An EMD SW1200 is a 4 axle diesel
switcher
A switcher, shunter, yard pilot, switch engine, yard goat, or shifter is a small railroad locomotive used for manoeuvring railroad cars inside a rail yard in a process known as ''switching'' (US) or ''shunting'' (UK). Switchers are not inten ...
locomotive
A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...
built by
General Motors Electro-Motive Division
Progress Rail Locomotives, doing business as Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), is an American manufacturer of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. The company is owned by Caterpillar through its su ...
between January 1954 and May 1966.
Power is provided by an
EMD 567C
The EMD 567 is a line of large medium-speed diesel engines built by Electro-Motive Diesel, General Motors' Electro-Motive Division. This engine, which succeeded Winton Motor Carriage Company, Winton's 201A, was used in EMD's locomotives from 193 ...
12-
cylinder
A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base.
A cylinder may also be defined as an infin ...
engine which generates . Additional SW1200 production was completed by General Motors Diesel in Ontario, Canada, between September 1955 and June 1964.
737 examples of this locomotive model were built for U.S. railroads, 287 were built for Canadian railroads,
4 were built for
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
ian railroads, 25 were built for a
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
an industrial firm, and 3 were built for the
Panama Canal Railway
The Panama Canal Railway ( es, Ferrocarril de Panamá) is a railway line linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in Central America. The route stretches across the Isthmus of Panama from Colón (Atlantic) to Balboa (Pacific, near P ...
.
Design and production
The SW1200 was the third model of 1,200 hp SW series switchers built by EMD. It was a successor to the
SW7 and
SW9. Compared to its direct predecessor, the SW9, the SW1200 differed in that it used the improved and more reliable 567C engine, compared to the SW9's 567B engine. Late SW1200s built in 1966 were instead built with the 567E 12-cylinder engine. Most of the locomotive's external features were unchanged from the SW9, making distinguishing between the two models difficult.
SW1200 production began in January 1954, immediately after SW9 production came to an end the previous month. Production continued for 12 years until the last SW1200 left EMD's manufacturing facility in May 1966.
Like many EMD products, customers could customize their SW1200 orders. Several types of trucks were available, including Flexicoil trucks and the standard Blomberg B trucks.
A few units were built with dynamic brakes, featuring a large square box with a fan on top of the hood, right in front of the cab.
Variants
A
cow-calf
In rail transport, a cow-calf (also cow and calf) locomotive is a set of switcher-type diesel locomotives. The set usually is a pair; some 3-unit sets (with two calves, also known as herds) were built, but this was rare. A cow is equipped with a ...
variation, the TR12, was cataloged, but none were built.
An SW1200RS (RS for Road Switcher) is a variation of the standard SW1200 that features large front and rear (on some units) numberboard housings, EMD Flexicoil B-B trucks, and larger fuel tanks for road switcher service. The majority of the
Canadian National
The Canadian National Railway Company (french: Compagnie des chemins de fer nationaux du Canada) is a Canadian Class I railroad, Class I freight railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, which serves Canada and the Midwestern United States, M ...
and
Canadian Pacific
The Canadian Pacific Railway (french: Chemin de fer Canadien Pacifique) , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadi ...
SW1200 fleets were purchased as SW1200RS units. SW1200RS units were produced near the end of SW1200 production in the mid 1960s.
Original buyers
Units built by Electro-Motive Division, USA
Units built by General Motors Diesel, Canada
Surviving and preserved units
Fremont and Elkhorn Valley Railroad
The Fremont and Elkhorn Valley Railroad was a 17-mile (27 km) heritage railroad headquartered in Dodge County, Nebraska and, offered excursion services on the line. Its equipment is now owned by the Nebraska Railroad Museum.
The FEVR lin ...
1219 built in March 1962 for
Chicago & North Western
The Chicago and North Western was a Class I railroad in the Midwestern United States. It was also known as the "North Western". The railroad operated more than of track at the turn of the 20th century, and over of track in seven states befor ...
is utilized for their excursion trains as well as the Fremont Dinner Train
and currently pulls 1920s-era passenger cars for their non-profit excursion operations and the for-profit dinner train cars.
See also
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EMD LWT12
The EMD LWT12 was a diesel–electric power car that was built in 1955 by General Motors Electro-Motive Division (EMD), to pull a lightweight passenger trainset. The General Motors Company developed both components under the project name, ''T ...
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List of GMD Locomotives
The following is a list of locomotives produced by General Motors Diesel (GMD), and its corporate successor Electro-Motive Diesel, Electro-Motive Canada (EMC).
The NF-110 and NF-210 locomotive models were narrow gauge railway, narrow gauge locomot ...
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List of GM-EMD locomotives
The following is a list of locomotives produced by the Electro-Motive Corporation (EMC), and its successors General Motors Electro-Motive Division (GM-EMD) and Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD).
Streamlined power cars and early experimental locomotive ...
References
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{{Diesel_Switchers
SW1200
SW1200
B-B locomotives
Diesel-electric locomotives of the United States
Railway locomotives introduced in 1954
Standard gauge locomotives of the United States
Standard gauge locomotives of Canada
Standard gauge locomotives of Brazil
5 ft gauge locomotives
Metre gauge diesel locomotives
Diesel-electric locomotives of Canada
Diesel-electric locomotives of Brazil
Shunting locomotives