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Happy FeF!  Where did the week go?  Here are some front ends of my subway maintenance facility -

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Spent a lot of years riding the 6 train… in college, to 28th Street or 23rd and Park Avenue South (Madison Hardware was at the top of the stairs on the uptown side). When I went to work, for 34 years, my office was between 26th and 28th on Park Avenue South - couldn’t seem to get out of the neighborhood!!!

Well I can hardly believe it, here it is after 10 am in Texas and I am the first to post for F.E.F.  I know others are going to come in so I guess I will just start it all.  This is an American Flyer (Chicago Flyer) # 1211 steeple-cab locomotive. IAW my reference material this engine was uncatalogued and was available in the 1920's (I have no other more exact date).  It came in two variations, one without a headlight and this one with a square, sheet-metal working headlight.  It is said to be most likely the most uncommon steeple-cab electric although I couldn't confirm this beyond reading it in my reference material.

American Flyer 1211 front view illuminated

Here is another view of her at the head of a short, vintage AF passenger train.  She does indeed still work including the headlight but I only rarely run her for fear of burning up some irreplaceable part in the motor.  You can see that her pilot and a few of the forward edges of the cab and lower body show signs of wear, but I just don't like to erase the signs of a well used life, to me it adds to the charm of the item (obviously others have different opinions which is fine).  So at nearly a century old she still looks "good" to me.

American Flyer 1211 front view

Well, I hope your weekend goes well .  Best Wishes

Don

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@Apples55 posted:

Spent a lot of years riding the 6 train… in college, to 28th Street or 23rd and Park Avenue South (Madison Hardware was at the top of the stairs on the uptown side). When I went to work, for 34 years, my office was between 26th and 28th on Park Avenue South - couldn’t seem to get out of the neighborhood!!!


Yep, I remember those rides to Baruch well.  It’s funny how at the time I thought it was pretty grungy but now looking back, it was really quite awesome. The city was our campus.

Here's my MTH "final edition" ALCo "Big Boy." Again, firing her up to keep the PS3 electronics healthy:

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This week, I reworked the articulated engine's suspension system with a stiffer, more stable spring to get more downward force on the articulated engine, thus balancing the load on each gearbox and getting better overall tractive effort. As with my "Veranda," shown last week, I can't run my Big Boy around my oval for lack of 072 curves, but I think she'd (he?) easily pull that string of potato reefers from Pocatello her crew talks about from Sherman Hills to Cheyenne!

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John - have never seen a model with the huge spotlights. Is that a custom add-on, or a production model?

https://ogrforum.com/topic/74354735546552044

Hi, Mark: Those are so-called “ash can” signal lights. They were used like the later Mars lights etc. They resembled ash cans (garbage cans) and thus acquired that nickname. My son added a pair to his GP9, and I added a pair to my SP H12-44. IMG_7630

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Well here is one of my favorites, from the early MPC era at Lionel, 1973-74, the # 8303 Jersey Central "blue" Columbia 2-4-2.  In those days Lionel was trying to re-establish itself in a much smaller market than today and selected the Columbia 2-4-2 , in a sense , to launch its efforts in steam trains again.  It made the Columbia from 1970-1976 in both cataloged and uncatalogued units, in sets, for separate sale, and in quite an array of liveries.   Lionel did use the Columbia in the postwar era as well especially in Scout sets and low end 0-27 sets and there are differences between postwar and MPC Columbia's but they are too detailed to discuss here.  Most of the best features of the postwar engines were continued and new ones were added.  In the case of the #8304 the big new feature is "Electronic Sound of Steam" and this was one of the first engines to have it.

So here is a stalwart, the Columbia 2-4-2 one of many sisters, ready to go to work (MPC wisely replaced the postwar Scout motor with a much more reliable spur gear motor in all these engines).

Lionel 8303 JC blue loco front Lionel 8303 JC blue loco side

Hope your weekend will be great.  Enjoy!

Don

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  • Lionel 8303 JC blue loco front
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I have posted this before, but I am still amazed at how much smaller the correct "scale" MTH A5 is to K-Line's version.  Plus, the MTH's headlight is correct for my era.  I have put a lot on money into upgrading the K-Line so I will keep it for the Christmas layout, and make the MTH my small working shifter on the main layout.

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