It's SWITCHER SATURDAY!!!! 1/27/24 Edition!

Pennsylvania Railroad B-6sb 0-6-0 steam switcher #7136 is an MTH Railking Imperial model (30-1573-1) with PS3 delivered in 2013 at MSRP $399.95. Railking Imperial steamers have upgraded features not found in the Railking line such as a real coal load, legible builder’s plate, engineer and fireman figures, and tender truck safety chains.

I bought PRR #7136 recently from forum sponsor Trainz. Lately, I’ve had more interest in items on Trainz than in new ones from Lionel and MTH.

The B-6 was the standard PRR 0-6-0 heavy steam switcher with more than 350 built between 1902 and 1913. The MTH model represents a superheated B-6sb, of which 238 were built between 1916 and 1920. The engines weighed 180,300 pounds (not including tender), developed 36,140 pounds tractive effort, and had 56-inch driving wheels.

Photos and videos show #7136 on my 10’-by-5’ layout running at 20 scale miles-per-hour pulling boxcars and Lionel Pennsylvania N5c caboose #6437 – a model from the 1960s.

MELGAR

Good morning fellowv Switcher Saturday lovers.

Not always, but often, the Switcher Saturday lineup is #1 Patrick with his entertaining stories,  wonderful switcher and glorious autumn scenery; #2 Melgar with his historical  perspective, wonderful Switcher and divine perfection layout; and then #3 my Switcher meandering through my down and dirty layout..

Today, my Switcher is an LC+ Delaware & Hudson diesel switcher shown in the short video below:

As most of you know,, LC+ or LC+2.0 is a very good way to get started with command control. There is no wiring that needs to be done, and user friendly operation such that my 6 year old granddaughter could use the LC+ remote like a pro  after I explained it to her, which took about 15 seconds.

Love the look of the D & H livery.

Arnold

Railking

My GM switchers

601, 611, 623, 624, 6250, 8471, 8524

Happy Saturday, everyone!  My switcher today is an ALCO RS-3 by K-Line in the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) "Coast Guard" scheme.

With only a bit of dust and dirt showing on the grilles and vents, this engine is obviously very fresh from the CNJ's Elizabethport, NJ paint shop.  She’s certainly a lot pettier than the well-worn SW1 behind her!

Thanks, Patrick, for starting us out with the WBB GE switcher theme! Here's Tropic-Ana on a WBB 70-tonner delivering the morning's beverages:

And coming back with the evening's selections:

Cheers! And happy SWSAT!

Happy Switcher Saturday!  Its time for track cleaning in the subway with my 44 tonner -

CN 44 ton(WbB) moving a few cars past the Christmas tree farm as the owner clears the recycled trees after the holidays.

Have a train filled SwSat.

Happy Switcher Saturday. I have finally got the potato houses in place and the potato traffic can start. Of course, there is also other traffic. Enjoy.

Happy SwSat, switcher fans!  I’m happy it’s SwSat, but bummed at the same because I can’t make the Big E train show in W Springfield, MA today (sympathy, please).  Have no fear, my friends will look for switchers for me!

Today’s switcher star is my postwar Lionel C&O EMD NW2 no. 624, pulling a string of tankers filled with crude.  I received it as a Christmas gift in 1953 or 1954.  It has been one of my favorites all these years and has run faithfully with one major overhaul.  The caboose is by MTH.

John

Happy SWSat!

Off to another great start today. Thanks for getting things going Patrick.
Mel- you are on a roll. You're starting to look like me showcasing new switchers from Trainz almost every week.
Arnold- I'm with you on the LC+2.0's. Great engines at reasonable prices (by today's standards), and they can be run with the included or universal remote, Lionchief app, or any Legacy equipped remote/ base. Nice choice of livery's too.
Bill- Another winner with WbB's 70 tonners.
Mark- seems like the collection is getting filled out again.
Bob Pennsyfan- One of Lionel's best of all time.
Joe- a few clean engines are ok to have around......

This week I pulled one of my MTH 0-4-0t's off the shelf to give it some runtime. This one is in New York Central livery. I have 2 others, B&O and no name (will be B&O also one day). The "Little Joe" Docksider's were built by Baldwin for the B&O and worked the inner harbors of Baltimore and Philadelphia. Known as C-16's, only 4 were made. Two were given tenders in later years and the saddle tanks were removed.

Anyone who owns one of these (Patrick's #97 comes to mind), knows about the scored drivers that MTH added to these instead of using traction tires. The score marks create a lot of noise, like a coffee grinder going around the layout. A few posts about the issue on the forum a while back discussed grinding the drivers down to remove the marks. When I put mine on the track, I noticed that the connecting drive rod on one side was bent slightly and rubbing on the face of the rear wheel. So since the engine was in the shop, I decided to give a go at grinding down the wheels. Quite easy actually, I placed the engine in my cradle and gave it power. Running the engine at a low speed I just held my Dremel with a fine grinding wheel against each wheel until smooth.
Not to Harmonyard's standards I'm sure..... , but acceptable for me and the engine is a lot quieter now. The motor still makes a bit of noise. I had forgotten that these have fan-driven smoke too which I gave a short test.

So here's NYC # 9998 working the yards around the RSJ&B.

As 9998 heads out to the interchange yard, the crew pauses briefly to chat with 1251's crew who were picking up the ore cars that they just dropped.

More rain here on LI this weekend means more train time too!

Bob

My first brand new engine. The Atlas Chesapeake Ohio Atlas RSD 7\15 hauling some Atlas freight.

Johan, your potato houses look great.  I feel like I’m in Maine when I view your photos!

tnxMarx, I hope the Christmas tree farm owner is taking the trees to a goat farm.  The goats think the trees are a delicacy!

John

@Steam Crazy posted:

Happy SwSat, switcher fans!  I’m happy it’s SwSat, but bummed at the same because I can’t make the Big E train show in W Springfield, MA today (sympathy, please).  Have no fear, my friends will look for switchers for me!

John

@Steam Crazy,

John,

I definitely sympathize with you because I also can't attend and haven't gone there since Covid. I attended between 1998 and 2020 (missed once due to weather) and used to go on both days.

MELGAR

Good morning SWSAT crew!

Penn Central SW8 8623 (Lionel) stops by the tower to let the crew rest for a few moments:

Have a great weekend everyone!

Tom

@Steam Crazy posted:

Johan, your potato houses look great.  I feel like I’m in Maine when I view your photos!

tnxMarx, I hope the Christmas tree farm owner is taking the trees to a goat farm.  The goats think the trees are a delicacy!

John

John,

Thanks and sympathies from here in Finland too. It would be nice to visit that Springfield or similar exhibition sometime.

Johan

Here are two photos from different parts of my layout. The first is my MTH Premier WM 44-ton performing track cleaning. The second is my MTH Railking B & O SW1 moving a 3-dome tanker into position.

Charlie

Borrowing from Andy Silver Lake, "Yeah Switcher Saturday is on!"  Patrick thanks for getting us started.

Mel if memory serves the MTH Rail King Imperial line used older Premier models either after the type was redone with new molds or details or that model was not offered with the latest electronics and features therefore could no longer be considered Premier.  A very big step ahead of regular Rail King.

Strap, I love the ETD on your track cleaning car.  Did you swap both trucks or just the one with the ETD?

Johan, the potato houses look great.  It looks as if the Bradbury Bros. have a monopoly on the potato crop.

Where did you get this passenger car?  I don't recall ever seeing BAR passenger cars offered for sale.

"Two were given tenders", Bob my 9998 is awaiting one such tender.  A donor sits in the fabrication shop as engineering develops the "blueprints".  I don't know if I have the nerve to start grinding on wheels.

@coach joe posted:

Borrowing from Andy Silver Lake, "Yeah Switcher Saturday is on!"  Patrick thanks for getting us started.

Mel if memory serves the MTH Rail King Imperial line used older Premier models either after the type was redone with new molds or details or that model was not offered with the latest electronics and features therefore could no longer be considered Premier.  A very big step ahead of regular Rail King.

@coach joe,

Joe,

That may have been true for some diesels but I don't think it applies to the steamers. The two Railking Imperial B-6sb steamers that I have are Railking models (delivered in 2017 and 2013) upgraded with a few add-on features: engineer and fireman, real coal load, brass builder's plates and tender truck chains. The castings are Railking - not Premier. It seems to me that MTH is going in the direction of mainly producing Railking steamers rather than Premier. Perhaps they think that current pricing favors sales of lower cost Railking steamers. Just conjecture on my part...

MELGAR

LIRR #170

PRR #7136

WOW!!! Once again you all are knocking the ball out of the park!!!  Wonderful content everyone!!!  Please keep posting and let's party on with our switchers!!!  

In a sequal to my original post this morning:  The crew of the 44 tonner carries on with switching assignments.

The crew has been called upon to reposition the big hook.  That's brakeman Jake "the Break" Willis on the locomotives side walkway.

The next assignment is to move this Western Maryland Railway RPO so mail can be transferred to waiting trucks.

With trucks waiting the mail has arrived ... thanks to this 44 tonner.  Remember it's really the switchers that "seal the deal" for the railroad.  

When you think about it, practically every rail journey begins and ends with a switch locomotive.  In freight service, it's the switcher that makes up the train or breaks the train apart.  In passenger service, again it's the switcher that makes up the train before the run, and takes the train to the coach yard once the train has reached it's final destination.  And of course sometimes in both  passenger service and freight it's a dual service road switcher, such as an ALCO RS series, EMD GP series  or an FM Train Master etc. ,  actually providing the power for the run.  

@coach joe posted:

Borrowing from Andy Silver Lake, "Yeah Switcher Saturday is on!"  Patrick thanks for getting us started.

Mel if memory serves the MTH Rail King Imperial line used older Premier models either after the type was redone with new molds or details or that model was not offered with the latest electronics and features therefore could no longer be considered Premier.  A very big step ahead of regular Rail King.

Strap, I love the ETD on your track cleaning car.  Did you swap both trucks or just the one with the ETD?

Johan, the potato houses look great.  It looks as if the Bradbury Bros. have a monopoly on the potato crop.

Where did you get this passenger car?  I don't recall ever seeing BAR passenger cars offered for sale.

"Two were given tenders", Bob my 9998 is awaiting one such tender.  A donor sits in the fabrication shop as engineering develops the "blueprints".  I don't know if I have the nerve to start grinding on wheels.

Joe,

Thank you. Bradley coaches are produced by Atlas and I ordered mine from Public Delivery Track.

Johan

PRR SW9 8524 class ES 12m;  retrieving a string of PRSL from loading dock.

A locomotive designated class ES12m would be a EMD switcher (shifter, if you prefer) with 1200 horsepower, equipped for multiple-unit control. The real class ES12m units were EMD SW-7 units.

The Great Northeastern Railway's (GNR) dockside switcher is assigned to Mt. Carroll Yard this morning to assemble a train of empty coal hoppers to be loaded at the Schmutzig Coal Company's mine and taken to customers throughout the east coast.  The engine and caboose were both expertly weathered by our venerable Switcher Saturday host, Patrick Whitehead (aka trumptrain).

The engine connects, to the caboose, the hopper to be the last car on the train under assembly

The engine moves the first car and caboose out to the out to the work track and will return for more to repeat the process and prepare the train for delivery to its first destination by a mainline freight locomotive. The hopper car is weathered with equal expertise by my son Chris.

A PRR B28 doing what it does best.

Both engine and boxcar are Atlas

@CAPPilot posted:

A PRR B28 doing what it does best.

Both engine and boxcar are Atlas

Ron,

Very interesting gondola load in the background.

@pennsyfan

Do you mean this one?

From my research, the Pennsy used gondolas as the support car for its cranes.  The yellow hooks are hanging off the boom.  At least that is my story.

@CAPPilot posted:

@pennsyfan

Do you mean this one?

From my research, the Pennsy used gondolas as the support car for its crains.  The yellow hooks are hanging off the boom.  At least that is my story.

LOL I thought they were some kind of garden figures.

Just got home from a TCA meet in Parma, Ohio.  Well, while I was there couldn't resist another one of these rmt Beeps in the  Norfolk southern livery. These little guys are addictive.

@coach joe posted:

"Two were given tenders", Bob my 9998 is awaiting one such tender.  A donor sits in the fabrication shop as engineering develops the "blueprints".  I don't know if I have the nerve to start grinding on wheels.

The grinding was very easy to do Joe. As long as the engine is firmly held in place, two hands on the Dremel will do the job.

@BAR GP7 #63- Love the potato warehouses. Long Island was a huge potato producer as well. I need to do some research on local buildings.

@Donnie Kennedy- BEEP......YEEP!

@Randy Harrison- The Docksider looks great.

Another great SWSat!

Wow, Switcher Saturdays come around really fast, it’s such a fun topic and today there’s a lot of beautiful switchers, steam and diesel…. Have a great Weekend..

MOW crew doing some late night inspections.

So here's the tender intended for 9998.  Basically a coal bunker so 9998 is keeping the saddle.  I thought all I had to worry about was deleting the Polar Express but;

Okay so I need to cut down the lobster claw a little.Oops, not the correct gauge.  Close but too narrow.  So now that I need to come up with new running gear I trying to find the best looking truck solution that has a long enough coupler for the train side and a draw bar for the engine side.

Wow!! Such wonderful contributions everyone!!!  Thanks to all who posted and thanks to those who just stopped by to take a gander.   Please keep posting all weekend and into next week.  Let always keep the switcher party going

Coach Joe - I love your PE tender project!  Best of luck with finding running gear.  I'm sure you'll be successful!

Bob ( RSJB 19 ) Your inspection crew ride first class in that cool MOW vehicle.  Nice looking C-16 too!!

Larry - You have a whole lot of switcher action!  

Donnie - Nice NS Beep!  Beeps are somewhat irresistible!

Ron - Your Atlas O Pennsy B6 looks and sounds terrific!! Such wonderful detail on this loco!

Randy - The photos of your Docksider look great!!   I really enjoyed working on your weathering project!  Thanks for the shout out.  

Pennsy Fan -  Very nice SW9!  Also ... WOW!! 7 EMD switchers .. impressive!!

Charlie -  I have a soft spot for B&O SW 1 switchers.  That was the first locomotive in which I received a cab ride ... at age 3.  Your B&O SW 1 and WM 44 tonner look great!!  

Tom Densel - what a fabulous photo!! Wonderful camera angle!  Very realistic!!

Steam Crazy - Your C&O NW2 looks as good as the day you got it!!

Johan - your scenes are amazing!!  Love the Potato Warehouse ( incredible job!! ) and of course the BL2 and 44 tonner!!

tnkMarx-  Nice looking WbB CN 44 tonner!!  

Straphanger - great video of 44 tonner pulling track cleaning car!!

Bill Swatos - Love that 70 tonner by WbB!   Wish they'd do a 70 tonner in Baltimore and Annapolis livery .. I'd buy it in a second!

CNJ#1601 - Gorgeous CNJ RS 3 by K line!!  WOW!!

Mark Spadaro - Nice looking NYC RS3!!

Arnold - Your LC  D&H RS 3 looks terrific!!  Nice video too!!   I love the D&H livery!!

MELGAR - Great photos and videos of your Pennsy B6!!  I love all the background information you provided as well!!  I didn't realize that the MTH Imperial line had all those extra goodies.  

@Coach Joe, Wow, that’s a cool steamer, not sure the couplers will hook up, but when you get this locomotive fixed up, it will be neat.  It’s a Wow. Oh, you recognized my R30 subway train, NYC was way out of its element on another topic. Thanks for the likes…This topic is so much fun to review. Happy Railroading Everyone

Today's posts - and 34 replies so far - are proof that Switcher Saturday is the best discussion on the Forum - in my opinion - of course.

MELGAR

@RSJB18 posted:

MOW crew doing some late night inspections.

Ok, Bob, I'm gettin' a speeder...

@Donnie Kennedy posted:

Just got home from a TCA meet in Parma, Ohio.  Well, while I was there couldn't resist another one of these rmt Beeps in the  Norfolk southern livery. These little guys are addictive.

Yep!

@CAPPilot posted:

A PRR B28 doing what it does best.

Both engine and boxcar are Atlas

Ron,  Where did you find that great Weaver gondola that you are using as a crane tender? I’ve only been able to find the Tuscan red version to use for my tender.

@Bill Swatos posted:

Ok, Bob, I'm gettin' a speeder...

Neat right? This one has TMCC. IIRC Trainz has one in PC livery listed at the moment.....

My father was an electrical engineer for Sperry Gyroscope (Rand) Corp for 45 years. The founder, Elmer Sperry also started Sperry Rail Service in 1929. Long Island was home to several major defense mfr's including Grumman, and Fairchild Republic. Sperry was the lesser known of the other 2 but they developed many of the gyroscope based guidance systems used at the time. Sperry had a lot of Navy contracts including the Trident and Polaris submarines.
It was a no brainer that I had to have some Sperry equipment in my collection.

Bob