The Reading’s 14 rebuilt Baldwin SW1200m’s by EMD were a unique breed of locomotives. But they were not completely unique to the Reading, as various roads had their Baldwin’s rebuilt by EMD also. The Reading’s need for higher horsepower switchers lead to the EMD rebuild program with Baldwin bailing out of the locomotive market and parts business. The rebuild program gave these 14 Baldwin’s a new lease on life. Besides getting the EMD power plant, they were given the ability to MU, a luxury they didn't have as straight Baldwin’s.

With the 1200m’s being such oddities; it makes them ripe for a kit bash. I've been slowly building a pair for a couple years now. I've set this project aside many times, not being satisfied with some of my modeling results. Adding to that, the amount of thought and research needed to duplicate some of the details not available. I could’ve done a simple build and just kit bashed the bodies and called it a day. But, that’s not me. If I’m doing a kit bash, I’m going to take it to the next level! I wanted to improve certain visual details, and gather as much reference material to model these as close to prototypical as possible, without turning them into static displays in a show case. Time and patience awarded me with the results that I was looking for.

Now, you would think that this build should be somewhat cut and dry, it’s not! The Reading had several phases of the VO1000. When looking at prototype pictures, the Reading sent various phases to EMD to rebuild. So therefore, if you’re going to model one of these, make sure you research the 1200m you want to build. Compare the remaining Baldwin short hood section, cab and deck to the different Baldwin phases.

That was a minor error I made while doing the first 1200m. I had the wrong cab and deck with the short hood combination. It wasn't until I started the second 1200m, that I realized my error. The good news was, the second 1200m had the cab I needed for the first build and vice versa. Then I was able to do to make the models correct to the prototype. I made a simple modification to one of the decks to make it correct also. If you don’t have the correct cab combination, you can order what you need from Bowser.

So this build involves two SW1200m’s, with two different Baldwin phases. My projects are at different levels of completion at this time. I had taken pics as I was building these and I’ll be going back through my notes for writing the article.

For the projects, I purchased the Stewart Baldwins with Kato drives and Proto 2000 SW blue box models. I was able to purchase my models cheap through train meets at the time, and I still see these being sold cheap at the meets. I will be adding DCC to these also. I’ll start posting this build in full swing in mid to late May. In the meantime, I’m just going to putt along with the build as I have other projects going on at the same time. So bear with me.

A few years back, Diesel Era magazine had an excellent article on these engines. I'll find the issue number tonight, as back issues may still be available. I started one of these years ago with an Athearn S-12 and modified SW-7, which never got finished. I have the above mentioned models on hand for this project. Now I need time.

Hey Bill, that would be March/April 1996 Vol 7, #2 of Diesel Era.

If anyone has interior shots of these with the modified control stands, please post the pic. Thanks.

Ron, THIS is the article I've been waiting for! The SW1200ms are my favorite Reading loco - don't know why, other than they're unique.

I recently purchased a handful of photos of these units from Bob Gottschall on eBay, and they DO include one interior shot of the control stand. Unfortunately, I'm minutes away from heading out of town for the weekend for my son's graduation from Penn State, so no time to scan. I will be back home on Sunday, so will scan and post what I've got then.

Tom

That will be great! Thanks Tom!

I kitbashed one years ago from an athearn BLW S-12, and an SW-7.
mine is numbered #2706. with round spark arrestors.(unpowered)