Front End Friday

F-E-F with CGW

Happy F.E.F. a little race to the bridge!

Have a Great Friday!

Happy F.E.F everyone, great pictures all.  TnkMarx as a fellow Marx fan, I have to comment on that 333.  Best engine Marx produced I believe.  LeapinLarry - The patriotic Alco and F-3 are really neat.  The trolley is also unique, have not seen that livery before...couldn't tell...is it a "bump and go"?  Third rail...I agree for sure...that self propelled crane car sure looks like a "front end" to me!! Thanks for posting.

My offering today is an American Flyer type X die cast loco from 1932-33.  She has a ringing bell, manual reverse, brass trim, and a blue/green stripe down the side.  "American Flyer " decal under cab window and "American Flyer Lines" decal in a recessed square area on boiler side front.

Here is the front view, just entering the suburban station platform.

Here she is just leaving the "mountains" on the L&S (my pre-war paper/plaster tunnel represents the mountains on my pike)

Best wishes all...have a great weekend everyone!

Don

Yes I agree with Don there’s a lot of great looking pics this FEF.

Ends of the front kind for this fine Friday!

Somewhere on the LV in Buffalo on a Friday

Two of my new FE’s for this week...

Yes... I couldn’t resist picking up one of these - I think I’m becoming a fan of small steamers

A bit of a different front end... You can’t tell from the photo, but the blades on the front are spinning. I’m ready for next winter!!!

Heading to work on Tri-Rail at Zero Dark Thirty the morning of March 18th.  Actually it was 6:13a but this was before the clocks were changed ahead)

Happy Front End Friday!!!!

@Apples55 posted:

Two of my new FE’s for this week...

Yes... I couldn’t resist picking up one of these - I think I’m becoming a fan of small steamers

A bit of a different front end... You can’t tell from the photo, but the blades on the front are spinning. I’m ready for next winter!!!

Hi Paul, just wondering do you think it would really throw real snow? Iam only asking as maybe this summer or up coming fall I hope to work on my out doors line!

@DETROIT posted:

Somewhere on the LV in Buffalo on a Friday

I wish Atlas O would release them again in Conrail!

Here's a few for next Friday -

Lionel - NYC J1e -1934 - Commodore Vanderbilt

3rd Rail -  NYC K5b -1936 - Mercury

Lionel-Smithsonian - NYC J3a -1938 - 20th Century Limited

3rd Rail - NYC J3a 1941 - Empire State Express

3rd Rail - NYC S1b 1946

See the Tail Ends here.

Cheers,

           - Mike

@Mike Casatelli posted:

Here's a few for next Friday -

Lionel - NYC J1e -1934 - Commodore Vanderbilt

3rd Rail -  NYC K5b -1936 - Mercury

Lionel-Smithsonian - NYC J3a -1938 - 20th Century Limited

3rd Rail - NYC J3a 1941 - Empire State Express

3rd Rail - NYC S1b 1946

See the Tail Ends here.

Cheers,

           - Mike

Great lineup Mike.  Your shelving system is pretty neat also.  Nice sweeping curve.  Glass or plexi?

Thanks for your kind comments, coach joe. To answer your question, the shelves are glass, and the curves in the corner are 099. Here are a couple of better (for me) pix -

All for of the room's walls display New York Central equipment. A couple of the subs and the New Haven are also represented. If you're interested, you can find more pix and info starting on page 48 here.

Cheers,

          - Mike

@mike g. posted:

Hi Paul, just wondering do you think it would really throw real snow? Iam only asking as maybe this summer or up coming fall I hope to work on my out doors line!

Mike;

Sorry for the delay in replying... got caught up in a couple of other projects and just got back down to the trains this afternoon. In looking at the car, I really doubt if the snow thrower car would work for actual snow. First, the blades have very little angle on them, so I doubt if they would be able to grasp any snow. Second, the blades are controlled by an on/off switch and there is no speed adjustment, and the speed, while an interesting feature, is kind of anemic. While there is an adjustable exit chute, there is nothing inside the fan mechanism to direct/force the snow to the chute. Finally, as you can see in the picture of the car, there is a working headlight on the car, just above the blades. The wires powering the light pass directly through the area behind the blades which might result in a short if snow/water were to hit the connection (the blades are driven by a small motor inside the car with a shaft going to the fans).

If you really want to plow snow on your layout, I think one of those angled plows might be a better solution.

Happy Friday everyone. Enjoy your weekend.

PRR Steam Turbine.

Rusty

Some great photos posted here today guys...

It's FEF time again! YAY!

@RSJB18 posted:

It's FEF time again! YAY!

Very Nice!

Front ends for this fine Friday!

Happy Front End Friday

My humble FEF offering - Somewhere near Milwaukee Jct. on a Friday

Well here it is, F.E.F.   Today I can come to this posting from a new location.  We have temporarily moved to the east coast to be with my wife's family, so we are in Tybee Island, Ga instead of Waco, Texas.  At least the weather is better here.

So here is my "front end" for today.

Its 1930 and this is an American Flyer "Champion" locomotive.  This was the low end of the American Flyer line as the US moved into the Great Depression.  A lower price set for tough times.  However, this little guy runs like a Champion, has no trouble with his passenger consist.  I must say that I continue to be impressed with the quality of the toys that AF, Lionel, and Marx put out in these early days.  This guy, at 92 years old, arrived at the L&S and with a little lubrication on the gear train, took off with no hesitation and ran perfectly, even the light still works.  You gotta give these manufacturers credit for doing a good job.

Here he is on the Leonardtown and Savannah pulling his short passenger consist away from the depot.

Here he is showing off his "Champion" tender.

Well Happy F.E.F everyone...best wishes for a great weekend.

Don

Wow, Don McErlean, I like that 92 year old steamer and the beautiful passenger coaches, a tinplate Champion and very colorful passenger cars, the depression was a bad experience as my dad and mother grew up during those days, they were able to survive. As always, I love your history lesson, and I love Tybee island, a cool place. Trumptrain, I love your GG1 Pennsylvania Electric coming into the station, possibly Patsburg, the man directing traffic and the cool docksider locomotive coming onto the bridge, it’s really a neat group of pictures, Detroit, that’s a nice GT swircher, beautiful colors, NYC Fan, those are beautiful steamers in a really neat turntable type scene, and today, here’s my offering... Happy Railroading Everyone

Leapinlarry - thank you for the comment on my AF "Champion" loco and set...but that CSX "First Responder" locomotive is really neat and what a great tribute to the people who directly faced the tragedy of 9/11.  Thanks again

Don

Here are some front ends from today in Ely,NV

Here's some classic front ends to conclude the week - from left to right a Neil Young Edition PRR F3, post war RDC's, and an MPC era PRR F3, all great runners!

Don Winslow, wow, beautiful scene, I love the F units, Pennsy made some gorgeous diesels, and then the Budd car in the middle, awesome scenery. Mickey, wow, beautiful pictures of the real locomotives, fantastic pictures. Everyone, great pictures and Happy Railroading.

Happy FEF everyone!

@trumpettrain posted:

Front ends for this fine Friday!

Patrick, the last photo showing the locomotive coming through the bridge is stunning, and the autumn scenery in it looks very realistic, which is not easy to do, IMO..

Your Autumn scenery work is masterful.

When I first built my layout, I was going to have scenery with Fall colors, but found it too be much more difficult to make it look realistic than various shades of green for Spring and Summer scenery.

Ideally, if I had a much larger layout, I would have vignettes showing scenery for all 4 seasons. Arnold

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Patrick, the last photo showing the locomotive coming through the bridge is stunning, and the autumn scenery in it looks very realistic, which is not easy to do, IMO..

Your Autumn scenery work is masterful.

When I first built my layout, I was going to have scenery with Fall colors, but found it too be much more difficult to make it look realistic than various shades of green for Spring and Summer scenery.

Ideally, if I had a much larger layout, I would have vignettes showing scenery for all 4 seasons. Arnold

Arnold - thank you so very much!  I appreciate you kind words.  It's very satisfying when our layout work is recognized and enjoyed by our forum colleagues.  I certainly admire your layout and the depth of fun you have with it as well!

Even when I was a kid I did my best to model fall scenery.  As you know I'm color blind so I don't experience seeing the world as folks who are not color blind.  I do see variation of colors but probably not the way you see them.  

I agree with you in regard to what you said if your layout were bigger you'd like to model all 4 seasons.  ....  IF  my layout were large enough I would love to model all four seasons too ... in succession.   Start with spring at one end with a city named something like Springdale or Springfalls ....  then summer with a town called Summerville , the next section would center around the town of Autumdale..... finally we arrive at Winterburgh or Snow Valley.    I figure a 60 - 80 foot length ought to do it with the entire layout shaped with four peninsulas all connected with a spine which would carry the trains from one season to the next.  The layout would look like the letter E with an extra peninsula for the 4th season. ( The letter E without the extra peninsula would work too .. in this scenario a section of the spine could be one season )  There would be dividers ( walls ) between seasons.  These dividers plus the back wall of each section would have backdrops specific to that section's season.   Tunnels would run through the dividers.    This layout I have imagined vividly for decades ... even before re-entering the hobby 18 years ago.  Over the years I have refined it in my minds eye.  Doing so is part of the fun of this hobby. I mean as kids we all used to imagine our perfect huge layout ... right?

With my current layout, I did give serious thought to modeling my mountain area in a winter scheme.  ( The mountain area base sits about 12 inches above the rest of the layout ... and the mountain rises to just inches from my ceiling.)   Doing  so would be a wonderful setting for my  MTH rotary snow plow and Jordan spreader.   I  still have these thoughts, however, with only 100 square feet I can't seem to get a workable visual in my mind.  I have to first clearly visualize a project in my mind before embarking on the first phase.  A winter scene certainly would not be a problem for my color blindness.  I do see white snow ... lol!  I do think it would be a fun project.  

+1 on the incredible fall colors of your layout Patrick...and with color blind peepers, WOW!              I’m in the process of rejuvenating my layout to a late summer/early fall look, and have taken many screenshots from your posts in hopes of emulating your results.

Tom

Well here we are at F.E.F already.  Good news is that the country appears to be getting back to "normal" whatever that might be and we are rapidly approaching Summer as June is just around the corner.   So here is my contribution for today.

Here is a "Made in US Zone" Germany, locomotive by Konrad Dressler from the 1950's.  Officially "US Zone" ended in 1952 and Allied occupation officially ended in 1955.  Loco is clockwork powered and fully constructed of sheet metal or castings.

Here he is ready to pull his short consist of coaches, also from "US zone, Germany" made by Heinrich Wimmer (trade mark HWN for Heinrich Wimmer, Nurnberg) also from the 1950's.

To show this fellow is also no stranger to a freight job, here he is with a short consist of freight wagons from Mettoty of the UK...same era.  (Collector in me constrained to point out that the car on the flat wagon is a personal add, it did not come from Mettoy all else is original).

Happy F.E.F everyone...happy Memorial Day as well.  Let us all remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice while in the service of our Country.

Don

Time for a photo prior to pulling some passengers.   UP & Milw RD from Muffins special runs.

Happy FEF!

I'm seeing double this week!

I posted two of my three pics today on the Model Train Station thread. However, this third one is a nice front end shot of a subway train rounding the bend and coming into the elevated station circa mid-1970s-

Marx 999’s & a 333.

Great "front ends" everyone...RSJB18 are the Docksider's Lionel. AF, MTH??? never have found one for my layout but keep looking.   Straphanger, great elevated station, you must have built that yourself, great job.  tnkMarx...looks like you have a 999 with an "open" pilot, LUCKY DUCK!

Best wishes everyone

Don