Front End Friday

Happy FEF

PRR E8s

Central Railroad of New Jersey #107 is a model of a USRA 0-6-0 engine by Atlas O.

MELGAR

Happy FEF all!

Been super busy so haven’t been able to check in much of late. I don’t have a pretty picture this week but I’ve just about wrapped up upgrading my Overland SF30C. I converted it to Proto48, lowered the headlights to the nose and installed LED lighting. I installed DCC/sound too but ended up getting a defective DCC decoder so waiting for its replacement. I’m going to attempt to laser cut/etch the number boards today as well but if I can’t get that figured out I’ll make them the old school way. Hopefully I’ll have the loco in service by next Friday.

Have a great weekend!

John

Nice pics, everyone. Here is the front end of an R40 coming into the Wall St. station -

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

Well F.E.F. fans, here is another "elder member" of the train hobby.  Dating from just about the very end of Chicago Flyer, the "401" sheet metal engine dates from about 1938.  These engines were a work horse for Flyer and the ease with which various trim parts could be added or eliminated makes exact dating difficult.  In fact this type engine was first offered in 1934 so this one might be even earlier but the "403" rubber stamped under the cab window tends to date it more like 1938-39.

Here is a better look at her side showing her tender (Type IV) 1930-1940

Here is the train set that she came with when I acquired her. These date to 1939 given further credence to the loco dating above.

Well here in central Texas its "Spring" meaning 70-80 deg during the day and 40-45 deg during the coldest parts of the night (normally around 3 am).  It is finally sunny after about a week of clouds and thunderstorms.  So I may just have to do some outside work today and stop messing around with trains (Alas!)

Best wishes for your weekend

Don

First run of Golden Gate RDCs pose for Front End Friday.

Love the NEW HAVEN!

FEF.

This just came in. I was thinking that I should put it on “Buy Anything Cool” ; but since it’s FEF, here it is!

CNJ Plymouth Switcher

Patrick that's a mighty interesting manifest freight behind that Virginian Train Master.

Johan the relief used on the city backdrop makes it so much more realistic.

@coach joe posted:

Patrick that's a mighty interesting manifest freight behind that Virginian Train Master.

Johan the relief used on the city backdrop makes it so much more realistic.

Joe,

It's amazing what Photoshop can do.

Johan

For this "Black" FEF, here's my newly-reworked 1946 671 turbine:

Here she is with her PRR crew helping out B&LE with some empty 70-ton ore cars:

Likely not prototypical, but possible. I electrically "tethered" the tender to the loco so she's pretty much unstoppable by current interruptions as the paper traversal shows.

She's a bit of an "oddball" since she has the spring-loaded horizontal "lever-less" e-unit in the locomotive instead of the tender, but the "Atomic" motor has the receptacles for a tender-mounted horizontal e-unit (which allowed me to make the "tether" mentioned above). My tender has only the mechanical whistle installed and side railings in addition to the deck railings, so I believe it's a 671W from 1947. Since the turbine housings have "electronic control" decals on them, the "671" is stamped in silver on the cab and the boiler front has the red keystone with gold "6200", the shell is almost certainly from a 1946 671r, but that locomotive isn't supposed to have the horizontal e-unit mine has. Supposedly, no 1946 671, 671r or 2020 is supposed to have the e-unit in the locomotive, so I'm really confused. Regardless, she runs great, so I'm happy, too!

@Bill Swatos posted:

For this "Black" FEF, here's my newly-reworked 1946 671 turbine:

Here she is with her PRR crew helping out B&LE with some empty 70-ton ore cars:

Likely not prototypical, but possible. I electrically "tethered" the tender to the loco so she's pretty much unstoppable by current interruptions as the paper traversal shows.

She's a bit of an "oddball" since she has the spring-loaded horizontal "lever-less" e-unit in the locomotive instead of the tender, but the "Atomic" motor has the receptacles for a tender-mounted horizontal e-unit (which allowed me to make the "tether" mentioned above). My tender has only the mechanical whistle installed and side railings in addition to the deck railings, so I believe it's a 671W from 1947. Since the turbine housings have "electronic control" decals on them, the "671" is stamped in silver on the cab and the boiler front has the red keystone with gold "6200", the shell is almost certainly from a 1946 671r, but that locomotive isn't supposed to have the horizontal e-unit mine has. Supposedly, no 1946 671, 671r or 2020 is supposed to have the e-unit in the locomotive, so I'm really confused. Regardless, she runs great, so I'm happy, too!

Bill, take a look at Lionel Train Library on line and go to Turbine, you will find history on that engine and more PW Lionel motive power. Enjoy a nice turkey sandwich while reading about your fine engine. Great job on the tether. Have four of those work horse's great pullers. Mark

Have a good FeF all, hope all enjoyed Thanksgiving!

Happy FEF everyone!

Happy FEF!

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and have recovered from the food comas.

A slightly different front end this week. I got the M-10000 set from a co-worker a few years ago (it was his fathers) so I'm only the second owner. It's a complete set including the track and transformer, that I started restoring but haven't finished. Gotta get back to it one day soon.

Bob

Happy Thanksgiving weekend.  Our club is running trains this weekend at the old RF&P station in Richmond, VA.  So, it’s all about the RF&P this Friday.

Boston & Maine 4-6-0 Ten-Wheeler #2074, a Lionel model, is one of my favorites.

MELGAR

FEF. ATLAS PREMIER MAINE CENTRAL GE-44T.

Here are a couple of switchers for you...on the left is the Lionel # 2295 the older prototype but newer model of an 0-4-0 tank engine, this one for the PRR.  The model is from 2021.  Next on the right is the Lionel PW #1615, from 1955-1957.  Newer prototype but much older model.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday

Best Wishes

Don

A study in contrast.  ATSF Dash 8-40CW purchased new in 1990 at the left while the E1A was purchased new in 1938.  Both served the road well.

Happy Thanksgiving weekend and FeF! I still have a few odd's & end's to finish up but for the most part have SF30C #9543 fully functional. I've been testing and dialing it in a consist with C44-9W #699 today and it's running good.

John

Good afternoon.  Hope you all recovered from the overeating binge yesterday (okay, at least at my house).  I posted some photos of my 3rd Rail L1 on the weekender and realized just how nice it is.  So here are a couple more of the well detailed FE.

And here are a couple photos showing the difference between the K-Line L2 (left) and the 3rd Rail L1.  The K-Line is also a really nice engine.

Here's my front end for this fine Friday!

Lionel Santa Fe GP7

Well, here it is the day after Thanksgiving, we just finished a making another turkey dinner from yesterday's leftovers, and it tasted just as good. So time to relax with the trains for about 20 minutes. For today's FEF, although a bit late for the Midwest and East, (it's only 8:20 here in the mountain west), here's the front end of a Legacy Union Pacific GP9.

@Sitka posted:

Bill, take a look at Lionel Train Library on line and go to Turbine, you will find history on that engine and more PW Lionel motive power. Enjoy a nice turkey sandwich while reading about your fine engine. Great job on the tether. Have four of those work horse's great pullers. Mark

Well, Mark, LTL straightened me out on my 671. It's the 1946 smoke bulb version which is the only version to have the horizontal spring-loaded "lever-less" e-unit in the loco. The space needed for the 1946 dual-worm drive shaft did not allow for vertical e-unit placement. I'm pretty sure Tandem Associates has it wrong about the e-unit being in tenders for any of the 1946 PW turbine locos. The sockets on the "Atomic" motor in my 671 are designed to hold the e-unit control plug. In the left socket, it's active; in the right (or unplugged) the e-unit is disabled. This is the same arrangement found in the 1946 726 Berk. I used the right socket for the connection to the tender collectors. I still think Tandem Associates is right about my shell being from a 671R.

Your turbines look great, BTW. Either they're in new condition or you did nice repaints on them all.

@Bill Swatos posted:

Well, Mark, LTL straightened me out on my 671. It's the 1946 smoke bulb version which is the only version to have the horizontal spring-loaded "lever-less" e-unit in the loco. The space needed for the 1946 dual-worm drive shaft did not allow for vertical e-unit placement. I'm pretty sure Tandem Associates has it wrong about the e-unit being in tenders for any of the 1946 PW turbine locos. The sockets on the "Atomic" motor in my 671 are designed to hold the e-unit control plug. In the left socket, it's active; in the right (or unplugged) the e-unit is disabled. This is the same arrangement found in the 1946 726 Berk. I used the right socket for the connection to the tender collectors. I still think Tandem Associates is right about my shell being from a 671R.

Your turbines look great, BTW. Either they're in new condition or you did nice repaints on them all.

Thanks Bill, 2 Turbines our original paint, the 682 is a repaint along with the Pennsy 6200, they were both bought as junk in a box and gave them another100 yrs of running the rails. HAGD Mark

Happy Front End Friday everyone! To celebrate the Christmas season, I'm running some tinplate on my layout this week. Starting with my biggest, most impressive tinplate front end (that's not a Hudson), my MTH 256E. Command equipped with a great sound system, it runs just as sharp as it looks.

I'm also running one of my smaller modern tinplate locomotives, a MTH 249e in a wonderful CNJ two-tone blue scheme. It's kind of like a little bitty Blue Comet!

Here's the obligatory video of both front ends in action.

Happy FEF!

Bob

Some PW Lionel running the rails on FeF

Happy FeF to all!  Here is the front end of an R12 at the station -

Here's my end of the front kind for this fine Friday!

MTH Premier D&H RS11

My front-end view for this Friday December 1st, 2023 is New Haven 4-6-0 Ten-Wheeler #816 - a Lionel Legacy model (6-82272) listed in the 2014 Volume 2 catalog at MSRP $899.99. The prototype of Lionel’s model is a New York Central class F-2 Ten-Wheeler first built by Alco in 1905.

Photos show it on the back straight of my 10'-by-5' layout. Video shows it running out of the tunnel, through the truss bridge, and towards the viewer on the back straight.

MELGAR

@Mark V. Spadaro posted:

MTH Premier D&H RS11

I'll see your MTH premier and raise you with Lionel Legacy.....

Bob

Good morning FEFers,

I am posting this picture for one reason - to remind me that I need to get rid of that E6 pilot and replace it with a correct E7 pilot.  Will do that next weekend.

Lionel E7

I’m all in!

Happy FEF with front & rear ends!

@CAPPilot posted:

Good morning FEFers,

I am posting this picture for one reason - to remind me that I need to get rid of that E6 pilot and replace it with a correct E7 pilot.  Will do that next weekend.

Lionel E7

Hi Ron, I have the same Lionel "E7's" where did you find the correct pilots?

Ron