The EMD SW1500 is a diesel-electric switcher locomotive built by

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

Electro-Motive Division Electro-Motive Diesel (abbreviated EMD) is a brand of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. Formerly a division of General Motors, EMD has been owned by Progress Rail since 2010. Electro-Motiv ...

from 1966 to 1974. The SW1500 replaced the SW1200 in the EMD product line. Many railroads regularly used SW1500s for road freight service. It is similar in appearance to the EMD SW1000 model which has a different engine and has one exhaust stack while the SW1500 has two.

Original owners

Preservation

Many SW1500s remain in active service, used mostly by shortlines,

switching and terminal railroads A switching and terminal railroad is a freight railroad company whose primary purpose is to perform local switching services or to own and operate a terminal facility. Switching is a type of operation done within the limits of a yard. It gener ...

, and railroad equipment leasing companies such as GATX. However, several examples of this popular model have been preserved: *

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Railroad classes, Class I freight railroad company operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Operating about 21,000 route miles () of trac ...

#1100 (built 1970 as L&N #5000) is preserved and operational at the Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation in

Irvine, Kentucky Irvine () is a list of Kentucky cities, home rule-class city in Estill County, Kentucky, Estill County, Kentucky, in the United States. It is the county seat, seat of its county. Its population was 2,715 at the time of the 2010 United States Cens ...

. * CSX #1103 (built 1970 as L&N #5003) is preserved and operational at the Kentucky Railway Museum in

New Haven, Kentucky New Haven is a List of cities in Kentucky, home rule-class city in Nelson County, Kentucky, Nelson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 855 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. Geography New Haven is located adjacent to ...

* Western Pacific #1503 (built 1970) is preserved and operational at the Western Pacific Railroad Museum in Portola, California. It was donated to the museum by

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad is a Class I freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pacific is the second largest railroad in the United States after BNSF, ...

in 2011, and restored to its original paint scheme in 2019. * Wisconsin Central #1563 (built 1971) is preserved and operational at the National Railroad Museum in

Green Bay, Wisconsin Green Bay is a city in Brown County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the head of Green Bay (Lake Michigan), Green Bay (known locally as "the bay of Green Bay"), a sub-basin of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the F ...

. It was donated to the museum by Canadian National in 2019.

References

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External links

* {{Diesel_switchers B-B locomotives Diesel–electric locomotives of the United States SW1500 Railway locomotives introduced in 1966 Standard-gauge locomotives of the United States Shunting locomotives Great Northern Railway (United States) locomotives Philadelphia and Reading Railroad locomotives Southern Pacific Railroad locomotives Diesel locomotives of Southern Railway (U.S.) St. Louis–San Francisco Railway locomotives Union Pacific Railroad locomotives Western Pacific Railroad locomotives

Original owners

Preservation

See also

References

External links