec. 1972 no further info

1012- I believe it to be on the G&O KXHR line, assigned to a steel plant if my research is correct, only sw1 in G&O colors. used daily.

1013-sold to Mid American Locomotive and Car repair from cadillac and lake city rr who got it from the wabash valley rr. Now wears the rd # 82 which was given to it when sold to the cadillac and lake city rr. used daily

1014- Owned by Trinity railcar in Georgia, used to switch brand new railcars at their assembly plant. used daily

So thats what I've come up with so far, and I have to say thats not too bad a survival rate on engines that old. Feel free to correct, or add info, to most people these arent their "go to" favorite engines, but theyve always been mine.

etalcos · December 23, 2011, 11:24:51 PM

Adam,

Here are a few updates on your list. I'll make the notes in RED:

Quote from: adam w. on October 10, 2010, 02:38:30 PM
anyone that knows me knows that southern sw1's are my favorite of all time diesel. From what I've read over the years they had 15 of these jewels in total, and a little research has yielded at least seven survivors and possible an eighth although it may only be in parts. any holes in my research or information not seen here that you may have would be of great interest and appreciated highly.

1000- unknown fate, last picture found from Hawkesville Ga circa 1973 to EMD 1977 presumed scrapped

1001-unknown fate to EMD 1977 presumed scrapped

1002-former Chattanooga traction company #4, retired from NS in 2000's to corman then to G&O on the KXHR line and immaculately restored to CTC colors.

1003-unknown fate to EMD 1977 presumed scrapped

1004-sold to Louisville and Wadley RR in Wadley GA, stored in one leg of wye there for decades, rumored to be active on occasion to shuffle cars on this mostly dormant line. Still in Sou. colors, but rough looking. well, not exactly, lets try leased from NS, believe it or not

1005-sold to Port of Ponce railway in Puerto Rico- still in Sou. colors although Sou. name is removed. used daily.

1006-listed as BLDX 1006 in Waycross GA, last few shots show it being cannibalized, possibly scrapped but no confirmation.

1007-Also on the G&O KXHR line, immaculately restored to Southern 1007 scheme and sublettered accordingly. also used on a near daily basis.

1008-09-10-11 all four units I have found nothing on in recent years. 1011 was shown retired and traded to emd in Dec. 1972 no further info 1008, 1009, and 1010 were all retired in 1977 and traded to EMD, presumed scrapped. 1011 shows to be at a grain elevator in Nebraska since 1979

1012- I believe it to be on the G&O KXHR line, assigned to a steel plant if my research is correct, only sw1 in G&O colors. used daily.

1013-sold to Mid American Locomotive and Car repair from Cadillac and lake city RR who got it from the Wabash valley RR. Now wears the rd # 82 which was given to it when sold to the cadillac and lake city rr. used daily

1014- Owned by Trinity railcar in Georgia, used to switch brand new railcars at their assembly plant. used daily

So thats what I've come up with so far, and I have to say that's not too bad a survival rate on engines that old. Feel free to correct, or add info, to most people these aren't their "go to" favorite engines, but they've always been mine.

If you want a real challenge you could tackle the CofGa SW-1 dispositions ;D

Charlie

Batman · December 28, 2011, 02:09:32 PM

i liked em too.

Kentucky & Indiana Terminal RR · December 28, 2011, 06:10:52 PM

Thanks for the updates!! They were and are the gold standard of emd switchers I think, especially in the looks department. Made a many a trip with papaw, walking downtown to see the ten o two and ten o seven (when the o two was gone ) makes me wish now I had a camera as a child. I'll never forget when the ten o two went to be repainted after the merger, I thought the world had all but ended for a few weeks. Nice shots Batman, that's some classic power you caught there, you seem to have an uncanny knack for that

Kentucky & Indiana Terminal RR · December 28, 2011, 06:18:20 PM

Thinking back as far as I'm able, I can remember an old southern boxcar that stayed in one of the house tracks in lawrenceburg as a super young kid. I don't know if anyone on here but Emmett would remember that, but I always wondered as I got older if that was the spacer car used to tiptoe over young's high bridge? Another classic southern Sw1 sight I never caught on camera.

Batman · December 28, 2011, 06:42:35 PM

At Atlanta, ga in 1990.

Matt L · December 28, 2011, 08:25:37 PM

Since we're on the subject of SW1 survivors, I'll share some guides to surviving SW1s from Conrail predecessors.

DL&W (via EL): http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/Scottychaos/Erie-Lackawanna-Survivors/

Lehigh Valley RR: http://www.frontiernet.net/~scottychaos/LVRR_locomotives.html

New York Central and Pennsy: http://gold.mylargescale.com/scottychaos/newyorkcentral/

A few of the surviving SW1s, like LV #112, have been restored to historically accurate paint schemes.

P.S. Special thanks to Scot Lawrence for compiling the survivor guides.

GP30Rider · December 30, 2011, 09:27:55 AM

Here's a change in the list.........1012 is now owned by members of the Southern Appalachia Railway Museum at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. This engine was assigned to Bulls Gap, Tennessee throughout my childhood and was "loved and cared for" by members of my family that worked for Southern Railway in Bulls Gap at the time. Kinda neat to have it back in the family.

Kentucky & Indiana Terminal RR · December 30, 2011, 10:23:56 AM

How awesome is that, I doubt you'll ever hear people talk with such compassion about dash nine's and gevo's the way we do our sw1's and the occasional geep. Glad to see another one saved, I've seen tons of shots of that particular unit, she was either a rounder or had quite a group of fans with cameras, much like my ten o two and ten o seven.

Matt L · December 30, 2011, 02:04:56 PM

Quote from: adam w. on December 30, 2011, 10:23:56 AM
How awesome is that, I doubt you'll ever hear people talk with such compassion about dash nine's and gevo's the way we do our sw1's and the occasional geep. Glad to see another one saved, I've seen tons of shots of that particular unit, she was either a rounder or had quite a group of fans with cameras, much like my ten o two and ten o seven.

I think you're right... but don't forget us Alco fans.

Kentucky & Indiana Terminal RR · December 30, 2011, 03:09:57 PM

That's true ;D I love me some Baldwin built muscle myself, alco isn't bad either. Both are getting rare.

E.M. Bell · December 30, 2011, 08:51:08 PM

1012 in the hands of SARM..thats awesome news! I am glad to know it will be somewhere where it will be taken care of.

What condition is it in currently?

Matt L · January 01, 2012, 09:42:20 PM

Quote from: adam w. on December 30, 2011, 03:09:57 PM
That's true ;D I love me some Baldwin built muscle myself, alco isn't bad either. Both are getting rare.

I'd love to see a Baldwin operate- I haven't seen one yet.

etalcos · January 01, 2012, 09:58:02 PM

Hmmmm..... Yeah, about its condition.... Well, its seen better days, but certainly not terminal. Here's what we know:

In spite of Gerdau-Ameristeel's best efforts, they couldn't kill it, but they did give it their best shot. We'll have some pilot (1 3/8" thick steel plate) repairs, along with some step treads and other safety appliance work to do before it moves. It'll get an air test, handbrake inspection, and coupler modification as well. We'll find an appropriate dumpster to drop the remote control equipment into.

The two serious gremlins are trucks and prime mover: the unit is currently on a pair of Alco Blunt trucks (good for S-1s and S-2s, but not so much for an SW-1) and was supposedly parked with "gear train noise" on the rear end. While the Alco trucks are roller bearing and could be made serviceable under the unit, we have our eye on a set of AAR A trucks to go under it for service in Oak Ridge. We also have use of a set of "dummy" AAR trucks to move it to Oak Ridge on. The engine noise could be a lot of things, from very minor to very complicated, and we'll just have to get it started and see. We think we have a 6-567AC available to go in it if it's original 6-567A proves too far gone.

The good news is it has a rebuilt main gen, aux. gen, water cooled air compressor, and oil cooler, 6 rebuilt power assemblies, FRA glass, and the air has been upgraded to 6BL from 14EL.

E.M. Bell · January 02, 2012, 06:38:05 PM

Glad to hear you are optimistic about being able to get her running again. I wonder if the blunt trucks came from the S2 switcher they had at the plant when I was working down there. It was a sorry, ragged out thing that didn't seem to get much TLC. I got borrowed out a few times to run it for them when the regular Ameristeel employee was not around...not really that fun of a job!

butch · January 03, 2012, 11:34:45 AM

This is the cover of one of the Ties issues I just added to my collection and I thought the cover might fit this discussion. Caption says the picture was taken at Danville...VA

Ptrainman · January 03, 2012, 01:01:02 PM

Looks like from the track layout and the bridge in the background it might have be taken a Dundee yard in Danville. Its the only place around Danville that looks anything like this. Only thing that does not look right is there should be a parking lot and tower to the left of the train. May not have been built then though.There are no signals here today though. There is a signal about a mile behind the train from where this pic was taken, called Sandhouse.

Paul

srman · January 28, 2012, 09:50:41 PM

Here's and almost 17 year old shot of the 1014 at Thrall Car in Cartersville Ga. taken 7/20/95. Things I'm sure are different now. I just walked into the plant and asked if I could take a picture or two. They gave me a tour.

lwjabo · January 29, 2012, 02:11:09 AM

My guess the Alco trucks were added for speed for some reason. The SW1 limits were 25 and with the Alco they could do 50. Them engines had to go to the shop and believe me no one wants to be limited to 25 when they had a big train. They often hauled them between Atlanta and the shop at DeButts. Think the one out of Columbus went to Griffin them on to Atlanta then to DeButts when it could got the Central from Griffin to Cedartown to DeButts.