Top of the morning to all of you fellow switcher lovers!! If you love switch engines you have clicked on the right thread! Switcher Saturday celebrates all things switcher and switcher related. Please post your photos, videos, and information here! We'll love seeing your content!
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I went to the Great Scale Model Train Show in Timonium, Md. last Saturday. It was a great show and extremely well attended! There was a good representation of folks selling O gauge trains as well! AND there were train clubs galore running trains!! Lots of switchers for sale too! ... Good times!!!
At the show, I searched for a new ( to me ) switcher and the only one I could find in a road name in which I model, was this K Line by Lionel B&O boxcab switcher number 195. Of course it does not look anything like the B&O prototype, but it was after all brand new and never run, came in the original box and the price was just a few $$ higher than what it sold for back in 2006 or 07 when it was new on the market. My thinking is that it will make a fun weathering project and serve me well until I find the MTH Premier model that came out a few years ago ... just registered on line for York today too! The hunt is on I have found that weathering can work wonders for toy like trains. I look forward to weathering this little K line by Lionel critter!!
Built by a trio of builders ALCO ( chassis and , General Electric (traction motors and controls) , and Ingersol Rand ( diesel engine ) the real B&O 195 box cab worked its entire life in the B&O's W. 26th Street Yard in Manhattan NYC. When purchased new and beginning service in December 1925, the prototype was originally numbered #1, later change to 195 in 1942, then retired as 8000 in 1959. The prototype weighed 60 tons and had 300 hp.
Well without any further ado .. it's time to notch out the throttle and make this thread go LIVE!!! I'm really looking forward to seeing what you all post because YOU ALL never disappoint!! Thanks so much for posting!! Have a most wonderful weekend everyone!!!
Here she is, having just arrived on the property of The Free State Junction Railway. Engineer Claude Schmuckle stands on the front deck waving his hat at some of the fellers ( out of the frame ) in the yard. O'l Claude is proud as a peacock! Brakeman Jake the Brake Willis is on the rear deck of the locomotive thinking to himself ... "I wonder how long this critter is going to stay gleaming? Hmm I'll give it a week two at the max."
Well look who showed up! If it ain't o'l McCallister Higgins, the FSJR Chief Mechanical Officer. He must have been told the press was going to show up. McCallister loves to see himself in the newspaper; but heck, ain't no press showing up for this new locomotive. After all, it's a gol dang switcher not a fancyfied sleek silk road beauty queen! Now if it were a new road engine wee's ah celebratin, like one of those there Zephers or an E 6 diesel or even a N&W J Class steamer, now there'd be a whole gaggle of press folks here! You can betcha keaster on that! More folks wearin press badges than you could shake a stick at too! And I'm sure o'l McCallister would have his face pressed right up against the lenz of a reporter's camera too. Furthermore he'd probably have his nose planted up a reporters ... well never mind.
Now there he is just as proud as can be ... o'l Claude Schmuckle. Now he's one great engineer I'll tell ya! He loves operatin switch engines ... AND you can betcha when he's called upon he can run the daylights out of a road engine too! There's lots of stories all over the FSJR of Claude doin some fancy runnin when he's at the throttle of a road engine. It don't matter if it's steam or diesel or even one of those lectricks, Claude can handle em all with great skill! The thing is though, o'l Claude has a big soft spot in his heart for operating switchers. Got love o'l Claude. Yes indeedy!
Looks like a Pennsy A5 over yonder on the far track and the nose of a 0-8-0 with brakeman Beanpole Porter riding the front step. O'l Beanpole is so thin that when he turn sideways you can't even see em. Anyways it look like those fellers workin in the yard are pretty darn happy for o'l Claude. They should be because between you me and the fencepost, as they say in cow country, o'l Claude he's the engineer of a new switcher and a switcher is one of the best dang engines on any railroad! Period.