{"id":4166,"date":"2025-08-14T15:29:51","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T22:29:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/?p=4166"},"modified":"2025-08-15T06:49:49","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T13:49:49","slug":"looking-at-the-super-scale-sw-1-part-i-appel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/?p=4166","title":{"rendered":"Looking at the Super-Scale SW-1, part I: Appel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I’ve looked at the Super-Scale NW-2 a bit in the website, a function of I actually own two of them. For example this great one built by Jimi Trout.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their OO Diesel models were introduced in 1949 in multiple scales. I cover that in the book, and there is more in this article as well. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However I didn’t have one of their SW-1 models until a few weeks ago — sort of. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Story time<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So, I don’t know, 15 plus years ago maybe, I purchased a Super-Scale SW-1 on eBay. I thought it a great find. When it got to me, I was disappointed, as I thought it was actually the S scale version of the model. The original model was also offered in S scale, and the model I purchased seemed very clunky and oversized, and lacked a drive. I sold it as S scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to now, I received another of the models and it’s really interesting. That model I briefly owned had to have actually been the OO version. It is odd, too, as the SW-1 body is not nearly as finely made as the NW-2 body. You would think they would be practically the same? I’ll look at that comparison more in Part II of this article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An SW-1 by Carl Appel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before getting to comparisons, this is what you could do with this model if you were a real craftsman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is of course lettered for the Norfolk & Ohio of Carl Appel <\/a>and was built by him. With a standard model in hand, I can see he really did some work on it. I think the biggest modifications are of the cab, which I believe has new sides. I’m sure he saw some of the details as being clunky and did what he could to improve it. As did, actually Trout on his NW-2 also, I think he replaced the cab sides as well. At the very least they are modified to be better scaled; it’s a very visible detail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Backing up, I have no idea who took these photos or who owns this Appel model now. It is quite a treasure for sure. I found these photos on my computer, someone must have sent them to me years ago. Thank you! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Looking from the front you can see the body is pretty plain. If you click over to the photos of the Jimi Trout NW-2 it is pretty easy to see the change of detail level. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The drive is the same as on my SW-1 and my un-rebuilt NW-2 (I put an Athearn based drive on the Trout engine, it came to me with no drive). This model and my newly acquired SW-1 are both missing a box that hangs below the frame on the firemans side of the engine. I fortunately have an extra original of that part I’ll make use of when I rebuild mine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ll plan to run it as a brand new engine with my pre-war era models, as the prototype was introduced in 1939. I’m likely to start that project pretty soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More on my stock Super-Scale SW-1 and other comparisons when the series returns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue to Part II<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve looked at the Super-Scale NW-2 a bit in the website, a function of I actually own two of them. For example this great one<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-super-scale"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/americanootoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/DieselSW1a.jpg?fit=604%2C341&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4166"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4192,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4166\/revisions\/4192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}