It's SWITCHER SATURDAY January 4, 2024

@Dave Warbuton, Wow, that’s a beautiful set, great buy, Aldi that’s a beautiful switcher. Have a great weekend everyone.

Here is Williams Rock Island BL2 #429

More snow for upstate NY another foot plus a good total of about three feet plus in my area of Russia NY so Alaska is sending down a snowplow to the lower state to help out. Have a good end to your Switcher Saturday

Thanks for getting us rolling this SWSAT, Patrick! I do hope you get the sound straightened out on your 0-8-0. She's a neat switcher!

Speaking of sound, I just finished converting this CRI&P BEEP to Lionchief, so she's my SWSAT Sunday Supplement entry:

She's running in conventional here. She's got a slight "warp" to the chassis, so she's a bit jerky over track undulations; I'm going to work on that. Two running together give a great "stereo" sound effect, but don't "consist" well at all, at least in conventional.

A few photos of the chassis:

I mounted the board on a removable platform featuring 3M Dual Lock pads for maintenance access:

Thanks again to Bob @RSJB18 for guidance on these conversions. This one is now "Rjship2."

@Bill Swatos posted:

Thanks for getting us rolling this SWSAT, Patrick! I do hope you get the sound straightened out on your 0-8-0. She's a neat switcher!

Speaking of sound, I just finished converting this CRI&P BEEP to Lionchief, so she's my SWSAT Sunday Supplement entry:

I mounted the board on a removable platform featuring 3M Dual Lock pads for maintenance access:

Thanks again to Bob @RSJB18 for guidance on these conversions. This one is now "Rjship2."

Looks great Bill. Interesting that you could fit the board above the motors. The flyer-chief board I used was too tall by about a 1/4". It looks like the motor driver board is more rectangular and just a bit shorter.
I like the 3M pads- I'll have to get some.

Bob

@RSJB18 posted:

Happy SWSat!

Happy New Year to all of SWSat Nation!

This week I finally got a project out of the shops that has been sitting for a long time. I bought a pair of MTH S2's in May of 2022, at one of the Cabin Fever/ MTH auctions for a project. One engine was a SOO Chassis with no shell, that became my L&NE with a PS3/2 stacker board. The other is a NYC model that was a dummy. I was going to leave it that way and just add lights but in sourcing parts for both I came across a member who was selling a parts engine so I grabbed it.
I had a ERR Cruise board set with a ALCO R2LC sound board that was going to be used, but it didn't fit under the shell, so I decided to put a Flyerchief board in the engine. Command control with sound, lights, and electro-couplers. I've done several of these upgrades and they are pretty easy. The basic LC boards with Bluetooth are only about $80-$100 so its an affordable option for upgrades. Dallee reversing boards are about the same price. Only issue is that Lionel doesn't offer a S2 in Flyer, but I did find a Baldwin S-12 end-cab switcher that is a suitable alternative.

The Baldwin S-12 or BLH S12 is a 1,200-horsepower (890 kW) diesel-electric switcher locomotive. Utilizing a turbocharged 6-cylinder version of the powerful 606A diesel prime mover, S12s were known for their "lugging" power, despite being temperamental. Like most BLH switchers, the S12 had AAR Type-A switcher trucks in a B-B wheel arrangement. 451 units were built between 1951 and 1956, when BLH left the locomotive market.

The ALCO Prime mover was also a 6-cylinder turbo diesel so the sounds are very similar and just as quirky on start up.
Here's how it arrived

And what's a switcher if it's not earning a living......

Hope everyone has a great weekend. Be careful if you are in the path of the snow/ ice storm.

Bob

Bob - another  very interesting project you've tackled and completed!  Congratulations!!!  And thanks for sharing all the technical information on how you did it too!!  

@RSJB18 posted:

Looks great Bill. Interesting that you could fit the board above the motors. The flyer-chief board I used was too tall by about a 1/4". It looks like the motor driver board is more rectangular and just a bit shorter.
I like the 3M pads- I'll have to get some.

Bob

Thanks, Bob. The "highest" board is the smoke unit driver and its top edge just clears the cab end of the long hood as the Dual Lock pads have some "give." Can you let me know what EC's you used? I think I might be able to gently modify my coupler mount reinforcements to accommodate them.