Front End Friday

@RSJB18 posted:

Happy FEF!

@lee drennen- love that RS-11

Thanks Bob I totally missed you kind comment. That pair of yours looks very nice as well. I also missed giving Lew a “like” as well. I suffer from “Fog Brain” sometimes from post Covid please bare with me

You all have great looking layouts! It makes a guy dream that maybe someday! Thank you all for sharing!

Ends of the front kind for this fine Friday.

I've said it before and I'm sticking to it, "Larry has the best toys".

@coach joe posted:

I've said it before and I'm sticking to it, "Larry has the best toys".

And is a Great person to go with his great layout as well as the rest of you Guys here Thank You for your well wishes they mean a lot to me and is so up lifting. God Bless you all.

@SLQ32 posted:

Ore heading to CSN steel mill Volta Redonda Brazil

WOW, Nice modeling! The grass and tree branches are even moving as the engine goes by.   

@Jayhawk500 posted:

WOW, Nice modeling! The grass and tree branches are even moving as the engine goes by.   

Fans BIG ones

Happy Friday everyone. Hope all had a good week and enjoy your weekend.

Happy FEF!

k-Line & Marx 333 loco’s.

Love the detail on the front end of this LC+ Erie Camelback. Arnold

Rusty

Happy FEF!

Inspired by @CLIFFORD- post from last week. Some more BL-2 love

HI F.E.F fans, here it is another Friday.  It is a dark, cold, and very rainy Friday on the East Coast of Georgia, USA so I am glad to be inside and posting my photo's !! 

I will start off with a Marx steamer, this is the 333, this is the earliest version manufactured between 1949 -1954 although a later version of the casting was offered till 1958. A fully die cast 4-6-2 with valve gear and steam (only after '54) this is perhaps (my opinion) the most powerful and massive steamer Marx produced.  It came with the ONLY die cast tender Marx produced, the 3391, which was offered exclusively with the 333.  Take my word for it this tender is heavy enough to use as a book end, some of the lightweight plastic engines may not have even been able to even move the tender!!  To me the 333 and 3391 represents Marx sort of at their peak for the steam era, after all it was the 1950's and steam was fading fast on the real RR and Marx may have been trying to keep up with the postwar Lionel steamers, some of which were Lionel's best of the postwar era.  Who knows, however after '58 even the 6 driver Marx locos had plastic parts and the 3391 was no more.

Kind of at the opposite end of the scale, here is the French Horby M0 type loco, made in Paris, postwar. The 1959 French Hornby catalog I have an electronic copy of (Thanks Daniel!) shows this set as "Train Express 1" .  This loco pulls a very short 4 wheel passenger consist.  The original set which I have has one passenger car however another larger set called "Train Express 2, came with 2 .  This while O'gauge is quite small, the loco being only perhaps 4" -5" long and this one is clockwork.

Happy F.E.F everyone.  Hope your local weather is better than mine !!

Regards, Don

Happy F.E.F. everyone - have a great weekend!

FEC of FEF!

GE ES44C4's #806 and #807 along with EMD SD40-2 #703 running by last Saturday afternoon along Dixie Highway in Pompano Beach.

@Amfleet25124 posted:

FEC of FEF!

GE ES44C4's #806 and #807 along with EMD SD40-2 #703 running by last Saturday afternoon along Dixie Highway in Pompano Beach.

Is that a gas tank in between the two ES44's?

Ends of the front kind for this fine Friday!

This end was considered the front on the CNJ GP’s...

I’m guessing this end was also the front every once in awhile...

Trumptrain, Patrick,

I like your B&A  engine, is that a custom make ?   Did they run that type of engine and how long was the line in operation ?    The only thing I know about that line is a steam engine went into the Severn River before the bridge keeper could get the bridge closed back in the 1920's.

Where is Patsburg Md.?  I couldn't find it on the map.

Doug

Pair of SD40's heading west on the old Erie line at the Iron Island

Tim

@RSJB18 posted:

Is that a gas tank in between the two ES44's?

Yes it is.  FEC got permits to carry hazardous materials a few years back.  These are LNG tanks that are always transported between the two lead locomotives, rolling through dense urban areas in South Florida on a daily basis.

Happy Front End Friday from the C&DRR

@trumpettrain posted:

Ends of the front kind for this fine Friday!

Love the Baldwin sharks!

@Amfleet25124 posted:

Yes it is.  FEC got permits to carry hazardous materials a few years back.  These are LNG tanks that are always transported between the two lead locomotives, rolling through dense urban areas in South Florida on a daily basis.

I used to live along the LIRR Ronkonkoma Branch. Once a month the RR delivered 3-4 propane tankers to a facility east of me. I used to cringe every time they rolled by.

Happy FEF... My Tanks (you’re welcome )

Must be something special about to happen in this little town.

60+ years and still "growling"...

Carbondale Illinois last weekend.

@boomer0622 posted:

Trumptrain, Patrick,

I like your B&A  engine, is that a custom make ?   Did they run that type of engine and how long was the line in operation ?    The only thing I know about that line is a steam engine went into the Severn River before the bridge keeper could get the bridge closed back in the 1920's.

Where is Patsburg Md.?  I couldn't find it on the map.

Doug

Hi Doug - My Baltimore and Annapolis engine is a MTH SW 9 with loco sounds.  I believe MTH did two different runs of the B&A engine.  I think mine is from the first run.  I bought mine many years ago from Beth Marshal of the Public Delivery Track.  It still runs great!  This locomotive in the B&A road name is very rare.  I've only seen a couple on e bay in the last 10 -15 years... and I search the Bay practically everyday.  I do have a two B&A cabeese as well.  

The B&A stopped passenger operations in Feb of 1950.  They had been primarily an electric interurban up until then.  In 1950 the B&A bought a 70 ton diesel locomotive from GE ( now in the B&O Museum in Baltimore ) which wore the B&A number 50.  That was the only locomotive B&A owned after 1950 at which point the railroad became freight only.  I have seen photos of a Baltimore & Annapolis SW9 number 87 ( like the MTH model I have ) at a museum in South Carolina.  I don't know if the B&A bought that locomotive upon the retirement of the GE 70 tonner.     I suspect they did.  The only time I saw any locomotive on B&A trackage was around the early 1960s and that locomotive was a B&O GP7(  pulling freight cars north toward Baltimore ) through Glen Burnie, Md.  At the time I figured the B&A had leased the GP7 from the B&O.  

The B&A was founded around 1880 using steam locomotion, and quickly converted to electric inter-urbans.   The road  was disbanded sometime in the 1980s.  Trains ran to Annapolis until around 1967 at which time the trestle crossing the Severn River ( the site of the accident you mention ) was deemed unsafe.  It's really too bad that the B&A didn't survive because electric trains between downtown Baltimore and downtown Annapolis would be of great service in this day and age.  I'm a big fan of 'rail to trails' conversions, however, I was not in agreement with termination of the Baltimore Light Rail system at Glen Burnie, Md.  Since the B&A ROW already existed,  I think they should have taken the system all the way to Annapolis ... thus taking a lot of cars off Rt. 2.  As I see it the electric railroad from Baltimore to Annapolis would have made an even greater positive environmental impact.  

If you are interested, there is a great book titled 'Every Hour on the Hour' by John E. Merriken  which is a chronicle of the Washington Baltimore & Annapolis Electric Railroad.  The B&A is the last corporate incarnation of the WB&A which was primarily an inter-urban railroad.  This book is a great read with many photos and diagrams.  

I was hoping that MTH would have made a model of the B&A GE 70 tonner before closing down operations.  If so I certainly would have bought one!  Perhaps Williams by Bachman will produce one in the Baltimore and Annapolis road name.  Time will only tell.  

BTW - Patsburg, Maryland is the only town in the USA that has no zip code and cannot be located on any map or GPS .... LOL!   The reason being  that Patsburg is a creation of my imagination and is the town on my model train layout.  

The photo above is of the B&A station in Linthicum, Maryland.  The trackage is the Baltimore light rail which run along the old B&A ROW as far as Glen Burnie, Md.  From there a nice rails to trails exists to Annapolis.  

Don McErlean, Wow, I like your Marx heavyweight steamer, and your mini history lesson about Marx, die-cast, plastic and of course the years of manufacturing, always fun to read. Don Winslow, that’s a Knock out beautiful NYC F3 diesel, and your layout is really neat, Boomer 0622, Wow, beautiful lineup of a multitude of steam, diesel, and buggy/automobile powered forms of transportation, very nice layout and very humorous, thank you, RSJB18 Bob, Yes, Thank You for mentioning Clifford, he’s a great guy, with a great layout, as are you, it’s a great day in the Neighborhood, Trumptrain, your Ends of the Front kinds are fantastic as is your layout, awesome, Happy Front end Friday, oh yes, Lee Drennen, your layout and steamers and Trucks are great to. (Ok Don, pictured are two steamers here, one Century Club 773, other K-Line J1e Hudson), Happy Railroading Everyone

@Dave Ripp. posted:

Carbondale Illinois last weekend.

Good ole Carbondale Illinois I’ve been through that town so many times hauling  sea cans to Henderson KY. Thanks for posting

Dave Ripp: Nice capure of IC GP11 8701, and Caboose. I used to own a caboose just like the one pictured, IC 199503 years ago. I wish I'd kept it.

One of the first batch of 50 cabooses ordered by the IC RR. Was built by Darby, Kansas City, Mo. Dec. 1969. (Welded steel construction) I was told years ago, those built in Centralia, IL. had riveted steel construction.

Rusty

Williams Bigboy, custom paint & Railking Bigboy custom paint

Hi F.E.F fans...Leapinlarry thank you for the comment and compliment.  Two beautiful J-1e's as well, thanks for the pictures.  Lee, neat pictures and at first I thought we might have a family connection until I noticed you were posting at Carbondale, Ill.  When I was a boy we had relatives in Carbondale, Pa so no connection for sure.  Clifford, neat Big Boy and is that a UP auxiliary water tender I see?  Trumptrain...we lived south of Annapolis at NAS Patuxent River for several years, but I never heard about the B&A until your posts.  Thanks I really enjoy learning about that RR.  Boomer 0622 - action figures are a lot of fun, great scenes.

Happy weekend all

Don

@lee drennen posted:

Happy Friday everyone. Hope all had a good week and enjoy your weekend.

Lee, I seem to remember this Mohawk is a RailKing model that started out in ATSF paint.  Did you repaint the whole thing or just remove the ATSF markings before applying the NYC decals?  I plan on doing the same switch and would love to avoid a whole repaint.

@rjsmithindy posted:

Happy F.E.F. everyone - have a great weekend!

A very underappreciated streamlining effort overshadowed by a more famous sister, The 20th Century Limited.