Front End Friday

Happy Front End Friday everyone. In observation of this inauspicious date, Friday the 13th, I'm running trains that would have been at home in the dark railroading days of the late 1960s and early 1970s. First of all, my MTH Railking GG1 front-ending a bunch of Amtrak coaches.

Also this Railking Rectifier with a jumble of mixed freight.

Here's my impression of the Northeast Corridor amidst the Amtrak handoff around 1970.

Its Friday!  Here are a few Front Ends.

Happy FEF!

My Front Ends this Friday 9/13/24 are 4 examples of people movers.

First up is a MTH RailKing, O, 30-2158-1, PRR Doodlebug Diesel Engine #4999. Making stops through the rural countryside and terminating at a station of a small city which was also served by through passenger trains.

Next is a

United States Toy Train Company USTTC Trains model of a Washington DC, Metro set. The #500 Metro set was a three car set that featured the #500 powered A car, #501 B coach, and #502 dummy A.

A representative model of the Metro rapid transit trains that ran in Washington DC. Equipped with dual headlights, extruded aluminum anodized car bodies, chrome plated 18 gauge steel floors and vestibules, low center of gravity for high speed operation, illuminated interiors, and jeweled marker lights. Articulated vestibules facilitated operation on 'O-27' track. The Metro Set was powered by the former Marx motors. (The USTTC information was derived from an article by the TCA Western Division)

Next is a

MTH 20-2675-1 BMT Standards 3-Car Subway Set w/Protosound 2.0.

I added the white disc on the front gate. When I rode this train in the early’60s, the white disc indicated that it was the Bankers Special which switched from the BMT To IND tracks outside of Dekalb Av station and ran the Nassau Loop in Manhattan, stopping at Broad St, Nassau St, and Fulton St before returning to Brooklyn.

Last but not least is my FARMINGDALE TRACTION COMPANY Trolley which I relettered from a Lionel Pacific Electric Trolley that is currently offered by METCA.

Photos and video for this front-end Friday show Boston & Albany #53 on my 10’-by-5’ layout – a Lionel model (6-28702) of a USRA 0-8-0 steam switcher with TMCC made in 2006 at MSRP $649.99. Lionel’s excellent model of this engine has a fully round boiler on the underside and a prototypical space between the boiler and the frame.

B&A #53 was a U-3b class switcher built by Lima in April 1921. The engine had 25-by-28 cylinders, 51-inch driving wheels, weighed 219,000 pounds (about 364,000 pounds with loaded tender), and produced 51,040 pounds of tractive effort at 175 pounds-per-square-inch boiler pressure. When the B&A – a New York Central subsidiary – dieselized in 1951, #53 was renumbered to New York Central #7725 and ran on the Harlem Division until retirement in January 1955.

MELGAR

Happy FEF!

B&M SW-1 (MTH)

Bob

Happy FEF!

Gene

Happy FeF!  Here’s a night shot of some front ends at the station -

@pennsyfan  , Love the Traction!

The "Charles Street Yard" early this morning with a PA and F3 getting ready to roll...

Well even though its Friday, its a working day on the Leonardtown and Savannah, after all management needs the money!  So here is a leased UP MP-15 switcher hauling some boxcars off of the wharf area and down to the yard for classification and then routing to their destinations.  (Switcher is Kline and the box cars are Lionel)

Stepping a bit further back on the scene, we see the MP-15 exiting the edge of the industrial area and moving down the "street" tracks that run parallel to the local highway.

Happy Friday everyone, hope your weekend goes well

Don

Happy FEF!

Two Lionel ES44AC from the newest realese. Just received this week.

Great photos everyone! Wish I had something to share today, maybe next Friday! Have a great weekend!

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

Premiere NKP Berkshire hauling a mixed passenger consist through the western NC mountains

K-Line Girls Train.

@Dave Ripp. are there some home made cars in that train?  I don't recall air plane flats.  Didn't K-Line give out MP15s because the steamers weren't ready?  Do you have one?

@coach joe posted:

@Dave Ripp. are there some home-made cars in that train?  I don't recall airplane flats.  Didn't K-Line give out MP15s because the steamers weren't ready?  Do you have one?

Joe, I changed the 2 with autos to hard tops but the airplane cars are stock. Yes, on the MP15 & I do have it. I also have a cheaper less detailed and much lighter pink caboose. The scale caboose that came with the set is quite heavy for the end of the train.

Have a good Front End Friday all!

morning guys!

@Dave Ripp. That is one Hot Pink train! I guess you do what you got to do!

@Sitka Mark those are some nice looking engines! Just a side note note I like your collection in the background on the top shelf!!

@mike g. posted:

morning guys!

@Dave Ripp. That is one Hot Pink train! I guess you do what you got to do!

@Sitka Mark those are some nice looking engines! Just a side note note I like your collection in the background on the top shelf!!

Thanks Mike Gotta have beer and trains or is it trains and beer? God Speed Mike how's that layout coming?

Mark

@Sitka posted:

Thanks Mike Gotta have beer and trains or is it trains and beer? God Speed Mike how's that layout coming?

Mark

Morning Mark, I just posted in what did you do on your layout yesterday. I am still working on the room itself, but it is coming along!

My front-end views for this Friday show Boston & Maine RS-3 #1506, an MTH Railking model (30-21164, $389.95) with PS3 delivered in 2024. It runs very smoothly and the sounds of its 12-cylinder Alco 244 powerplant are as interesting as a steam engine’s.

B&M #1506 was built by Alco at Schenectady in April 1954 and equipped for passenger service. Alco produced 1,416 RS-3s between May 1950 and August 1956. They weighed 247,100 pounds, had 61,775 pounds tractive effort, 1,600 horsepower, and maximum speeds between 65 and 85 mph depending on gearing.

Photos and video show #1506 on my 10’-by-5’ model railroad.

MELGAR

Thanks for starting us off Melgar. I just brought home this Front End yesterday.
A Lionel Legacy A5 Silver Hooves Railway.

A custom run METCA exclusive.

Good morning and happy Front End Friday to all. At the Old Colony Model Railroad Club's fall Train Show last weekend (the traditional start of the season here in southern New England), I saw this very interesting Japanese boxcab running on the N Gauge modular layout. I learned that this type of locomotive entered service during electrification in the 1960s and is still used as a backup locomotive for freight trains.

Here's that N Scale boxcab running on the Old Colony's N Gauge layout.

At that same show, I also picked up two new clockwork front ends for my collection as an impulse buy. I wasn't 100% sure if I had correctly identified these two locomotives, but when I got them home and compared them to another locomotive in my collection, it turns out my instincts were right. These are both Girard "Joy Line" (the predecessors of Marx) from the very early 1930s. I haven't seen a lot of the cast iron Joy Line locomotives around before, so that was a neat find.

I've already got the red boilered locomotive in service on my Marx layout after a thorough cleaning and lube. I'm borrowing cars from my complete-and-restored Joy Line electric set right now. Runs pretty good for 90 years old!

Pennsy

Happy FEF!  A pair of CSX engines by MTH & semi moving about today.

The New York Central 4-6-6-T on a milk/mail/passenger run……

Have a great and safe days, everyone!

Peter

Today’s entry are my two G Scale electric locomotives, Siemens ES 64 U Flixtrain by PIKO and the SLM Ge 4/4 II Rhaetian Railway by LGB.

Have a Fantastic Front End Friday!!!

Happy FEF!

NYC RS1 by Atlas w/TMCC

Bob

MTH, Great Northern SW8 Cow & Calf pulling some boxcars.

Well here is a Japanese "Alps" locomotive, not really a track loco its designed to run on a sheet metal platform like layout and perform specific switching tasks automatically.  It has an interesting motion, picking up and leaving a dump car automatically and switching tracks to do so.  Purchased many years ago at a local train show in Pennsylvania when we lived there.  Likely 1950's vintage.  Anyway here is the F.E.F. Alps #723 NYC tank loco.  Note, the loco , is powered by a single size D battery that goes in the boiler via an opening boiler front.

Happy Friday everyone, hope your weekend goes well.

Don

The coal train approaches the South Main Street crossing...

Here's a "twofor" going and coming for this fine Front End Friday!!

An MTH PS3 production

- walt

More Front Ends from South Charleston on my bike ride today.

Lionel K4 post WWII configuration.  Many K4 engines, but not all, started to get the modification in 1946/7.  The headlight was moved up and the generator was moved to the front to allow better access to the generator for maintenance.  A platform was added for the maintainers to stand on.  The solid pilot replaced the slat steel pilot on passenger engines starting as early as 1940.   The Pennsy did the modifications when the engines were shopped, but not all received the modification.  Many still had their pre-war look when they went to the scrap yard in the 50s.

Happy FeF!  Here’s an R40 pulling into one of our under layout subway stations on the F line -

MTH Consolidation #1121 & DMIR acquired C630 #901 from the Union Pacific.  Happy Friday!

Cheers, Dave

Have a good Friday all!

Happy Front End Friday Everyone!!! Here’s an Ives O gauge Motor 3238 and passenger cars.

@WP - Hey I really liked the Ives 3238 , I have so little Ives that it almost does not count, not because I don't like it but because I hardly ever encounter it...I also noticed in your picture that you have more early trains on shelves above and below the one you photographed.  I wonder if I could convince you to post a few photographs of those for us to look at.  Thanks!!

Don