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The All-Scale News Monthly

— Model Railroad News

— January 2014

Special Interest

16 — Trainfest 2013

28 — Prototype Proﬁ le: Dash 9-44CW
93 — Paciﬁ c Science Center 40th Annual Model Train Show

N-Scale Review

24 — Atlas: ACF 89-foot, 4-inch Flatcar

TT-Scale Review

—

Cover Story

SazModel: SW1200 Diesel Switcher

HO-Scale Reviews

20 — Athearn: Canadian Paciﬁ c ES44AC

32 — Kato: Amtrak Phase IVb Superliners

36 — Bachmann: Porter 0-6-0 Side Tank Locomotive

42 —

Fresh from the Paint Shop

ExactRail: Evans 4780 Covered Hoppers

46 — Piko: DB V200 Diesel Locomotive

56 — Walthers:

Pere Marquette

E7A

62 — Athearn: Burlington Northern GP38–2

80 — Blair Line: Hiway Café kit

Book/DVD Reviews

70 — Indiana University Press:

The Rock Island Line

Book

72 — University Press of Kansas:

Rock Island Requiem: The Collapse of a Mighty Line

Book

74 — Pentrex:

California Western Railroad

DVD

78 — University of Minnesota Press:

Harriman vs. Hill:

Wall Street’s Great

Railroad War

Book

About the Cover:

Dressed in Southern
Pacific’s red and gray,
SazModel introduces

its first North American
prototype ready-to-run
diesel model, a TT-scale

EMD SW1200.

– MRN Staff photo

25274 24091

0 1 >

$5.99 US/

CANADA

Athearn’s Genesis GP7u/GP9u “Topeka C

ab”

Volume 20, Issue 1 • January 2014

Atlas N-scale ACF 89-foot Flat Car

Blair Line’s HiWay Café kit in HO

Two New Rock Island Books

WalthersProto HO Pere Marquette E7

Plus Trainfest 2013 Coverage

TT-SCALE

EMD SW1200

SMALL WONDER

from SazModel

January 2014 — Model Railroad News —

www.ModelRailroadNews.com

Cover Story

Review by Tony Cook

Photos by MRN Staff

SazModel TT-scale
SW1200 Diesel
Southern Pacific #2262
#MTB SW1200 SP #2262

MSRP: $175.00

SazModel

4 Grandora Crescent

St. Albert, Alberta, Canada

T8N 0T9

w w w.sa zmodel.com

How About

Something

Very Different?

TT-scale SW1200 from SazModel

F You Feel

you’ve become com-

placent in your hobby pursuits and

would like to try something new

and different, have I got a model for

you! Now available from SazModel of

Canada is a ready-to-run EMD SW1200

diesel switcher model in TT scale.

Introduced at the end of World War

II, TT scale was the invention of an

American automotive designer named

Hal Joyce. The double-T label is suppos-

edly a reference to Table-Top, which at

1:120th actual size TT scale could be

well suited to serve. Joyce’s company, H.

P. Products released TT-scale locomo-

tives, freight cars, and passenger car

kits beginning in 1946. Names such as

Kemtron, Rokal, and Zeuke also sup-

ported TT scale in its infancy. Though

only a niche

player in model

railroading today

in North America

and most parts

of Europe, the

scale does enjoy a

solid popularity and is the second most

popular model train size in Eastern

Europe and Russia. Today’s TT-scale

market includes Tillig, Piko, and Roco

among others. To my knowledge, the

only fully assembled, ready-to-run TT-

scale North American offerings before

this SW1200 release would be Rokal’s

early 1960s items. Rokal offered an F9A

plus a streamline

coach, dome, and

observation car

in sets lettered

for Santa Fe or

Union Pacific.

The passenger

cars were built to approximately 60-foot

shorty lengths.

SazModel now offers a ready-to-

run TT-scale EMD SW9/1200 diesel

model. Road names presently include

Canadian National, Pennsylvania

Railroad, Soo Line, and Southern

Pacific. Manufactured for SazModel by

MTB located in the Czech Republic,

this new diesel switcher includes a five-

pole motor with flywheel that drives all

four axles. The drive is equipped with

a six-pin plug, allowing for easy conver-

sion to DCC operation. Included in

the parts bag is a single separate drive

axle fitted with traction tires. Similar

to many contemporary steam locomo-

tive release that come with replacement

drivers with traction tires, this model

also allows the operator the option of

adding some extra pulling power if

desired by swapping out a regular axle

with a rubber tire tread pair of wheels.

To access the drive, a tab is found

on the front end of the hood attaching

itself to the frame. A small hobby flat

Here’s what comes with SazModel’s new TT-scale EMD SW1200 switcher model.

Flexible plastic handrails are in one package while the other includes knuckle

couplers and pocket assemblies, plus a replacement drive axle equipped with traction
tires. This model sells for $175 and is offered in four road names plus undecorated.

For its first effort at bringing

a North American prototype

diesel to the TT-scale

market, SazModel’s efforts

are to be congratulated.

The All-Scale News Monthly

— Model Railroad News

— January 2014

head screwdriver will release this tab,

and the upper shell flips up and back-

ward, revealing the drive. The model’s

frame is die-cast metal, which doubtless

helps this model muster some weight.

Fully assembled, SazModel’s SW1200

weighs 4.5 ounces. The model was a

quiet, smooth runner. A loop of Tillig

TT-scale section track was used for

evaluation purposes. Tillig TT-scale

track is available in North America

from Roman & Company (www.roco.

com). From a crawl to a top speed of

70 mph, this SW1200 was a delight to

operate.

Separate flush windows are provided

inside the cab, plus clear plastic lenses

in front and rear headlights. The model

includes reversing soft white LED light-

ing. Three separately applied grab irons

are present at the front end of the hood

on the fireman’s side of the locomotive.

Separate handrails are present on the

rear cab on each side the door, as per

prototype. Flexible gray-colored plastic

handrails are provided with the model.

These parts provide the end pilot rail-

ings, side railings, plus a short handrail

on each side of the cab at the steps. The

handrails were a fairly simple install

with the pre-drilled holes making the

job require only a few minutes.

Plastic knuckle couplers and pocket

assemblies are provided with the model.

The

instruc-

tions state the

model is designed

to accept Kadee No.

714 couplers or Tillig

NEM359 couplers. The two-

piece couplers fit inside a two-piece

shell that is held to the underframe by

a u-shaped plastic bar secured with two

screws.

This is a well-portioned replica of a

popular switcher. EMD built SW1200s

from early 1954 through mid-1966 with

more than 1,000 examples being sold to

railroads big and small across the U.S.

Though small in size, details have not been neglected
for this new SW1200 release. The model is delivered
with grab irons installed on the hood and railings on
the back cab. The hobbyist adds the pilot end and
side handrailings. Note the near flush-mounted
windows, complete with black gasket detailing.

The shell is held in place by a tab inserted into the
model’s die-cast metal underframe. The state-of-
the-art drive is equipped with a 6-pin plug for DCC
conversion, LED lighting, and flywheel-equipped
motor. Thanks to the die-cast frame, this little TT-

scale (1:120th) SW1200 has a nice feel to it.

January 2014 — Model Railroad News —

www.ModelRailroadNews.com

This 12-cylinder 1,200 hp switcher was

From big roads such as Baltimore &

Ohio, Milwaukee Road, and Santa Fe to

small carriers such as Ashley, Drew &

Northern and Minneapolis, Northfield

& Southern, this was a very common

diesel switcher. General Motors Diesel

(GMD) of Canada built similar switch-

ers for Canadian National, Canadian

Pacific, and other Canadian roads with

nearly 300 total units made.

The sample provided to

Model

Railroad News was decorated for

Southern Pacific’s “bloody nose” red

and gray scheme with white lettering.

Southern Pacific bought 27 examples,

plus another 17 were rostered by sub-

sidiary St. Louis Southwestern “Cotton

Belt” and a dozen belonged to Southern

Pacific’s Texas & New Orleans.

For its first effort at bringing a

North American prototype diesel

to the TT-scale market, SazModel’s

efforts are to be congratulated. In ad-

dition to this SW1200 diesel model,

you’ll find a selection of structures

and accessories on SazModel’s web-

site (www.sazmodel.com). Buildings

include Canadian National’s Fort

Langely Station, an apartment build-

ing, and water tower. Two TT-scale

40-foot boxcars from Gold Coast are

shown to be available soon from on

To illustrate TT-scale’s size difference from HO scale, here’s a pair of Southern Pacific
switchers. The “tiger stripe” black and orange model is a recent Walthers SW1 HO-scale

(1:87th) model; while the “bloody nose” SW1200 is SazModel’s TT-scale (1:120th) example.

SazModel’s site. One example is a

single-sheathed wood boxcar; the other

is pretty standard appearing steel box-

car with sliding door. The kits should

sell for less than $50.

If you find yourself intrigued and

wondering what you would do with

a TT-scale SW1200, consider a small

switching layout. Ever thought about

seriously trying some scratchbuilding?

There are some kits offered for freight

cars in TT scale, but this is really an

area for one to flex your creative mus-

cle and see what you might accomplish

in 1:120th scale. Consider buying one

of these SW1200 switchers and some

TT-scale track and creating a small

industrial spur switching layout.

You can learn a great deal and join

in on the discussions about TT scale at

TT-Nut (www.ttnut.com). This online

forum provides a number of categories

for discussion about all things relating

to TT scale.

Before this new SazModel SW1200 release, the most recent ready-to-run TT-scale American prototype was from Rokal. From the early 1960s,
Rokal offered a pair of F9A units with a trio of streamline passenger cars in a train set. In addition to this Santa Fe example, Union Pacific

was also available. The quality of SazModel’s new TT-scale SW1200 demonstrates the advances made in the hobby in the last 50 years.