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Life-Like - 887509 - Locomotive, Diesel, EMD SW900 - BC Hydro - 901

One  of these sold for an average price of: 28.0028.00One of these sold for an average price of: 28.00
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N Scale - Life-Like - 887509 - Locomotive, Diesel, EMD SW900 - BC Hydro - 901
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Commissioned ByHobbycraft Canada
Stock Number887509
Tertiary Stock Number887509C
Original Retail Price$90.00
BrandLife-Like
ManufacturerLife-Like
Body StyleLife-Like Diesel Switcher SW8/600/900
Prototype VehicleLocomotive, Diesel, EMD SW900 (Details)
Road or Company NameBC Hydro (Details)
Road or Reporting Number901
Paint Color(s)Yellow/Red
Print Color(s)Red
Coupler TypeRapido Hook
Wheel TypeInjection Molded Plastic
Wheel ProfileSmall Flange (Low Profile)
DCC ReadinessFriendly
Release Date2003-01-01
Item CategoryLocomotives
Model TypeDiesel
Model SubtypeEMD
Model VarietySW8/600/900
Prototype RegionNorth America
Prototype EraNA Era III: Transition (1939 - 1957)
Years Produced1954–1966
Scale1/160



Model Information: Life-Like introduced the SW9/1200 model in 1997. In 2003, they added the SW8/600/900 which is a very similar model which uses the same mechanism. It is fairly high quality and runs well when it can get good pickup. It is prone to stalling, however, whenever it has slightly dirty wheels, encounters slightly dirty track or runs over a turnout. For this reason, they are best run in pairs or at high speeds. That being said, the revised versions run better and the most recent releases that started in 2017 run quite well.

The reason for the stalling is due to the fact that it is simply a small, lightweight engine. Even though the chassis is all-metal and split-frame with a free-floating weight inside the cab, it just doesn't weigh all that much. Without enough heft, it is hard to keep conductivity with the track. The motor is s 5-pole skew-wound job. All eight wheels provide pickup and drive. Directional lighting is provided by an LED-equipped PC board mounted to the front of the chassis. The model uses chemically blackened wheels. Early runs used body-mounted Rapido couplers. Later versions feature Accumate or MTL couplers. The couplers are held in place with a plastic clip to permit easy swapping with the couplers of your choice.

Walthers also supplies the mechanisms for the latest 2017 DCC-Ready version to Micro-Trains which uses its own shell for their switchers.
DCC Information: There is no specific support for DCC on these models, but installing a decoder in the cab is a usual solution.

A wired DCC decoder installation for this model can be found on the following:
- Brad Myers' N-scale DCC decoder installs blog.
- André Kritzinger's Chessie System in N scale website.
Prototype History:
An EMD SW8 is a diesel shunting/switching locomotive manufactured by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and General Motors Diesel between September 1950 and February 1954. Power is supplied by an EMD 567B 8-cylinder engine, for a total of 800 hp (600 kW). It proved to be a very popular light switcher which was used by many roads. A total of 309 of this model were built for United States railroads and 65 for Canadian railroads. Starting in October 1953 a number of SW8s were built with either the 567BC or 567C engine.

The EMD SW600 is a diesel switcher locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between February 1954 and January 1962. Power was provided by an EMD 567C 6-cylinder engine, which generated 600 horsepower (450 kW).

An EMD SW900 is a diesel switcher locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and General Motors Diesel (GMD) between December 1953 and March 1969. Power was provided by an EMD 567C 8-cylinder engine that generated 900 horsepower (670 kW). Built concurrently with SW1200, the eight-cylinder units had a single exhaust stack.

The SW9 is externally the same as an SW1200, and the SW8 is externally the same as an SW900 or an SW600. The only physical differences between the two actual models (SW8 and SW9) are the exhaust stacks (with the SW9 having two and the SW8 having one).

Read more on Wikipedia: SW8, SW600, SW900
Road Name History:
BC Hydro is a Crown corporation, owned by the government and people of British Columbia. It's our job to generate, and to purchase, reliable, affordable electricity for our customers. We operate 31 hydroelectric facilities and two thermal generating plants, with the bulk of our generation coming from dams on the Peace and Columbia river systems. We deliver electricity to customers through a network of over 78,000 kilometres of transmission and distribution lines. As a Provincial Crown corporation, the owner and sole shareholder of BC Hydro is the Province of British Columbia. We report through the Ministry of Energy and Mines.

n 1988, BC Hydro sold the railroad to Itel Rail Group who changed the name to Southern Railway of British Columbia. In 1994, Itel sold it to the Washington Group.
Brand/Importer Information:
Life-Like Products LLC (now Life-Like Toy and Hobby division of Wm. K. Walthers) was a manufacturer of model railroad products and was based in Baltimore, Maryland.

It was founded in the 1950s by a company that pioneered extruded foam ice chests under the Lifoam trademark. Because ice chests are a summer seasonal item, the company needed a way to keep the factory operating year round. As model railroading was becoming popular in the post-war years, they saw this as an opportunity and so manufactured extruded foam tunnels for model trains. Over the years, Life-Like expanded into other scenery items, finally manufacturing rolling stock beginning in the late 1960s. At some point in the early 1970s, Life-Like purchased Varney Inc. and began to produce the former Varney line as its own.

The Canadian distributor for Life-Like products, Canadian Hobbycraft, saw a missing segment in market for Canadian model prototypes, and started producing a few Canadian models that were later, with a few modifications, offered in the US market with US roadnames.

In 2005, the company, now known as Lifoam Industries, LLC, decided to concentrate on their core products of extruded foam and sold their model railroad operations to Wm. K. Walthers.

In June 2018, Atlas and Walthers announced to have reached an agreement under which all Walthers N scale rolling stock tooling, including the former Life-Like tooling, will be purchased by Atlas.

Read more on Wikipedia and The Train Collectors Association.
Item created by: Powderman on 2017-12-31 16:45:13. Last edited by Alain LM on 2020-09-16 08:02:00

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