Athearn Cow and Calf Locomotives

We visited some more antique stores.
As I said several times before, I don't need another locomotive.
But I thought one more SW calf would be nice.
And with no train show and sales at Waupaca this summer, I thought I would have to wait until
the Marshfield train show in October.

And I found one for $29 at an antique store. Risky, with no way to test run it.
It was an Athearn SW calf and the label said 'runs good'.
I have learned that 2 out of 3 with that label really don't perform when put up to my test,
whick is to run it in both directions and put your finger in front of it and see if it can spin all its wheels
without a cricky gear teeth sound..
This one is good. And it has a perfect speed match with the old Baldwin.

I didn't choose it for it's color scheme, but black is good for this application.
And the Southern name is double printed or blurred on one side.
But it looks good matched this way.

I've had the yellow UP for over 30 years, and they were bought new and at different locations and a year apart.
They are both powered and are the newer outside-bearing axle type.

I put some yellow and black stripes on an address label and pressed it on the new calf
so it matches what I did with the Baldwin.
They show up well in the darker corners of my room.

Which brings up some questions.
Can a Baldwin be M.U. ed with an EMD calf?
And what are the Athearn calves anyway?
i've seen some labeled as SW-7B,
And SW-1500
although I thought it was a SW-1200 ?
I haven't searched it more on the Internet, and I haven't looked for my old paperback book
How to Identify Locomotives from the 1970's.

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This page was wrote in July, 2024.