EMD SW1200

Technical Specifics

The EMD SW1200 entered production in January 1954, immediately following the conclusion of SW9 production in late 1953, and represented the third generation of 1,200-horsepower switchers produced by General Motors Electro-Motive Division. The model designation itself reflected a broader shift in EMD's naming conventions toward a horsepower-based system, making the locomotive's output immediately apparent from its model number. Over a production run spanning twelve years, EMD and its Canadian affiliate General Motors Diesel collectively built 1,151 examples of the SW1200, making it one of the more numerous switcher types of its era. The SW1200 found customers across North America and beyond. Within the United States, 737 units were delivered to domestic railroads, while Canadian railways acquired 287 examples, many of them through General Motors Diesel's Ontario facility, which built locomotives for the Canadian market between September 1955 and June 1964. Smaller orders went to Brazilian operators, a Chilean industrial concern that took 25 units, and the Panama Canal Railway, which received three locomotives. Major Canadian buyers including Canadian National and Canadian Pacific purchased a substantial portion of their fleets in the road-switcher variant known as the SW1200RS, which was better suited to light road service duties. The SW1200 occupied an important transitional place in the broader EMD switcher lineage, bridging the earlier 567B-powered SW9 and the later switcher designs that would follow. Its long production run and wide customer base demonstrated the continued demand for a reliable, mid-range switching locomotive well into the 1960s. Many examples remained in service for decades after delivery, and a number survived into the hands of short line and regional railroads that prized the type's durability and straightforward maintenance requirements.

Model Train Manufacturers

Brands that produce EMD SW1200 in HO scale

Prototype Reference

Real-world information about this equipment type

Also known as