Front End Friday

I always liked this paint scheme.  I guess the cream color wasn't very practical.

Larry, of all the photos you post of your incredible roster this Aloha Shake box car? reefer? really piques my interest.

I was surprised you didn't use the hair band fix on the ATSF express car coupler.

@BAR GP7 #63 posted:

Happy FEF. Maine Central GP38.

Looks like more than one lost ticket at your station.  Nice figures all.  Where did you get them?

@CAPPilot, That’s a beautiful Pennsylvania E7 brunswick green (I think that’s the color) diesel and I think Lionel’s pilot looks great. I love your lineup of Pennsy Power, @TrainBub, Wow, beautiful Missouri Pacific diesels, 3rd Rail makes sweet diesels, @Richie C., your pictures of Missouri Pacific diesels is really nice and your layout is cool to, and thank you all for the kind words to my pictures today, the ballast is a mix from scenic express, and is plastic, @Lionelski, thank you for the kind words about my layout, yours is equally awesome, and reflects postwar fun, which is why we love the hobby, Wow, @Bar GP7 63, Johan, Wow, your pictures look so realistic, the lady walking briskly to catch the train, the engineer having casual conversation with a young lady wearing a beautiful yellow dress, @Tom Morris, Wow, those are beautiful Seaboard diesels looking great on your layout, @Walt Rapp, your past layout pictures bring back great memories for you and for us here on the forum, your layout is very interesting, keep the pictures coming, @RixTrack, Wow, beautiful Pennsylvania Steam power headed out for duty, nice pictures, nice layout, nice poster in the background and I see you have smoke fluid ready for those steamers, @Don McErlean, I love those older Lionel steamers with the red stripe, so nice and great runners, Happy Railroading Everyone and have a safe and fun end of September.

HAPPY FRONT  END  FRIDAY  everyone.

Been busy carving Judy's 7 dwarfs.

Finally have time to round up some boys from MTH.

Locomotive fronts .

Even the white Charger.

@trumpettrain posted:

Still enjoying your photos along the rails Patrick.

Really love that sky .

@coach joe posted:

Looks like more than one lost ticket at your station.  Nice figures all.  Where did you get them?

Thanks Joe. The engineer offered the woman a ride and has yet to escort her safely off the train and down the slope. The figures are manufactured by Woodland Scenics.

Johan 🤝

@Dallas Joseph posted:

HAPPY FRONT  END  FRIDAY everyone.

Been busy carving Judy's 7 dwarfs.

Finally have time to round up some boys from MTH.

Locomotive fronts .

Even the white Charger.

Nice looking fleet you have

Hope all had a good Front end, God Speed!

@Sitka posted:

Nice looking fleet you have

Thank you Sitka.

So far I've been fortunate enough to have had some revenue for the purchases.   ........... and an understanding , make that a fun wife , who has enjoyed the hobby as much as  I have.

@coach joe posted:

I always liked this paint scheme.  I guess the cream color wasn't very practical.

Very nice SD70MAC. Is it a Legacy loco? I've never seen this BNSF paint scheme before. In addition to the great colors, it retains the classic Santa Fe "warbonnet" look. Was it ever used in the field? Perhaps early on? So much better than that black, orange and yellow scheme BNSF ended up with...

@Sitka posted:

Nice looking fleet

@Dallas Joseph posted:

HAPPY FRONT  END  FRIDAY everyone.

Been busy carving Judy's 7 dwarfs.

Finally have time to round up some boys from MTH.

Locomotive fronts .

Even the white Charger.

Gotta love that Yuengling rolling stock! Drink up!

@Fatman posted:

FriYAY!

SO all Dressler'd up and no place to go

Konrad Dressler ( Germany ) that is

And for formal occasions .... Black naturally ...

These are really neat! Do you have any video of them in action or is it too risky to run them?

@Bill Swatos  I don't do a lot of videos ( that's on the "To Do " list later down the line as they say) but it is a fairly run of the mill "lightweight/middleweight" toy clockwork mechanism of the period , so it does not give stunning performance or endurance ... they run flat out ( lol ) as they rarely were boxed with more than one or two carriages of very lightweight tin ...

However my good friend Fred has a collection of similar loco's of its ilk ( along with many many more ) so I will pinch one of his excellent videos .. the last one ( and the one in the title frame below) is pretty much a newer 1960's version  of the same loco in happier colours

My earlier one has a bit better mechanism and is heavier so it will run a tad longer , but they get up and boogie !

And yep everything in my collection I will happily run with the exception of very early Lionel clockwork , as they have a fragile whistle drive governor arrangement , so they get limited play time because once that strips it basically permits the engine to run at breakneck suicidal speeds!

But if you are interested in that sort of stuff Fred ( SNCF231e) 's channel is chocka block with goodness

@Fatman - Wow ... Thanks for the video's I don't often see these neat clockwork trains in action...Great video's.

Don

@Fatman

Oh to be young again. My grandfather had one of those wind up runners. My Brothers and I were running postwar and didn't take much interest in it. Don't know what happened to it.

Great video and love the garden tracks. Beautiful setting. Thank you for posting.

@Don McErlean and @Wood  No thanks needed for me .. it's all Fred's marvelous work !

He has an astounding collection and that beautiful outdoor elevated track in his back garden just sets them off

However us Aussie's ( Fred is Dutch btw) are a little less serious with our weekend fun ....

Fred has a great series of e-books ( free) on his website which is well worth a visit too , he is truly a knowledgeable bloke and happily shares that freely , used to be active here but , well that's another story

http://sncf231e.nl/

@Fatman- WOW that is some video, quite a race for sure.  Those little M0 loco's did quite well.  I also visited Fred's website, what a collection!!  Great video books as well. Thanks for sharing that information.

Best wishes ... Oh two comments on the race...1. You do know that the guys on the outside ovals have to travel a lot further than the ones on the inside...right and 2. I really love your sense of fun.  I loved the "race".

Don

@Fatman posted:

@Don McErlean and @Wood  No thanks needed for me .. it's all Fred's marvelous work !

He has an astounding collection and that beautiful outdoor elevated track in his back garden just sets them off

However us Aussie's ( Fred is Dutch btw) are a little less serious with our weekend fun ....

Fred has a great series of e-books ( free) on his website which is well worth a visit too , he is truly a knowledgeable bloke and happily shares that freely , used to be active here but , well that's another story

http://sncf231e.nl/

Totally agree with Don, Fatman. Thanks for sharing that link.  Fred has an incredible amount of outstanding information and literature.  Looking forward to pouring myself an adult beverage after work and slowly perusing his links.  Thanks again!

getting closer to using more recent layout images, but not there yet.  2012 here.  Not much of a front end but of the 97 pictures that I have of that layout, sadly this is the closest I can come.

This was a special engine for sure, made by MTH.  It was sold by the Pittsburgh Brewing company  Only 500 were made.  Only 1 car a year in this matching cream color was sold after that.

- walt

@Walt Rapp, that’s a beautiful switcher Pittsburgh Brewery, and it looks like your layout was a fun to run model railroad, thanks for posting. Pittsburgh is definitely a railroad city. Happy FEF fellows and have a fun weekend. Happy Railroading Everyone

Happy FEF!

@Fatman- thanks for posting that video. Very entertaining to watch. Reminds me of playing with my Aurora HO slot cars and setting several tracks sided by side.

Here's my contribution for this week. Just arrived yesterday.

Bob

Lionel Rock Island FT #99.

Happy FEF !

Today something cheap and cheerful ....

A Brimtoy ( UK) Royal Scot loco ... very cheap lightweight mechanism , but GLORIOUS lithography. I think they subscribed to the " Well we have to make a litho for it , why not make it a good one " field of view ... awfully glad they did ! Its one of a series of 3 similar units with differing liveries and small differences The Royal Scot and Britannia post war and George V pre-war

Edit ( lol ... I forgot I HAD the George as well ... ffs too many trainses! )

Here are my ends of the front kind for this fine Friday!

Shay front end.

Diamond CocaCola truck.

Aaron Judge is driving the train this week!

Patrick, the Shay caught me off guard at first glance I thought it was 1:1 scale.

Portland Terminal Switcher - Happy FEF ......

@Fatman posted:

However us Aussie's ( Fred is Dutch btw) are a little less serious with our weekend fun ....

http://sncf231e.nl/

I can't remember seeing a train video that was this much FUN .          Beautiful Fatman.       Thank you very much for sharing . 

Wow everyone, what a great display of pictures.  @walt rapp- Pitsburgh Brewing Company switcher, rare at 1/500 for sure @leapinlarry - Larry your layout and trains are super, love the pictures and the "Lionel" rock in the mountain side @RSJB18 - Sperry speeder, neat and hope you have great luck running it @Dave Ripp - RI FT is really neat @Fatman- Brimtoy really went all out on the litho, alas I only have the Britannia but I keep looking for the other two.  Patrick - great pictures, the Shay looks very realistic in the setting @Strap Hanger - great NY Yankee subway scene - now its ON TO 63! @Richie C.- neat looking switcher

Well guys, you all are often posting pictures of your beautiful (and large) engines while I seem to be stuck in the little engine line.  So I decided to pull out an engine I got in 1991 when we were living in a house with a huge basement and I was dreaming of a big layout...well you know how that goes,  The Navy decided we really needed to live in Washington D.C. with no basement!

So I have this beautiful Lionel #6-18007 Southern Pacific GS 4 and I have not been able to run it much since.  Its just too big for my current little layout.  This loco was at the front edge of Lionel's quest to add more and more elaborate features to its locomotives, just ahead of things like "Legacy".  It does have "Rail Sounds" activated by a button that connects to the track and steam through the steam chest as well as the stack.  Here are the features listed , too much to type.

Here is the F.E.F. view

The front quarter with the "Daylight" skirts.  I actually have a set of matching "Daylight" passenger cars but attaching them would make a train so long, it would go around my layout without moving.

The full side view, showing the tender where all the electronics are kept.  It attaches to the engine via a wire tether fitted with an RCA plug that plugs into the engine just below the cab.

And yes after 31 years she still does run beautifully, although I have to move "buildings" in order for her to get around my layout's tight clearances.  Some day...maybe larger radii and more room...who knows.

Best wishes everyone.

Don

Another one.

NYC FEF #2344 F3 at the Skyline Middletown Depot.

PW #2018 Making the rounds have a good F.E.F all!

Here's the front end of my 2012 Lionel Legacy GP9, which arrived this week.

Happy FEF.

@Sitka posted:

PW #2018 Making the rounds have a good F.E.F all!

Nice 2018 Adriatic, Mark! Here's my little 2037 waitin' to who's tail she's gonna' chase...

@jay jay posted:

NYC FEF #2344 F3 at the Skyline Middletown Depot.

Nice nostalgic view. Are they haulin' the 20th Century? And big thumbs up for the IRM! I've been there as I'm from the Chicago area.

@Don McErlean posted:

Well guys, you all are often posting pictures of your beautiful (and large) engines while I seem to be stuck in the little engine line.  So I decided to pull out an engine I got in 1991 when we were living in a house with a huge basement and I was dreaming of a big layout...well you know how that goes,  Here is the F.E.F.

And yes after 31 years she still does run beautifully, although I have to move "buildings" in order for her to get around my layout's tight clearances.  Some day...maybe larger radii and more room...who knows.

Best wishes everyone.

Don

Nice Don.

Any chance you could get to a club layout to run your beauty ?

@Strap Hanger posted:

Aaron Judge is driving the train this week!

Very nice! I'd like to see a Cubs 6000 series. If only they would start winning again...