IT's SWITCHER SATURDAY!!! March 9, 2024 Edition

New Haven Alco RS-3 #531 is an Atlas O Trainman model (20033012, MSRP $399.95, TMCC, 2012). #531 was one of 20 Class DERS-2c locomotives with 1600 horsepower delivered to the New Haven Railroad in 1950. They were equipped to run as multiple units and had steam generators for passenger service on the Shoreline and Hartford Divisions at speeds up to 80 miles-per-hour. The model has the “as delivered” green/orange paint scheme. In the late 1950s, they were repainted in the McGinnis scheme with black cabs and orange hoods. Twenty-two New Haven RS-3s were rebuilt by Alco (in 1959 and 1962) and two were rebuilt by the railroad. All rebuilt units were running when the New Haven was merged into Penn Central in 1969.  Photos/videos show #531 running conventionally at 23 scale miles-per-hour on my 10’-by-5’ layout.

MELGAR

That RS 3 is looking mighty great Mel!!

Thanks Pat for starting another great SWSAT!

Here is a NWS Earle BEEP running out to the Brielle piers with supplies for the fleet.

Good morning fellow switcher fanatics.

My contribution today is an MTH PS3 NY Ontario & Western 44 ton center cab diesel hauling a few Madison heavyweights on my passing siding:

Arnold

For this week, I have my wife's Wilmington and Western SW1 switcher on the club layout. Great little switcher.

Good Morning SWSAT people. Thanks Patrick for kicking us of your a a early start. “Buzz” made his way over to the New O27 layout and done some switching. Sorry I forgot to take some pics while he was there so enjoy the video and enjoy your weekend.

Lionel - thanks, Pat for kickin’ SwSat off for us. Can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m runnin’ out of fuel for SwSat, Reefer Monday, Tail End Tuesday, & Front End Friday. Gonna be all reruns pretty soon🤷🏼‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️🤷🏼‍♂️Still have a few left for Boxcar Sunday.

@MELGAR posted:

New Haven Alco RS-3 #531 is an Atlas O Trainman model (20033012, MSRP $399.95, TMCC, 2012). #531 was one of 20 Class DERS-2c locomotives with 1600 horsepower delivered to the New Haven Railroad in 1950. They were equipped to run as multiple units and had steam generators for passenger service on the Shoreline and Hartford Divisions at speeds up to 80 miles-per-hour. The model has the “as delivered” green/orange paint scheme. In the late 1950s, they were repainted in the McGinnis scheme with black cabs and orange hoods. Twenty-two New Haven RS-3s were rebuilt by Alco (in 1959 and 1962) and two were rebuilt by the railroad. All rebuilt units were running when the New Haven was merged into Penn Central in 1969.  Photos/videos show #531 running conventionally at 23 scale miles-per-hour on my 10’-by-5’ layout.

MELGAR

Mel thanks for sharing your wonderful videos with us

Thanks trumptrain for another great start Buy a Veteran a Beer.

Greetings, SwSat nation!  Technical difficulties are preventing me from posting my planned offering for today, but let’s just say I was in a Beep frame of mind, like Pennsyfan.

Patrick, I’m wondering if my problem is related to the one you had recently.  I’m following the same procedure I always do, but I haven’t been able to post videos taken in the past week.  First I get a brief message “downloading from cloud”, then “not found error”.  Photos are loading with no problem, it’s just videos.

”See” you later (I hope)!

John

Happy Switcher Saturday!  It’s good to be back in the train room. Here is my RS1 doing what she does best -

Happy SWSat!

Great pix and stories this week as always.

It SWITCHES SATURDAY this week for me. The RSJ&B MOW crew was issued track orders to replace 3 switches on the upper level line. The old Lionel units were replaced with 3 K-line 027's (2 were NOS). The K-line's work much better and the solenoids don't buzz.......wish I knew that when I built the layout.....

The track work is complete and the road inspectors are checking out the job. Some grinding needs to be done on the switch points to smooth out the transitions. The signal crew will be on site today to complete the wiring.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Bob

Good morning SwSat friends!

Marx 70 ton switcher #588 is pulling 2 PRR gons, a C&O flat car & PRR caboose.  

These are Marx’s 3/16 scale freight cars.  Once warmed up, it will run somewhat slow…🤔

Have a great day!

@RSJB18 posted:

Happy SWSat!

Great pix and stories this week as always.

It SWITCHES SATURDAY this week for me. The RSJ&B MOW crew was issued track orders to replace 3 switches on the upper level line. The old Lionel units were replaced with 3 K-line 027's (2 were NOS). The K-line's work much better and the solenoids don't buzz.......wish I knew that when I built the layout.....

The track work is complete and the road inspectors are checking out the job. Some grinding needs to be done on the switch points to smooth out the transitions. The signal crew will be on site today to complet

Bob

Nice work,  Bob, particularly getting to that back of the layout area. That’s an area I dread working on in my layout. I see the building of a scratch built elevated station between the mainline and  siding in your future, preferably named after one of your favorite LIRR  stops.

@Strap Hanger posted:

Nice work,  Bob, particularly getting to that back of the layout area. That’s an area I dread working on in my layout. I see the building of a scratch built elevated station between the mainline and  siding in your future, preferably named after one of your favorite LIRR  stops.

This wasn't too hard to reach. A step stool was all that was needed. When I did the back corner that was a whole different story. I had to make a platform to climb on in order to reach.

A station platform is what I'm planning. Probably a combination passenger and freight.

Welcome back BTW!

Good morning. A look at the late Maine Railroad Companies that are very important to me.

I changed some iCloud settings on my phone, but still can’t load a video.  This time however, I got a message “a value is required”.  Does anyone know what I need to do?  Thanks.

John

@Steam Crazy posted:

Greetings, SwSat nation!  Technical difficulties are preventing me from posting my planned offering for today, but let’s just say I was in a Beep frame of mind, like Pennsyfan.

Patrick, I’m wondering if my problem is related to the one you had recently.  I’m following the same procedure I always do, but I haven’t been able to post videos taken in the past week.  First I get a brief message “downloading from cloud”, then “not found error”.  Photos are loading with no problem, it’s just videos.

”See” you later (I hope)!

John

John,

Problems loading photos and videos was discussed last week in a thread titled "Photos Not Posting Properly" at the link below. Rich Melvin got involved. I'm sure he would like to know if you're still having problems.

MELGAR

https://ogrforum.com/...6#183734183429642976

Steam Crazy - John - sorry to hear you are having difficulties posting.  I know the frustration  all too well.  So as MELGAR mentioned, click on the link he shared.   I'm sure Rich would like to be in the loop on this.  

I purposely only posted two photos for SwSat today just to make sure I had minimal difficulty if any.  I had none at all.  I've also been posting in various other threads  all this past week with no tech difficulties at all.  Hopefully this will be the modus operandi for all of us from now on.  

@Steam Crazy posted:

I changed some iCloud settings on my phone, but still can’t load a video.  This time however, I got a message “a value is required”.  Does anyone know what I need to do?  Thanks.

John

John- that occurs when you try to attach a photo/ video without adding text in the box first. Just hit enter to create "text" and the error clears.

I had posted the issues with uploading photos last week and Rich did notify Crowdstack. The forum does seem to be loading and moving better since about mid-week IMO.

Another thought- make sure the videos are in a format that the Forum supports. .jpeg, .mov, .MP4, etc.

Mel and Patrick, thanks for your help.  I let Rich know about the problem on the thread you suggested.

John

Bob, thanks for your response.  I usually add text first, but I tried to load a video, as a test, without text.  That’s why I hadn’t seen the message before, but now I know what it means!

John

Good morning SWSAT crew!

Penn Central RS-11 7608 (Lionel) runs lite with a transfer caboose in tow:

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Tom

Alaska S1 switcher, a recent acquisition, running through what is still the only nearly finished scene on my layout (created by my buddy, Chet). Eventually,the layout will feature Army, Amtrak, and Alaska motive power and rolling stock. This image is also the cover photo on my FB page--needed something to replace the Christmas-theme image that had been up there since November.

Here's my custom Whitcomb 65 tonner. This model started life as a RMT Bang.

@Darrell posted:

Here's my custom Whitcomb 65 tonner. This model started life as a RMT Bang.

That 65-tonner looks great, Darrell!

Thank you! To be fair, credit goes to @Trainguy Ken for the  body shell - he did some great work on that.

Fantastic content everyone!! What a wonderful SwSat!!!  I'm testing the tech waters with posting these two videos of MTH switchers running on my layout.  

A Canton SW1500 & calf and a Patapsco and Back Rivers VO 1000 form a trio consist in the top video. Both locomotives are RailKings with PS3.  The calf is also by MTH.

The bottom video features two B&O GP9s pulling a mixed freight train.  The lead unit is a Williams Dummy and the trailing unit is a passenger equipped  MTH GP 9 Proto 2. The caboose is a Williams brass caboose.

Keep posting content everyone!!  It's all of YOU who make this such an AWESOME thread!   Let's keep our switchers rolling!!  The party has only just begun!

Happy Switcher Sat.!

I am showing my Railking B&M 0-8-0 (30-1184-1) that unfortunately just stopped running, So only still pics today.

Take Care, Ray

@RayKay posted:

Happy Switcher Sat.!

I am showing my Railking B&M 0-8-0 (30-1184-1) that unfortunately just stopped running, So only still pics today.

Take Care, Ray

Ray, sorry about the problem.  I have a PS2 Primer Big Boy that started cutting off in curves.

The problem was at the tether plug socket under the cab.  That year MTH was known for some poor soldering connects at that point..  I pulled the boiler off and saw that the main power wire had NO solder connection around it at all!  Soldered that wire back and put heat the the other connection points.  That was the FIX!

Ron

Videos loading now.  I dunno why, but keeping my fingers crossed.  I’ll post my Beep edition next Saturday; here’s a “blast from the past” (NH for Mel) for today.

John

@BAR GP7 #63 posted:

Good morning. A look at the late Maine Railroad Companies that are very important to me.

Wonderful scenery, trains and photos, Johan, as usual. Arnold

Whoops, wrong video, but you get the point.

John

Hello # #Swsat faithful! 

Here's a rainy shot I captured this morning of the PPL / Talen Energy "Montana Loco". 

By the way, if you're in the market for a bathtub style hopper car, we have a hundred or so to choose from.   An entire train bought new in only 2007 is set to get scrapped. ☹️

@Arnold D. Cribari posted:

Wonderful scenery, trains and photos, Johan, as usual. Arnold

Arnold,

Thank you very much. 🤝

Johan

Howdy, everyone. Just a quick - and late - check in today. We were at Descanso Gardens in SoCal again this morning with our son and grandson. A couple of pics of them riding the one foot gauge railroad. Always a treat!
Also, I know it doesn’t look like much, but a pic of the area where they are going to install a G Gauge garden railway soon. Sure looking forward to that! Have a great week.  

@jhz563 posted:

Hello # #Swsat faithful!

Here's a rainy shot I captured this morning of the PPL / Talen Energy "Montana Loco". 

By the way, if you're in the market for a bathtub style hopper car, we have a hundred or so to choose from.  An entire train bought new in only 2007 is set to get scrapped. ☹️

Can't wait to see the look on my UPS driver's face when he tries to unload one of those off the truck......

Bob

WOW great shots everyone! I have been a little busy so I am sorry b ut nothing from me this weekend. But I am still watching! Thanks for all your post!